Browsing by Author "Rabe, Tiaan"

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    Determination of the effectiveness of a Hot Tube igniter for initiating HCCI combustion
    (2006) Rabe, Tiaan; Swarts, André; Yates, Andrew
    Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) is a new internal combustion system that promises high efficiency and dramatically reduced nitrous oxide (NOJ and particulate matter (PM) emissions when compared to current spark ignition (SI) and compression ignition (CI) engine technologies. In its simplest form, HCCI can be described as lean autoignition of a homogeneous fuel/air mixture that occurs without a flame front. HCCI can in theory be achieved using almost any fuel, provided that it evaporates readily and has a short enough ignition delay that it can be made to autoignite under the conditions typically found in an IC engine. Basically HCCI incorporates the best features of a SI (petrol) and CI (diesel) engine. Like in a SI engine, the fuel and air in the cylinder is allowed to be well mixed before the onset of combustion which promotes cleaner burnng (Low PM) and like in a CI engine the engine is operated overall fuel-lean and therefore has no throttling losses and near zero NOx emissions. The mixture is also compression ignited in the same way as in a CI engine. This causes combustion to occur simultaneously throughout the combustion chamber and thus no flame front is present.