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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE
A High-Energy Multispark Capacitor Discharge
Ignition System for a Two-Stroke Direct Injection
Spark Ignition Heavy Fuel Engine
Rui Liu, Minxiang Wei, Cheng Chang, Haocheng Ji, Taixue Bei, and Shanzhen Xu
Abstract— A high-energy multispark ignition system with a
single discharge capacitor was designed and developed. The
ignition system was verified to be capable of releasing high
ignition energy. The cold start and partial-load test at 6 °C
ambient temperature were conducted on a two-stroke spark
ignition heavy fuel engine with air-assisted direct injection. The
results showed that compared to the original magnetoignition
system, applying the 5-times multispark ignition approach with
the new ignition system is able to successfully solve the cold
start problem of the heavy fuel engine. Under the partial-
load condition, increasing the number of ignitions enhances
combustion in the cylinder. Four-times ignition is better than
2-times ignition with the ignition timing angle between 10° and
20°CA BTDC, improving the power output, fuel economy, and
HC/CO emissions performance. The effects of multispark ignition
gradually become small with the ignition timing angle advanced
to 30°CA BTDC.
Index Terms— Air-assisted direct injection (AADI), capacitor
discharge ignition (CDI), cold start, heavy fuel, multispark
ignition, two-stroke engine.
I. I NTRODUCTION
U NMANNED aerial vehicle (UAV) power plants, includ-
ing reciprocating or rotary piston engines, gas turbine
engines, and battery-powered motors are currently widely
used. The applications and developments of the piston engine
spread because of its simple structure and cost effective-
ness [1], [2]. Most reciprocating piston gasoline engines used
in the aviation field are usually equipped with magnetocapaci-
tor discharge ignition (CDI) systems, such as the Rotax engine
series in Austria and the Hirth engine series in Germany,
in which the spark plug distributions are all of dual redundant
design. In recent years, in considerations of the UAV cost
Manuscript received August 2, 2016; revised January 14, 2017 and
April 23, 2017; accepted May 29, 2017. This work was supported in part
by the Funding of the Jiangsu Innovation Program for Graduate Education
from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under
Grant KYLX15_0262 and in part by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China under Grant 51505171. (Corresponding author: Rui Liu.)
R. Liu, M. Wei, C. Chang, H. Ji, and T. Bei are with the College of Energy
and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Nanjing 210016, China (e-mail: timothy@nuaa.edu.cn; weimx@nuaa.edu.cn;
cc_nuaa@163.com; alexjhc@nuaa.edu.cn; beitaixue@126.com).
S. Xu is with the College of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing
University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China, and
also with the Huaiyin institute of technology, Huaian 223003, China (e-mail:
keqing6657@126.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2017.2711266
0093-3813 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1
and logistical support of troops, the USA and most European
countries have proposed a spark ignition (SI) heavy fuel engine
development program for UAV power plants to be fueled with
aviation kerosene, diesel, and biodiesel in the future [3]–[5].
This approach is different from the traditional approaches
in an aircraft engine or spark-assisted compression ignition
engine [6], and not only leads to a great challenge regarding
the structural design of existing engines, but also adds more
requirements to the design and upgrade of the spark ignition
system.
Generally, gasoline engines have no difficulty achieving a
successful cold start as they utilize a carburetor, port injection,
and direct injection (DI). The high atomization of DI is more
helpful for rapidly starting an engine. Compared to the physic-
ochemical properties of gasoline, heavy fuels show lower
volatility, higher viscosity, and lower evaporation. It is difficult
to start heavy fuels engines equipped with carburetors or port
injection systems without auxiliary preheating or aided igni-
tion, which require additional energy sources [7].
