We report our results on non-periodic experimental time series of pressure in a spark ignition engine. The experiments were performed for a low rotational velocity of a crankshaft and a relatively large spark advance angle. We show that the combustion process has many chaotic features. Surprisingly, the reconstructed attractor has a characteristic butterfly shape similar to a chaotic attractor of Lorentz type. The suitable recurrence plot shows that the dynamics of the combustion is a nonlinear multidimensional process mediated by stochastic noise.

We analyse the combustion process in an spark ignition engine using the experimental data of an internal pressure during the combustion process and show that the system can be driven to chaotic behaviour. Our conclusion is based on the observation of unperiodicity in the time series, suitable stroboscopic maps and a complex structure of a reconstructed strange attractor. This analysis can explain that in some circumstances the level of noise in spark ignition engines increases considerably due to nonlinear dynamics of a combustion process.

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In this paper we analyze the cycle-to-cycle variations of maximum pressure pmax and peak pressure angle αpmax in a four-cylinder spark ignition engine. We examine the experimental time series of pmax and αpmax for three different spark advance angles. Using standard statistical techniques such as return maps and histograms we show that depending on the spark advance angle, there are significant differences in the fluctuations of pmax and αpmax. We also calculate the multiscale entropy of the various time series to estimate the effect of randomness in these fluctuations. Finally, we explain how the information on both pmax and αpmax can be used to develop optimal strategies for controlling the combustion process and improving engine performance.