Transient Plasma Ignition for Small Internal Combustion Engines.

摘要

This is a Capstone undergraduate student project that focused on introducing transient plasma ignition (TPI) into a small combustion engine (2 hp Fuji Imvac BF-34EI), seeking to demonstrate improved operating efficiency. The project was directed towards involving undergraduate students in the aerospace-oriented research activity. For this project, because the Department of Defense has identified the need for increased mission capability of future Unmanned Aerial Systems, including increased payload, range, and loiter time, it was deemed advisable to direct the undergraduate students work towards achieving these goals by modifying the engine ignition and combustion using TPI. TPI, involving short, intense, low-energy electrical pulses (typically 10-50 nanoseconds), has been shown to effectively improve engine performance for a wide range of combustion-driven engines relative to conventional thermal ignition, and earlier considerations suggested its potential for smaller engine applications.