Cathcart et al. [8] developed a two-stroke DI spark igni-
tion (DISI) heavy fuel engine equipped with a programmable
capacitive ignition system; this approach has overcome the
cold start difficulty. However, detailed reports of improv-
ing or solving the cold start problem of the DISI heavy fuel
engine were not present. According to their valuable work,
the first significant aspect is heavy fuel atomization. The
atomized particle size can be reduced to increase the unit-time
fuel evaporation mass via high-pressure DI or low-pressure air-
assisted DI (AADI). The second aspect is the redesign of the
original magnetoignition system, adjusting the ignition timing
and improving the ignition energy to match the fuel DI will
guarantee a stable combustion. The traditional magnetoignition
system has the shortcomings of a low charging voltage at low
speed and short charging time at high speed, which easily
cause misfires in the transient condition during a cold start.
Because of its insufficient ignition energy, it is difficult to
ignite the mixture gas of the carburetor or port injection heavy
fuel engines without adequate preheating [9]–[11]. Moreover,
the cold start problem may still exist in the DISI heavy fuel
engine without a suitable match of the fuel injection and spark
ignition. Therefore, the redesign of the traditional ignition
system of an aviation piston engine is a very important task.
To date, there have been many research reports regarding
digital direct current (dc) CDI systems with multicapacitor
continuous discharge ignition or multiple spark plugs ignition;
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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE

they all enhanced the ignition energy at a single engine cycle, as

and improved engine performance. According to the increase d 2U c dU c
LC
2
+ RC + U c = 0. (1)
of the number of sparks and spark intervals, the flame kernel dt dt
radius has been increased and the expected lean limits have Equation (1) is a second-order homogeneous differential
been extended. The stability of combustion was considered equation with constant coefficients. Assume that the voltage
to be accomplished by increasing the flame kernel according drop on capacitor C is Uc (t), with the initial conditions
to the high ignition energy supplied in the initial period of current I (0) = 0 and voltage Uc (0) = U0 , to define
and lengthening of the discharge energy period by using the α = R(C/L)1/2 /2. Because the ignition coil windings are
multispark ignition approach [12]. Qiao et al. [13] proposed a certain, the primary winding resistance value R and inductance
multicapacitor ignition system, which was studied to match the value L are determined. Thus, the value of α depends on the
engine performance and to improve engine power, economy, capacitance value C. In fact, the capacitor value for energy
and emissions. Zhang et al. [14] developed a multipulse CDI storage in an actual CDI circuit is very small, with a value of
system to study the effects of multipulse ignition on the homo- approximately 1–2 μF. The primary resistance of the ignition
geneous charge compression ignition combustion process on a coil is generally approximately 0.5 . The primary inductance
gasoline engine; the results indicated that increasing the pulse is approximately 2–5 mH. Therefore, α < 1, that is, the circuit
numbers can shorten the combustion duration and increase operates in the under-damped state. The solution of (1) related
the average indicated pressure. Shao et al. [15] developed a to α is obtained and expressed as follows:
high-energy CDI system implement the multispark ignition  
αt
in an electronic controlled liquefied petroleum gas engine; U c(t) = U0 exp − √
the results indicated that the multispark ignition improved ⎛ ⎛ LC ⎞ ⎛ ⎞⎞
the idle stability and emissions. Gerald [16] designed a set 1 − α2 α 1 − α2
of five-stage capacitor-driven high-energy ignition system to × ⎝cos ⎝ t⎠ + √ sin ⎝ t⎠⎠
LC 1 − α2 LC
improve engine emissions by analyzing the characteristics of
the secondary peak capacitance. Sung et al. [17] designed (2)
⎛ ⎞
a multi-CDI system to compare to the single CDI system.  
U0 C αt 1 − α2 ⎠
Their experimental results showed that the lean burn limit I (t) = − √ exp − √ sin ⎝ t .
was increased by 10% with a 5% increase in dynamic per- 1 − α2 L LC LC
formance, and the cycle variations obtained were significantly (3)
decreased. Tropina et al. [18] designed an ignition system
From (3), it can be derived that enlarging the energy storage
based on nanosecond pulsed discharge. Their experimental
capacitor C will increase the peak discharge current and stored
results showed that the specific fuel consumption and nitrogen
energy; however, it will also delay the arising time of the first
oxide content in the engine exhaust gases are decreased for
peak discharge current and correspondingly increase the time
the ignition system based on the nanosecond pulsed dis-
required to charge the capacitor to the target voltage value.
charge compared with the standard spark ignition system.
