Applied Thermal Engineering 148 (2019) 188–195

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Effects of spark plug type and ignition energy on combustion performance in T

an optical SI engine fueled with methane
⁎ ⁎
Lin Chen, Haiqiao Wei , Ren Zhang, Jiaying Pan , Lei Zhou, Dengquan Feng
State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China

H I GH L IG H T S

• Lean combustion is investigated in an optical engine fueled with methane.

• There are close correlations between spark plug types and ignition energy with combustion stability.
• Multi-claw spark plugs behave the optimal performance.
• High ignition energy has a greater influence on combustion instability.
• Combustion improvement is contributed by faster and lower variation of early flame.

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Increasing thermal efficiency and reducing cycle-to-cycle variations are the main challenges for modern natural
Ignition energy gas engines. In this study, the role of different spark-ignition methods in improving engine performance was
Spark plug type investigated in an optical engine fueled with methane, and cycle-to-cycle variations and flame evolutions were
Cyclic variations addressed under lean combustion conditions. The experimental results show that there are close correlations
Flame imaging
between spark plug types and ignition energy with combustion stability: under medium ignition energy con-
Early flame development
ditions, multi-claw spark plugs behave the optimal performance in combustion stability and thermal efficiency,
whereas different spark plug types show almost identical capability in combustion performance under both low
and high ignition energy conditions. Meanwhile, compared with spark plug types, high ignition energy has a
greater influence on combustion stability improvement. Optical flame images show that the improved com-
bustion stability is contributed by faster flame development. To identify the fundamental reasons, an empirical
criterion of mass fraction burned was adopted to quantify early flame evolutions. It shows that multi-claw spark
plug and high ignition energy mainly promote initial flame propagation, manifesting lower cycle-to-cycle var-
iations in this combustion stage. The results shall give insights into the application of multi-claw spark plug and
high ignition energy on the improvement of natural gas engine performance while controlling cyclic variation.

1. Introduction to larger cycle-by-cycle variations, lower thermal efficiency, and higher

With increasing concerns on petroleum shortage and environment
pollutions, gaseous fuels become popular because of clean combustion
and low price [1,2]. As an attractive alternative gaseous fuel, natural
gas shows the most potential to achieve large-scale applications in in-
ternal combustion engines thanks to its advantages in energy saving
and pollutant emissions [3,4]. Methane is the main component of nat-
ural gas, and the high octane rating [5,6] and hydrogen-to-carbon ratio
[7,8] can achieve good anti-knocking property and low particulate
matter emissions. However, the stable molecular structure also makes
burning velocity slow and lean burn capability poor, which contribute
exhaust temperature when compared to traditional gasoline engines
[9,10].
Extensive investigations were carried out to explore the approaches
for combustion stability improvement and cyclic variation reduction for
natural gas engines [11–15]. Munshi et al. [11] used a turbocharged
natural gas engine to determine the most suitable hydrogen additions
under the lean condition, and 20% vol. hydrogen content was found to
provide the desired benefits. Based on a single-cylinder spark-ignition
(SI) engine, Di Iorio et al. [12] and Catapano et al. [13] optically in-
vestigated the effects of hydrogen addition on methane combustion,
and obvious increases in thermal efficiency and decreases in

