The influence of pulse rise rate and pulse duration for ignition purposes in engines is investigated. A constant volume cell is used to characterize the breakdown voltage under nanosecond pulsed voltages with automotive sparkplugs having electrode gaps ranging from 0.2 mm to 1 mm. Two pulse generators are used to compare pulses with durations of 10 ns and 50 ns. Different pulse amplitudes are used, and air gaps with breakdown voltages ranging from 4 kV to 15 kV are investigated. The cell is filled with synthetic air with densities gap distances products that are relevant for internal combustion engines. This study shows that the pulse shape and rise rate influence the breakdown voltage. Under pulsed discharge, the breakdown voltage is always above the static breakdown voltage. The probability of pulsed discharge breakdown increases as both the pulse amplitude and duration increases. Furthermore, the breakdown voltage value increases with increasing pulse rise rate. The delay time between reaching the static breakdown voltage and the actual breakdown voltage decreases with increasing overvoltage. The delay time is constituted by statistical and formative times. Both the statistical and formative times decrease with increasing overvoltage. For ignition purposes, the pulse rise rate should be as high as possible to deliver a larger energy input in the breakdown phase. Furthermore, for reduced electrode erosion, the pulse duration should be short (10-20 ns) to reduce the probability for a transition to an arc.

This paper provides a theoretical and conceptual framework for the determination of static breakdown inception thresholds in quasi-uniform gas gaps bounded by dielectric layers of thickness s and relative permittivity ε r ′ . The special case of uncoated metallic electrodes is included in the limit s / ε r ′ → 0 . Moreover, a review of breakdown mechanisms and the underlying physical processes in quasi-uniform gas gaps is provided, and the applicability of the associated breakdown criteria is discussed. The results include a parametrization of the partial discharge inception voltage of wedge-shaped air gaps at atmospheric pressure as a function of the reduced coating thickness s / ε r ′ . The predicted results for this prototypical insulation geometry agree well with a broad array of literature data and own measurements. Finally, a physically motivated parametrization of the ionization threshold K(d) is suggested for atmospheric pressure air in terms of secondary electron feedback by energetic photons and ion-enhanced field emission. This contrasts with the ad hoc introduction of modified ‘streamer constants’ often found in literature to explain breakdown voltages that deviate from the predictions of the classical Raether–Meek–Loeb criterion.

This study provides an experimental evaluation of the effectiveness of Miller cycles with various combinations of lift and intake valve closing angle for a passenger car engine with premixed combustion in naturally aspirated operation. A fully variable electro-hydraulic valve train provided different valve lift profiles. Six load points, from 1.5 up to 5 bar brake mean effective pressure at a constant engine speed of 2000 min⁻¹, were tested with 6 different intake valve lift/intake valve closing angle combinations. The intake valve closing angle was always set before bottom dead center to achieve the desired load with unthrottled operations. Experimental comparison with throttled operation outlines an indicated efficiency increase of up to 10% using high intake lift with early valve closing angle. Furthermore, this analysis outlines the influences that early intake valve closing angle has on fuel energy disposition. Longer combustion duration occurs using early intake valve closing angle because of turbulence dissipation effects, leading to slight reductions in the heat-to-work efficiency. However, overall pressure and temperature levels decrease and consequently heat losses and losses due to incomplete combustion decrease as well. Overall, we found that combustion deterioration is compensated/mitigated by the reduction of the heat losses so that reductions of pumping losses using early intake valve closing can be fully exploited to increase the engine’s efficiency.

The electrical breakdown of synthetic air under ultrashort high-voltage pulses (50 ns duration), as well as slowly increasing (“DC”) voltages, is experimentally studied in a well-defined quasi-uniform electrode configuration (sphere–plane). The electrode spacing is varied from 0.1 to 1 mm, and the gas pressure is varied from 1.5 to 8 bar. The study’s goal is to provide experimental data to develop breakdown models that predict the breakdown probability of small gas gaps under arbitrary voltage excitations. In particular, this analysis is intended for applications where statistical and formative time lags need to be considered, such as nanosecond pulsed ignition or partial discharges in inverter-fed motors. The influence of the electrode material and the presence of UV illumination are investigated for both DC and pulsed voltages. The results highlight the important role of seed electron provision for breakdown under short transient voltages. Evidence for a field-assisted emission of seed electrons with a pressure-dependent onset field is found from time lag measurements. An empirical expression is derived based on the Fowler–Nordheim formula to quantify the seed electron generation rate. The expected dependence of the breakdown threshold on the cathode material (work function) was confirmed for breakdown under slowly increasing voltages (Townsend mechanism). Interestingly, a dependence of the breakdown voltage was also found for nanosecond pulsed voltages (dominated by the streamer mechanism). This suggests that the field emission of electrons from the cathode is the dominant source of seed electrons in large cathode electric fields.