THE RELATION OF COMBUSTION AREA WIDTH WITH FLAME PROPAGATION VELOCITY AND IONIC CURRENT WITHIN THE SPARK-IGNITION ENGINE

The article covers the empirical issues related to the definition of the combustion process features using the phenomenon of flame electric conductivity within the combustion chamber of the spark-ignition engine. Using the sources of literature, the authors carried out the analysis of modern models of combustion and the turbulent combustion area width. The article sets the task to study the impact of various parameters on the combustion area spread. The relations of the turbulent combustion area width with flame propagation velocity and ionic current peak were experimentally studied using the ionization detector located in the outermost area of the combustion chamber of the reciprocating spark ignition engine. In the first part of the article the authors carried out the analysis of theoretical and experimental work in the sphere of combustion process within the reciprocating engines, described the main characteristics, dimensions, shape and the peculiarities of turbulent flame typical for internal combustion engines. The authors give comparative analysis of the results of experiments carried out in TSU and the experimental data received by N.V. Inozemtsev. The work presents the qualitative and quantitative assessment of values of the turbulent combustion area width. In the second part of the article the authors describe the procedure of determining the combustion area width by the characteristics of combustion of fuel-air mixture found by the ionic current passing through the two detector electrodes which is located in the outermost area of the combustion chamber of the reciprocating engine. The authors also provide the diagrams of dependency of the turbulent combustion area width on the mixture composition, the amount of hydrogen added, the speed-range of engine operation, the flame propagation velocity and the ionic current. The detailed analysis of impact of combustion parameters and characteristics on the combustion area width is presented in the article. The authors determined the regularity of impact of the ionic peak relative value on the turbulent combustion area spread.