⁎
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: whq@tju.edu.cn (H. Wei), jypan@tju.edu.cn (J. Pan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.11.052
Received 3 September 2018; Received in revised form 12 November 2018; Accepted 15 November 2018
Available online 15 November 2018
1359-4311/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
L. Chen et al.
combustion duration were observed. Possible reasons were ascribed to
the improvement of reaction rate and flame propagation speed. Ad-
dressing the role of in-cylinder turbulence, Song et al. [14,15] in-
vestigated the performance of a methane direct-injection engine and
found that affected by stronger turbulence intensity, greater combus-
tion stability and higher in-cylinder pressure were achieved under later
injection timing conditions. The above studies have clearly studied the
effective ways to improve combustion stability by enhancing turbulent
flame propagation.
To achieve higher thermal efficiency, the high compression ratio is
often combined with lean combustion in natural gas engines [16,17]. In
such situations with obvious cycle-to-cycle variations, initial flame
kernel and early flame development are more crucial compared with
subsequent combustion processes [18,19]. To enhance the ignition of
natural gas engines under lean combustion conditions, various strate-
gies have been adopted in gaseous engines, such as ignition strategy
[20–22]. A modeling work by Yossefi et al. [23] showed that compared
with natural gas composition, ignition energy exhibited greater influ-
ence on early stage combustion, with shorter ignition delay time. As for
experiments about ignition energy, Chen et al. [24] and Srivastava et al.
[25] investigated the effect of high ignition energy on the performance
of methane combustion. In their studies, improved combustion stabi-
lity, a higher rate of heat release and lower fuel consumption were
observed at higher ignition energy. Besides, multi-point ignition
through pilot injection in dual-fuel engines was also extensively studied
to overcome low flame speed and high cycle-to-cycle variations of
natural gases [2,26,27]. Based on a high compression ratio diesel en-
gine, Belgiorno et al. [28,29] investigated the effects of the engine
parameters on the methane/diesel combustion performance and found
that the engine power output is increased due to multiple ignition
points. The previous studies have provided useful information on im-
proving ignition performance of natural gas combustion. Despite the
significantly positive influence, detailed combustion mechanism for
combustion enhancement when different ignition strategies are adopted
is not fully understood, especially under lean combustion conditions.
The objective of the current work is to clarify the role of ignition
energy and spark plug type in cycle-to-cycle variations under lean
conditions, with addressing flame development by optical flame ima-
ging. The experiments were conducted in a four-stroke single-cylinder
SI optical engine fueled with methane. Synchronization measurement
through simultaneous pressure acquisition and high-speed direct pho-
tography was carried out, and different ignition energies and spark-plug
types were employed. The current paper was organized as follows: First,
the optical engine facility and experimental procedure were described
with detailed explanations of spark ignition system and imaging ana-
lysis. Then, the effects of spark-plug types and ignition energy on cycle-
to-cycle variations were discussed, followed by the synergistic effects
on the early flame development, and finally draw the conclusions.
2. Experimental setup
2.1. Research engine and optical apparatus
The experiments were conducted on a single-cylinder four-stroke
optical SI engine. The research engine was modified from a General
Motors prototype four-cylinder 2.0 T engine, and the combustion
chamber was consisting of a flattop optical piston and a four-valve pent-
roof cylinder head. The engine has a geometrical specification of 88 mm
bore, 105 mm stroke and the compression ratio was altered to 13.0:1 by
adjusting the height of the removable piston. The schematic of the
optical SI engine can be found in Fig. 1, and more detailed parameters
can be found in Table 1.
The optical access to engine cylinder was achieved through a
