Radio Frequency Ignition System. Breakthrough Technology for the Future Spark Ignition Engine

摘要

After more than one hundred years of usage of Ruhmkorff coil for ignition applications, a new ignition system, designed from scratch, is presented. This new system uses a specific radiofrequency power generator connected to a high voltage resonant sparkplug. The main physicals principles used for the system design are presented and illustrated through different versions of the devices. The validation steps showed that the spark pattern is multi-channel and able to ignite very lean flammable mixtures at various pressures at the lean propagation flame limit. Early results on engines are presented and confirm the ability of the system to ignite very lean fuel-air mixtures and increase the combustion speed. This new system offers many new opportunities in engine fuel-air mixture ratios, paving the way to heavy reduction of CO_2 emissions.