Cavina et al. [19] presented a combustion control system
based on the optimal management of multiple spark discharge B. Multispark Discharge Ignition
events to increase the combustion stability, reduce pollutant The spark ignition energy discharged by a single capac-
emissions and fuel consumption, and avoid partial or missing itor in the magneto-CDI or dc–CDI ignition system at a
combustion cycles. Hese et al. [20] described tests with a steady engine speed basically remains unchanged, and the
fast multispark ignition system to improve the inflammation ignition pulse is triggered only once. Thus, the ability of
stability during charge stratification. The advantage of this the single capacitor to promote the mixture combustion is
ignition system was the capability to adjust the number of limited. To further maintain and enhance the combustion in
sparks, duration of single sparks, and intensity of the primary the cylinder after igniting the mixture, it is quite possible
current. to increase the ignition times because of the fast charging
To preliminarily solve the cold start problem of two-stroke and discharging characteristics of the capacitor. Therefore,
DISI diesel-fueled engine combined with CDI principle analy- the continuous triggered ignition can be used to implement
sis, in this paper, a digital dc–CDI system is redesigned based multispark ignition. However, most reported research studies
on the previous research of the low-pressure AADI timing use the method of increasing the number of capacitors to
strategy [21]. The ignition functionality and cold start test were discharge for spark ignition in turns, which increases the size
verified, and the effects of a continuous multispark ignition on of the hardware and occupies more space. For a single energy
the engine performance at low load were further studied. storage capacitor, software programmed or hardware triggered
methods can implement the multispark discharge ignition, that
II. C APACITOR D ISCHARGE AND M ULTISPARK I GNITION is, charging the capacitor instantly after completion of the
previous discharge ignition and then continuing to trigger a
A. Capacitor Discharge Analysis discharge ignition. The multispark discharge ignition timing
The CDI circuit can be considered to be the zero input diagram can be designed according to Fig. 1. The before top
response–resistor–inductance capacitor circuit. According to dead center (BTDC) position at the compression stroke is set
Kirchhoff’s law, the discharge process can be represented as the ignition reference, and the engine electronic control
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
LIU et al.: HIGH-ENERGY MULTISPARK CDI SYSTEM
Fig. 1. Multispark CDI timing diagram.
Fig. 2. Principle of the multispark dc–CDI.
Fig. 3. Block diagram of the multispark dc–CDI module.
unit (ECU) outputs an ignition pulse signal to control the
trigger times and implement multispark ignition under a single
engine cycle.
III. E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP AND P ROCEDURE
In consideration of the software programming complexity
and constraint of the peripheral resources in the applied
microcontroller, this paper resulted in the hardware design of
the multispark dc–CDI module. Fig. 2 shows the triggering
principle. With the 60-2 tooth crank position signal used for
the engine speed calculation and crankshaft position tracking,
the ECU calculates the ignition timing and ignition pulsewidth
according to the current engine working condition. The ECU
outputs the ignition pulse signal as an input for the multispark
ignition module to control the triggering times. Fig. 3 shows
the hardware block diagram of the multispark dc–CDI module.
The following sections will explain the design principle and
verification test.
A. Multispark Capacitor Discharge Ignition Module
A self-oscillation driver, IR2153, is used to implement
the dc power boost. Both the high and low output channels
3
TABLE I
M IXED -S IGNAL O SCILLOSCOPE
alternately drive the high-frequency push–pull boosting trans-
former by two transistors of the IRF3205 type. It converts a
battery voltage of 12 V to a high voltage of 330 V. The switch-
ing frequency of the designed boosting transformer is 20 kHz,
which can be adjusted by a sliding resistor and a capacitor.