quartz-insert piston with the elongated Bowditch piston design
(Fig. 1A). An enhanced 45-degree mirror located inside the elongated
piston was used to change the light path so that the luminosity of
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Applied Thermal Engineering 148 (2019) 188–195
internal combustion was directly recorded by a high-speed camera. The
in-cylinder pressure data was measured with a resolution of 0.1 crank
angle degrees (CAD or °CA) through a Kistler 6125A pressure trans-
ducer and a Kistler 5018 charge amplifier. The combustion images were
recorded using a high-speed camera (Photron SA-Z) with a 105-mm lens
(AF Micro Nikkor 1: 2.8 D). The Synchronization of various control
triggers for ignition and camera was achieved using the same optical
encoder mounted on the crankshaft. During the optical investigations,
the luminous flame from the combustion chamber was detected at a
frame rate of 5000 frames per second (fps) with 0.96 CAD per image
with 1024 * 1024 pixels’ array. Due to the limited camera memory
storage, only 30 complete and continuous cycles were stored for every
test condition. The flat optical window provided a 31 mm radius (R2)
field of view, which could cover the spark location (Fig. 1C).
Three levels of ignition energy and three spark plugs were used for
this study. The three spark plug type are single-claw, three-claw and
rotate-claw, respectively (Fig. 1B). Specifically, the single-claw spark
plug only has one side electrode to form a spark, while the three-claw
spark plug has three and rotate-claw spark plug has a round side
electrode. Besides, the spark plug gaps were adjusted to the same level
(1.0 ± 0.01 mm), which is the same as that of the rotate-claw spark
plug. As for ignition energy, three levels of ignition energy were chosen
under the same ignition pulse width (2.0 ms), namely 37 mJ, 50 mJ,
and 65 mJ, respectively. In addition, the location of spark plug was a
slightly eccentric of the cylinder head, which was 22 mm away from the
optical window edge.
2.2. Experimental procedure and data analysis
Engine speed was maintained 800 ± 5 round/min through DZDC-
20S power control system in this test. As it was a single cylinder engine,
the DZDC-20S power control system was suitable for guaranteeing the
engine operating at the lowest vibration level. Homogeneous combus-
tion conditions were achieved by port injection strategy. All the tests
were run on the lean condition of excess air coefficient (λ) = 1.1, which
was determined by adjusting the injection pulse-width based on the
wideband lambda sensor. The purity of methane fuel was over 99.9%,
and room air temperature was maintained at 22 ± 3 °C to avoid intake
temperature fluctuations. The combustion chamber was equipped with
a K-type thermocouple to measure the engine head temperature, with a
resolution of ± 0.1 °C. Once the temperature of the head reached 95 °C,
the pressure and flame imaging would be recorded in every test con-
dition.
The engine combustion stability was represented by the coefficients
of variation (COV) of indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), i.e.
COVIMEP. The COVIMEP is obtained by the following formula:
1 N
∑i = 1 (IMEPi − IMEPm)2
N
COVIMEP = × 100%
IMEPm
where IMEPi is the indicated mean effective pressure of per cycle (bar),
IMEPm is the average value of N successive cycles, and N is the number
of recorded cycles. Due to the synchronization of ignition and camera,
only 30 complete and continuous cycles were stored. Theoretically, the
more of the cycles, the better of the statistics about IMEP and COV
calculation. So the accuracy of using 30 cycles to calculate IMEP and
COV is tested firstly. Since the experiments is conclusive and re-
peatable, two representative cases, one with high COV (about 20%) and
another with low COV (about 3%), were chose and repeated 5 times.
After that, 30 * 5 = 150 cycles are obtained for each cases. Then, the
IMEP and COV is calculated 6 times (each 30 cycles and the whole 150
cycles) for each cases. The results show that difference is with 7% under
high COV condition and 3% under low COV condition, so 30 cycles are
enough to calculate IMEP and COV with good statistics under current
condition.
In order to analyze the flame image in a repeatable way, a series of
L. Chen et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 148 (2019) 188–195

