In this work, spark plug and corona discharge of 3-20 ms in duration have been used for ignition of stoichiometric and lean fuel methane= air mixtures. Comparison of spark plug and corona ignition abilities shows that corona discharge allows more efficient ignition with less discharge energy. It is proved experimentally that corona ignition provides faster combustion due to larger discharge volume, generation of turbulence around the discharge electrodes promoting combustion and assistance to the flame front propagation through the combustion chamber. In our experimental conditions corona allows ignition and flame propagation regime in quiescent extremely lean fuel mixture of equivalence ratio 0.52 that cannot be realized using more powerful spark.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.