The transformer secondary output voltage via a full bridge
rectifier is regulated by the Zener diodes and a capacitor.
The ignition triggering circuit is based on the pulse width
modulation driver TL494, reference [22] has given the pin def-
inition of TL494. According to the design requirements, two
error amplifiers of TL494 are shielded and the noninverting
inputs are grounded with inverting inputs connected to a high
level. The high-level voltage comes from the internal 5-V volt-
age source outputted by pin-14. Pin-6 and pin-5 are separately
connected to resistors and capacitors to generate an oscillation
clock for the driver. The sliding resistance for adjusting
the clock frequency determines the ignition triggering fre-
quency of the driver. Pin-13 is grounded to control pin-9 and
pin-10 to output synchronously. The dead time is controlled
by the input voltage of pin-4, which is adjusted by the sliding
resistance and controls the duty cycle of the outputted ignition
triggering pulse at pin-9 and pin-10. When pin-3 is active
high, pin-9 and pin-10 are at low level to disable the used
ignition Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT). On the
contrary, the low level of pin-3 will turn ON the ignition
IGBT, which is connected to the single capacitor. The ignition
pulse signal from ignition controller controls the voltage
at pin-3, which will drive TL494 to turn-ON or turn-OFF
the ignition IGBT in the ignition circuit. Next, the single
capacitor for energy storage discharges and charges alternately
to achieve the multispark ignition.
B. Ignition Module Test and Verification
To verify the functionality of the designed multispark capac-
itive discharge ignition system, a test system was built to
check the ignition module and measure the ignition energy.
The system consists of a 12-V battery supply, ignition mod-
ule, digital oscilloscope, signal generator, ignition energy test
equipment, and other components. The ignition pulse signal
from the digital signal generator controls the ignition module
to output the ignition triggering signal. The ignition wave-
forms of primary and secondary coil, and ignition energy test
were monitored through the ignition energy test probes and
digital oscilloscope. Tables I–III give the specifications of the
measurement setups.
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE

Fig. 5. Multispark ignition triggering pulse and primary coil voltage. (a)
Waveforms in two cycles. (b) Waveforms in a single cycle.

Fig. 4. Ignition pulse signal, multispark ignition triggering pulse, and

charge–discharge voltage waveform of the capacitor. (a) Ignition pulse and
multispark ignition triggering pulse. (b) Multispark ignition triggering pulse
and charge–discharge voltage waveform of the capacitor in four cycles.
(c) Multispark ignition triggering pulse and charge–discharge voltage wave-
form of the capacitor in a single cycle.
TABLE II
PASSIVE H IGH -V OLTAGE P ROBE

Fig. 6. Secondary coil discharge waveform and multispark ignition energy

TABLE III
AC/DC C URRENT P ROBE
Fig. 4(a) shows the 10 Hz (equal to 600-rpm engine speed)
ignition pulse signal from the signal generator and multispark
triggering pulse of the ignition module output. Channel 1
integration value. (a) Energy integration at 7-times ignition. (b) Energy
integration at a single ignition.
is the ignition pulse signal, and channel 2 is the ignition
triggering pulse. As expected, there is a continuous stream
of several ignition triggering pulses at a triggering frequency
of approximately 1 kHz, corresponding to the ignition pulse
signal. Fig. 4(b) and (c) shows the ignition triggering pulse and
charge–discharge voltage waveform of the capacitor. When the
ignition triggering pulse is active, the energy-storage capacitor
discharges rapidly. Conversely, the capacitor will start to
charge as the triggering pulse is turned OFF.