Fig. 1. Schematic of optical SI engine and configurations of spark plug types and engine head.

Table 1 using graythresh. The function graythresh is a built-in function in MA-

Main specifications for the research engine. TLAB based on Otsu's method. Then, the matrix that forms the binary
Parameters Value
image was simply summed to a single number that represented the area
of the flame in square-pixels, manifesting and measuring flame area.
Engine type Single cylinder, 4-stroke Finally, a flame circle was used to describe the combustion images and
Bore × stroke 88 × 105 mm the radius was calculated based on the flame area in the MATLAB li-
Compression ratio 13:1
Sweep volume 640 cm3
brary. Besides, the images were cut with a bordered circle by the Crop
Piston shape Flat Tool in Photoshop (PS image), for a better directly observation and
Valve mechanism Dual-overhead camshafts, 4-valve comparison of flame propagation.
Combustion system Port-fuel injection

3. Results and discussion

simple MATLAB scripts were conducted. In order to determine the
characteristics of SI flame initiation and propagation, the whole com-
bustion images were processed by a MATLAB program. The raw 2D
projection flame images (shown in Fig. 2) were processed in the fol-
lowing procedure. First, the flame images were read by MATLAB to
obtain the matrix of pixel numbers. To improve the signal-to-noise
ratio, 10 background images were acquired (before the spark), then the
10 background images were averaged and subtracted from the flame
image based on the matrix of pixel numbers. After background sub-
traction, a “binarizing–thresholding” technique was applied for the
determination of flame characteristics. This technique assumes that a
pixel with an intensity smaller/larger than the threshold is defined to be
on the unburned/burned side. Thus a binary image was created and the
interface of the two sides defined the location of the flame front. In this
paper, the threshold value for each image was obtained in real time
3.1. Effects of spark plug type on COVIMEP and IMEP
Firstly, the ignition energy is fixed at 50 mJ for different spark
plugs, and the effects of spark timing on combustion characteristics are
investigated. As shown in Fig. 3A, the combustion stability is sensitive
to spark timing under current lean conditions, and stable combustion is
achieved when spark timing is advanced very early for single claw
spark plug. Stable combustion is defined as the combustion that the
COVIMEP is below 5% in the current study. For the case with spark
timing of −18 °CA, the COVIMEP is about 19.44% and even there is a
misfire cycle as shown by the red line. When spark timing is advanced
to −20 °CA, the COVIMEP decreases sharply to 4.89%, characterizing a
stable combustion. However, although the engine runs smoothly under
an advanced spark timing, −20 °CA, the corresponding CA50 location

Fig. 2. Procedure for extracting the boundary and radius of flame images.

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Fig. 3. Pressure traces under (A) single-claw, (B) three-claw and (C) rotate-claw spark plug cases.

is about 0.8 °CA aTDC. That means the combustion phase is too far
forward, which results in more negative circulating working and thus
lower efficiency. Maintaining the same ignition energy, three-claw
spark plugs are used to study the effect of spark plug types on com-
bustion characteristics. Fig. 3B shows the in-cylinder pressures of two
representative spark timings under the three-claw condition. It is found
that stable combustion can be achieved at a retarded spark timing when
compared to the single-claw condition, the COVIMEP is about 3.11%
(stable combustion) under the spark timing of −14 °CA. Besides, the
CA50 is about 14.7 °CA aTDC and close to the optimum combustion
phase, which means a higher thermal efficiency [30]. However, when
the spark timing is advanced to −12 °CA, the COVIMEP is about 19.15%
and there is even a misfire cycle. The combustion stability is also sen-
sitive to the spark timing under three-claw condition. As shown in
Fig. 3C, the COVIMEP is about 3.40% (stable combustion) under the
spark timing of −14 °CA and the COVIMEP is about 8.84% (unstable
combustion) under the spark timing of −12 °CA. The combustion sta-
Fig. 4. COVIMEP and IMEP observed with three spark plug types and 50 mJ
bility under different spark timing is nearly the same as that of three- ignition energy.
claw spark plug condition. However, when compared the three spark
plug type cases, it can be concluded that under the single-claw condi-
50 mJ ignition energy, the multi-claw spark plugs can improve the
tion the advanced spark timing caused by combustion instability limits
the increase of the thermal efficiency. thermal efficiency because the multi-claw spark plugs can improve the
combustion stability and thus optimize the combustion phase.
The three-claw spark plug can optimize the combustion phase under
ignition energy of 50 mJ. Further, the COVIMEP and corresponding IMEP For a more detailed understanding of the effect of spark plug types
on the combustion stability, high spatial resolution imaging analysis is
under three types of spark plugs and different spark timings are shown
in Fig. 4. It can be seen that under 50 mJ ignition energy, the spark plug performed using PS images (Fig. 2). Fig. 5 shows the comparison of
early flame development under 50 mJ ignition energy and the cycles
types have a great influence on the combustion stability. There is a big
difference about the STstable (a minimum spark ignition advance angle are chosen closest to the calculated mean for the three conditions. The
spark timings are chosen as −20 °CA for the comparison of flame
when the COVIMEP is below 5%) under the three types of spark plug: the
STstable is −20 °CA under single-claw spark plug cases while the STstable images and each image after spark has the same brightness and contrast
as the original image. As shown in Fig. 5, there is a light induced by the
is −14 °CA under both three-claw spark plug and rotate-claw spark
plug cases. Compared with a single-claw spark plug, the multi-claw spark when the spark ignition happened for the three spark plugs, while
the spark light of the multi-claw spark plugs has a bigger size. Under the
spark plugs (three-claw and rotate-claw) can stably operate at a more
single-claw condition, only around 5.76 CAD after the spark it is pos-
retarded spark timing (−14 °CA), so the combustion phase can be op-
sible to distinguish the flame kernel emission from the luminosity.
timized under current condition. As for IMEP, there is obviously an
Then, the flame kernel propagates from the location of the spark plug
optimum spark timing with the highest IMEP. The maximum IMEP of
towards the optical window boundary. Under multi-claw spark plug
6.32 bar is obtained at spark timing of -14 °CA under multi-claw spark
condition, there is a flame kernel appearing around 1.92 CAD after the
plug, while the maximum IMEP of 5.87 bar is obtained at spark timing
spark, which is earlier than that of the single-claw condition. At 9.60
of −20 °CA under the single-claw spark plug. So it is proved under
CAD after the spark, all the three cases have a bright flame around the

