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On post-breakdown initialization for ignition models

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Abstract

An accurate evaluation of the processes taking place from the spark onset until the flame self-propagates in spark ignition internal combustion engines would be very beneficial. It would provide engine designers with more reliable criteria, and this in turn would help lower harmful emissions and achieve improved energy utilization. In order to be computationally affordable, combustion codes contain models which simplify specific tasks. Particularly, the ignition process is very demanding in terms of computational cost, so ignition models are normally resorted to. Their accuracy heavily relies on the knowledge of the physics of the process and their simplifying hypothesis. Currently widely used low-dimensional models are perceived to oversimplify some essential features, perhaps being the most important the role of plasma hydrodynamics, which eventually defines the kernel shape. In this work the effect some fundamental parameters have on the whole process, such as electrode and spark gap dimensions, amount of discharged energy and initial chamber pressure and temperature, is simulated. A qualitative and quantitative analysis allows the assessment of a recently proposed low-dimensional thermodynamic model devised for fast discharges, and to establish its range of validity. Some modifications to this model are introduced in order to improve its predictive capabilities and to extend its range of applicability. Additionally, the effect of a further arc or glow discharge and the influence of electrode configuration asymmetry are simulated, providing a methodology to treat both cases.

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Acknowledgments

This work has received financial support from Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, Argentina), Universidad Nacional del Comahue (UNCo, Argentina, grant PIN 04/I-251), Agencia Nacional de Promoción de la Investigación, el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación (Agencia I+D+i, Argentina, grant PICT 2018-2920), and Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL, Argentina, grant CAI+D 2020 506-201901-00110-LI), and was partially performed with the Free Software Foundation GNU-Project resources as GNU/Linux OS, GCC compilers, GNU/Octave, and GNUPlot, as well as other Open Source resources as OpenFOAM®, ParaView, and LaTeX, among many others.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigación en Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional del Comahue-CONICET, Buenos Aires 1400, Neuquén, 8300, Neuquén, Argentina

    Joaquín Aranciaga & Ezequiel J. López

  2. Centro de Investigación en Métodos Computacionales, Universidad Nacional del Litoral-CONICET, Predio CONICET Dr. Alberto Cassano, Colectora RN 168 s/n – Paraje El Pozo, Santa Fe, 3000, Santa Fe, Argentina

    Norberto M. Nigro

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  1. Joaquín Aranciaga
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  3. Norberto M. Nigro
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Joaquín Aranciaga, Ezequiel J. López and Norberto M. Nigro. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Joaquín Aranciaga and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Joaquín Aranciaga.

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Aranciaga, J., López, E.J. & Nigro, N.M. On post-breakdown initialization for ignition models. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 44, 579 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-022-03886-0

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