Fig. 5 shows the ignition triggering pulse and the primary
coil voltage waveform. The primary coil voltage is consistent
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LIU et al.: HIGH-ENERGY MULTISPARK CDI SYSTEM
TABLE IV
M ULTISPARK I GNITION M ODULE S PECIFICATIONS
TABLE V
E NGINE S PECIFICATIONS
TABLE VI
I NSTRUMENTATION M EASUREMENT E RROR
with the ignition triggering pulse, and the discharge voltage
alternates with a peak–peak value of approximately 600 V over
a full period. Fig. 6 shows the secondary coil voltage and cur-
rent. The ignition energy was calculated from the integral value
of the secondary coil voltage and current to the ignition time
by using the dual waveforms calculation function integrated
in the digital oscilloscope. Fig. 6(a) is the integration result of
5
Fig. 7. Test bed of the SI heavy fuel engine with AADI.
TABLE VII
C OMPARISON OF VARIOUS F UEL P ROPERTIES
a continuous 7-times discharge ignition. The total discharged
energy observed is approximately 160.9 mJ. Fig. 6(b) gives
the integration result of a single discharge ignition energy of
approximately 21.04 mJ. Because the ignition energy cannot
be completely equal for each single discharge ignition, the total
value of integral energy is not perfectly 7 times of the
single integral value, but basically reaches that level. Table IV
gives the specifications of the designed multispark ignition
module.
C. Test Engine and Procedure
The DISI heavy fuel engine test bed is shown in Fig. 7.
The multispark dc–CDI ignition system was mounted on
a spark ignition heavy fuel engine with AADI. Table V
gives the engine specifications. The engine was coupled with
an eddy current dynamometer (100 kW). An emission ana-
lyzer (NHA401) was used to record the HC, CO, and CO2
emissions. An ECU controller was applied to set the ignition
parameters. Table VI gives the measurement error of the
instrumentations used.
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6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE
Fig. 8. Speed variations during cold start with different CDI ignition system.
Fig. 9. Effects of multispark ignition on (a) engine power and (b) fuel
consumption rate.
IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSIONS
A. Cold Start
To highlight the advantages of the multispark dc–CDI igni-
tion system over the traditional magneto-CDI ignition system,
the dc–CDI system was applied on a two-stroke DISI engine
to conduct a cold start test. Table VII provides a comparison
of gasoline, kerosene (No.3 rocket propellant, RP-3), and
diesel fuel properties. Based on that comparison, diesel fuel
is the most difficult to be ignited under the same condition.
Therefore, diesel fuel was selected for the engine test. The
engine output shaft was coupled with the dynamometer. The
test ambient temperature was 6 °C, and the ambient pressure
was 101 kPa. The peak cranking speed of start motor was
Fig. 10. Cylinder pressure and heat release rate with multispark ignition at
the ignition timing angles of (a) 10°CA BTDC, (b) 15°CA BTDC, and (c)
20°CA BTDC.
800 rpm. The fuel injection control strategies were identical.
The ignition strategy used at cold start was the following:
applying 5-times continuous ignition at the process of motor
cranking and startup and gradually reducing to 2-times con-
tinuous ignition in the warm-up phase if starting the engine
successfully. Fig. 8 shows the engine speed variations at cold
start with the self-designed multispark dc–CDI system and
the prototype magneto-CDI system. From the speed variations,
shown in Fig. 8, it was difficult to start the engine successfully
by using the prototype magneto-CDI system, whereas the
engine starts smoothly to 2000 rpm with the self-designed
multispark dc–CDI module. Therefore, the multispark
dc–CDI system effectively improved the cold start perfor-
mance of the DISI heavy fuel engine compared with the
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LIU et al.: HIGH-ENERGY MULTISPARK CDI SYSTEM
Fig. 11. Effect of multispark ignition on engine emissions. (a) HC. (b) CO.
(c) CO2 .
prototype magnetoignition system.
B. Engine Partial-Load Performance and Emissions
After the smooth cold start described in the previous section,
the engine was switched to operate under partial load with
the conditions of a 10% throttle position and 3000 rpm. The
effects of the ignition parameters on the engine power output,
fuel economy, and exhaust emissions were investigated.