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L. Chen et al.
Fig. 5. Early flame images for the closest real optical cycles to the calculated mean under 50 mJ ignition energy.
spark plug. While the flame size is obviously bigger under multi-claw
spark plugs as shown by the red dotted line. Since the boundary con-
ditions of the three cases are keeping the same except for the type of
spark plug, the earlier flame kernel formation and bigger flame size can
be attributed to the bigger spark light under multi-claw spark plugs.
Fig. 6 shows a more intuitive display about the flame development
under the three conditions and the flame radius is obtained by calcu-
lating the mean value. Owing to the limiting optical window and
asymmetry of the flame propagation, the obtained flame is limited once
the flame reaches the optical window boundary. The radius of the cases
when the flame reaches the optical window is shown as the shadow in
Fig. 6, 17.6–21.2 mm. It can be observed that multi-claw cases burn
faster than a single-claw case through the whole flame development
stage, and the flame size has the lowest values under single-claw con-
dition. More obvious in Fig. 6, the single-claw case has a longer ignition
delay time (duration from spark to flame kernel formation) and the
flame kernel comes into the formation until 4.96 CAD after the spark.
Because of the longer ignition delay time, the flame size is lower than
the other cases through the whole combustion phase. So multi-claw can
improve the combustion stability by reducing the ignition delay time
under 50 mJ ignition energy.
Fig. 6. Mean flame radius for three spark plugs under 50 mJ ignition energy.
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Applied Thermal Engineering 148 (2019) 188–195
3.2. Effect of ignition energy on the COVIMEP and IMEP
It has been proved that multi-claw spark plugs can reduce COVIMEP
and improve thermal efficiency (IMEP) under 50 mJ ignition energy.
However, the ignition energy also has a great influence on combustion
stability, and the combined effect of ignition energy and spark plug
types on combustion is studied herein. Fig. 7 shows the COVIMEP and
IMEP under different ignition energy and three spark plugs, while low
ignition energy is fixed at 37 mJ and high ignition energy is fixed at
65 mJ. Under low ignition energy, it can be seen that the spark plug
types have little influence on combustion stability. When the spark
timing is retarded to −20 °CA, the COVIMEP is above 30% and com-
bustion observed with all three spark plugs is unstable, besides, the
trend and values of COVIMEP are approximately the same. Under high
ignition energy as shown in Fig. 7B, the COVIMEP is below 5% and the
combustion observed of all the SI timings under the three spark plugs is
stable. As for IMEP, the maximum IMEP is observed at the same spark
timing under the three spark plugs, −20 °CA for low ignition energy
and −20 °CA for high ignition energy. So it is proved that the spark
plug types are only effective under medium ignition energy (50 mJ) and
multi-claw spark plugs can improve the combustion stability compared
to the single-claw spark plug.
To compare the effect of ignition energy, the cases of the single-claw
spark plug are examined. It is found that the combustion can be stable
only when spark timing is advanced to −22 °CA under low ignition
energy (black in Fig. 7A), which is advanced by 2 CAD compared with
that observed with medium ignition energy (black in Fig. 4). Even the
spark timing can be retarded to −10 °CA with a stable combustion
under high ignition energy (black in Fig. 7B). So it is proved that ig-
nition energy has a great influence on combustion stability. For the
MBT (spark timing when the maximum IMEP is obtained): 5.43 bar at
−22 °CA under low ignition energy (Fig. 7A); 5.87 bar at −22 °CA
under medium ignition energy (Fig. 4); 6.11 bar at −22 °CA under high
ignition energy (Fig. 7B). Thus it is proved that higher IMEP and
thermal efficiency can be obtained under higher ignition energy be-
cause the reduced COVIMEP and optimized combustion phase. Plus, it’s
found that the MBT is equal to STstable under low and medium ignition
energies, this indicates that the main factor limiting IMEP is the ad-
vanced spark timing caused by combustion instability under such
condition.
Fig. 8 shows the comparison of flame development for single-claw
L. Chen et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 148 (2019) 188–195

