scholarly journals FUNDAMENTAL STUDIES OF IGNITION PROCESSES IN LARGE NATURAL GAS ENGINES USING LASER SPARK IGNITION

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azer Yalin ◽  
Morgan Defoort ◽  
Bryan Willson
Author(s):  
Michael H. McMillian ◽  
Steven D. Woodruff ◽  
Steven W. Richardson ◽  
Dustin L. McIntyre

Evermore demanding market and legislative pressures require stationary lean-burn natural gas engines to operate at higher efficiencies and reduced levels of emissions. Higher in-cylinder pressures and leaner air/fuel ratios are required in order to meet these demands. Contemporary ignition systems, more specifically spark plug performance and durability, suffer as a result of the increase in spark energy required to maintain suitable engine operation under these conditions. This paper presents a discussion of the need for an improved ignition source for advanced stationary natural gas engines and introduces laser spark ignition as a potential solution to that need. Recent laser spark ignition engine testing with natural gas fuel including NOx mapping is discussed. A prototype laser system in constructed and tested and the results are discussed and solutions provided for improving the laser system output pulse energy and pulse characteristics.


2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McMillian ◽  
Steven Richardson ◽  
Steven D. Woodruff ◽  
Dustin McIntyre

Author(s):  
Steven W. Richardson ◽  
Michael H. McMillian ◽  
Steven D. Woodruff ◽  
Todd Worstell ◽  
Dustin L. McIntyre

Charge dilution, due to the reduced combustion temperatures that it brings about, has long been proven as effective means of reducing Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions in reciprocating engines. The extent of this dilution is practically bounded on the lean side of stoichiometric conditions by engine misfire or the point at which the combustion process is no longer sufficiently reliable to sustain engine operation within some specified limit. Extending this misfire limit of an engine becomes a worth while goal as it brings about further reductions in NOx emissions. Much work has been dedicated to reaching this end and several techniques have proven viable in natural gas fueled engines. This work explores potential synergies between two proven techniques for NOx reductions in lean-burn natural gas fueled engines, hydrogen enrichment of the natural gas fuel and application of laser spark ignition. Independently both techniques have been shown to provide significant NOx emissions reductions through lean limit extension in spark ignited gaseous fueled reciprocating engines [1–11, 13–15]. Here hydrogen is blended with natural gas at five different levels ranging from 0% to 40% by volume in a single cylinder engine. The mixtures are fired using a conventional spark plug based ignition system and then again with an open beam path laser induced breakdown spark ignition system. NOx emissions measurements were made at different levels including misfire conditions for each level of hydrogen enrichment with both ignition systems. Data are presented and the emissions and engine performance of two configurations are compared to determine realizable benefits that arise from combining the two techniques.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 459 ◽  
Author(s):  
La Xiang ◽  
Gerasimos Theotokatos ◽  
Haining Cui ◽  
Keda Xu ◽  
Hongkai Ben ◽  
...  

Both spark ignition (SI) natural gas engines and compression ignition (CI) dual fuel (DF) engines suffer from knocking when the unburnt mixture ignites spontaneously prior to the flame front arrival. In this study, a parametric investigation is performed on the knocking performance of these two engine types by using the GT-Power software. An SI natural gas engine and a DF engine are modelled by employing a two-zone zero-dimensional combustion model, which uses Wiebe function to determine the combustion rate and provides adequate prediction of the unburnt zone temperature, which is crucial for the knocking prediction. The developed models are validated against experimentally measured parameters and are subsequently used for performing parametric investigations. The derived results are analysed to quantify the effect of the compression ratio, air-fuel equivalence ratio and ignition timing on both engines as well as the effect of pilot fuel energy proportion on the DF engine. The results demonstrate that the compression ratio of the investigated SI and DF engines must be limited to 11 and 16.5, respectively, for avoiding knocking occurrence. The ignition timing for the SI and the DF engines must be controlled after −38°CA and 3°CA, respectively. A higher pilot fuel energy proportion between 5% and 15% results in increasing the knocking tendency and intensity for the DF Engine at high loads. This study results in better insights on the impacts of the investigated engine design and operating settings for natural gas (NG)-fuelled engines, thus it can provide useful support for obtaining the optimal settings targeting a desired combustion behaviour and engine performance while attenuating the knocking tendency.


AIAA Journal ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 312-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN H. LEE ◽  
R. KNYSTAUTA

Author(s):  
Azer P. Yalin ◽  
Morgan W. Defoort ◽  
Sachin Joshi ◽  
Daniel Olsen ◽  
Bryan Willson ◽  
...  

A practical impediment to implementation of laser ignition systems has been the open-path beam delivery used in past research. In this contribution, we present the development and implementation of a fiber-optically delivery laser spark ignition system. To our knowledge, the work represents the first demonstration of fiber coupled laser ignition (using a remote laser source) of a natural gas engine. A Nd:YAG laser is used as the energy source and a coated hollow fiber is used for beam energy delivery. The system was implemented on a single-cylinder of a Waukesha VGF 18 turbo charged natural gas engine and yielded consistent and reliable ignition. In addition to presenting the design and testing of the fiber delivered laser ignition system, we present initial design concepts for a multiplexer to ignite multiple cylinders using a single laser source, and integrated optical diagnostic approaches to monitor the spark ignition and combustion performance.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajavasanth Rajasegar ◽  
Yoichi Niki ◽  
Garcia Jose Maria ◽  
Zheming Li ◽  
Mark Musculus

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