Fig. 9 shows the variations of the power output and fuel
consumption rate with different ignition advance angle and
ignition times. The ignition interval was 0.6 ms per spark.
Overall, increasing the number of ignition times is con-
ducive to improve the dynamics and fuel economy at partial-
load condition. As the ignition timing angle was between
10° and 20°CA BTDC, the power output and fuel economy
7
shows a significant improvement indicating that the small
ignition advance angle retards the overall combustion in
the cylinder; however, 4-times ignition further enhances the
combustion to increase the engine power output compared to
the 2-times ignition. When the ignition timing angle was set
at 30°CA BTDC, the combustion in cylinder was advanced,
and the improving effects of multispark ignition gradually
decreased with a small variation of the power output and
fuel consumption rate. Fig. 10 shows the cylinder pressure
and heat release rate (average value over 100 engine cycles)
with multispark ignition at the ignition timing angles of 10°,
15°, and 20°CA BTDC. The maximum cylinder pressure at
the small ignition angle is clearly improved because of the
increased number of ignition times, which corresponds to
the variations of the engine power output. According to the
results, the late ignition timing delayed the combustion of
fuel–air mixture to the expansion stroke, and the temperature
and pressure in cylinder were relatively smaller to extend
the burn process. Note that the increasing number of ignition
times clearly increased the heat release rate. The combustion
at the 20°CA BTDC became faster compared to that at
10° and 15°CA BTDC.
Fig. 11 shows the variations of CO, HC, and CO2 emissions
with the ignition timing angles and ignition times under
the partial-load condition. At the same ignition timing, after
increasing the multispark ignition number to 4 times, there was
an obvious drop in CO and HC emissions, while the CO2 rose.
The improvement showed that multispark ignition reduced the
incomplete combustion in the cylinder, particularly at the small
ignition timing angle. In addition, the changes of the CO, CO2 ,
and HC emissions with 4-times ignition were more flat than
2-times ignition, which indicated that after 2-times ignition,
the subsequent 2-times ignition further promoted combustion.
Thus, it benefits the reduction of harmful emissions under the
partial-load condition.
V. C ONCLUSION
Based on a two-stroke spark ignition heavy fuel engine with
AADI, this paper presented a proposed method of continuous
multispark discharge ignition with a single capacitor, described
the developed ignition module, and presented a verification
of the multispark ignition functionality of the module based
on a measurement of the ignition energy. At the ambient
temperature of 6 °C, the cold start and partial-load tests at
3000 rpm were investigated. The conclusions are as follows.
The ignition energy of the designed multispark dc–CDI system
can easily reach more than 160 mJ. The 5-times spark ignition
strategy during the motor cranking process and startup process
starts the engine successfully, thereby solving the cold start
problem of the heavy fuel engine. Increasing the ignition
times at partial load can enhance the combustion in the
cylinder. Four-times ignition effectively improves the engine
power output and fuel consumption rate compared to 2-times
ignition. As the ignition timing angle is adjusted to 30°CA
BTDC, the improving effect of multispark ignition becomes
flat. Four-times ignition can further reduce HC and CO exhaust
emissions of the engine compared to 2-times ignition.
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE

R EFERENCES Rui Liu was born in Hubei, China. He received

the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in vehicle engineering
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biodiesel in a port-fuel-injected small spark ignition internal combustion Minxiang Wei was born in Shandong, China.
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multi spark capacitor discharge igniter for a lean burn engine,” of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China,
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Warrendale, PA, USA, Tech. Rep. 2011-01-1419, 2011. received the M.S. degree in vehicle engineering
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“Influence of a multispark ignition system on the inflammation in a China, in 2004. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D.
spray-guided combustion process,” SAE Int. J. Fuels Lubr., vol. 2, degree in vehicle engineering with the Nanjing Uni-
pp. 376–386, Feb. 2010. versity of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing,
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engine,” J. Aerosp. Power, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 2942–2947, 2014. Her current research interests include engine sim-
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