Fig. 9. Mean flame radius for three ignition energy under single-claw spark
plug condition.

observed that the light induced by the spark is more and more bright as
the ignition energy is increased. The stronger spark light even illumi-
nates the surrounding cylinder head under high ignition energy. Under
low ignition energy, the spark light is low and even vanishes im-
mediately after the spark. Only around 6.72 CAD after the spark it is
possible to distinguish the flame kernel. While under high ignition
energy, the stronger spark light can maintain the whole early flame
development. Due to the stronger spark, the flame kernel propagated
outward and reaches the optical window boundary in an earlier time
around 12.48 CAD after the spark while the flame only surrounds the
spark under low ignition energy. What’s more, there is asymmetry and
significant displacement of the flame development, which propagates
upward. This is probably due to local high temperature, the upwards is
towards the exhaust valves which operates at the high thermal condi-
Fig. 7. COVIMEP and IMEP observed with three spark plug types and (A) low
tion.
ignition energy, (B) high ignition energy. Fig. 9 shows the mean flame growth radius about the flame devel-
opment under the three cases. It can be observed that the size of the
spark light is nearly the same under the three cases although the spark
spark plug under different ignition energy. Each image (PS image in
is stronger under high ignition energy. When the ignition energy
Fig. 2) after spark timing has the same brightness and contrast as the
changes from low to medium, the ignition delay time is reduced by 0.96
original image and MBT is chosen for the current section. It can be

Fig. 8. Flame development for the closest real optical cycles to the calculated mean under single-claw spark plug condition.

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L. Chen et al.
Fig. 10. Relationship between flame radius and mass fraction burned.
CAD. Besides, the rate of growth in flame radius is higher under
medium ignition energy during 5–10 CAD. This suggests that the be-
havior of early flame is indeed influenced by the ignition energy. Under
high ignition energy, there is nearly no obvious ignition delay and the
growth of flame radius starts immediately as soon as spark ignition is
initiated. At about 12.48 CAD after the spark, the flame radius is about
18.10 mm and reaches the optical window in the up. Besides, the flame
size is bigger than the other two cases through the whole combustion.
So increasing ignition energy can greatly shorten the ignition delay
time and improve the combustion stability.
3.3. Fundamental reasons for combustion stability improvement
As shown above, the ignition energy and spark plug types have a
great influence on spark ignition and flame development of CH4 engine
under high compression ratio and a lean condition. However, the un-
derlying reasons between early flame development and combustion
stability are not clear. Fig. 10 shows the relationship between the mean
flame radius and mass fraction burned in this study. It can be observed
that there is a strong positive correlation between the MFB (mass
fraction burned) and flame radius, the MFB is increased as the flame
radius is increased. It is intuitively reasonable that the early combustion
is related to the 0–5% MFB and the variations of early flame develop-
ment often cause the combustion cycle-to-cycle variations [31]. Under
Fig. 11. Variations of ST-R10 under (A) different spark plug types of 50 mJ ignition energy and (B) different ignition energy of single claw spark plug.
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Applied Thermal Engineering 148 (2019) 188–195
the current study, the flame radius reaches 10 mm when the MFB is
about 4.0–7.8% (blue wavy line in Fig. 10). Thus ST–R10 (duration
from spark to flame radius of 10 mm) is proposed to represent the early
combustion duration in the current study.
Fig. 11 shows the variation of ST-R10 under different spark plug
types and ignition energy. For different spark plugs (Fig. 11A): under
the single-claw condition, most flame radii were found to reach 10 mm
after 12 CAD since the spark and the COV of ST-R10 is about 16.62%.
Besides, the minimum and maximum ST-R10 is 7.5 CAD and 15.1 CAD,
which differ about 7.6 CAD; while under the multi-claw condition, the
time when the flame radius reaches 10 mm is around 10 CAD and the
COV of ST-R10 is about 10.13% and 11.12% respectively. Therefore, it
can be concluded that multi-claw can promote the spark ignition pro-
cess with a faster and lower cycle-to-cycle variation of early flame
under medium ignition energy, thus improve the combustion cycle-to-
cycle variations (Fig. 4). The correlation is more obvious between dif-
ferent ignition energy in Fig. 11B: under low ignition energy, the
average ST-R10 was 12.55 CAD with a COV of 22.95%; while under
high ignition energy, the flame started much earlier and ST-R10 = 8.59
CAD with a COV of 7.91%. So the shorter ST-R10 and stable early flame
results in a stable combustion. Therefore, based upon this section of test
results, it can be concluded that a higher ignition energy can also
promote the spark ignition process, thus improve the combustion sta-
bility.
4. Conclusions
In this work, the influence of different spark plug types and ignition
energy on the combustion performance of natural gas was studied in a
high compression ratio optical engine under a lean condition. The
cycle-to-cycle variations and early flame development evolutions were
discussed using in-cylinder pressure and synchronous flame images,
with addressing the role of spark plugs and ignition energy.
High ignition energy can largely reduce the COVIMEP, so that com-
bustion stability and combustion phase can be optimized to obtain high
thermal efficiency and IMEP. As for spark plug types, multi-claw spark
plugs have a great effect on combustion stability and thermal efficiency
when compared to single-claw spark plug only under medium ignition
energy. However, the effect of spark plug types on the combustion
stability is low under low and high ignition energy condition. The
analysis of flame images show that the spark ignition is stronger under
higher ignition energy, thus the ignition delay time is greatly shortened
with the increase of ignition energy. While for different spark plug cases
under medium ignition energy, the spark size is bigger under multi-
L. Chen et al.
claw condition than that under the single-claw condition, thus the early
flame development is improved. Finally, the correlation between the
COVIMEP and the variation in the crank angle location of R10 was de-
veloped and the flame radius of 10 mm (ST-R10) was chosen to re-
present the early combustion duration. The results show that higher
ignition energy can promote the spark ignition process with a faster and
lower cycle-to-cycle variation of ST-R10, which proves the improve-
ment of combustion stability. What’s more, the spark plug is also found
to have an effect on the variation of ST-R10 under medium ignition
energy condition although the impact is relatively small.
The current study helps to clarify the influence of ignition energy
and spark plug types on the early flame development of combustion
under high pressure and lean condition, and highlights the improve-
ment of ignition energy and spark plug types on the successful spark.
Future work will be focused on gathering additional combustion images
at higher engine speed conditions. In addition, different in-cylinder
flow would affect the variation in the early flame development and
injection control strategy such as direct injection timing will be in-
vestigated in the future.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51706152, 91641203), National Key R&D
Program of China (2017YFE0102800), and Tianjin Natural Science
Foundation (17JCZDJC31500, 18JCQNJC07500).
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