http://sparkplugengineering.com/word Dave Wofsey, combustion and electrical engineer, your guide to the cutting-edge of spark plug technology. Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:15:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Increasingly, combustion scientists have developed interest in the growing area of hydrogen reactions in the automotive combustion cylinder. Hydrogen is used in the gasoline engine to increase power and mileage. (Please see speech to Colorado Air Quality Control Commission below.) The major concern is the generation of air pollutants of ... http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=63 Please click image for full-sized view! http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=47 For over a 100 years the Automotive Industry has been building engines, and only recently have engineers begun to understand the oxidization processes in the automotive cylinder.  The basic principle is that energy is added to the O2 (oxygen molecule) which advances it to a configuration with a ... http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=36 The energy for combustion is contained in the hydrocarbon fuel droplet.  However, the available fuel is only on the periphery of the droplet.  Also, the fuel droplet is a little ball in the bigger air charge volume. The effectiveness of combustion is dependent on the mating of oxygen ... http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=33 The initial voltage ot the spark plug causes breakdown voltage to ionize the air-fuel charge in the gap to become conductive. There are various designs of the Ground Electrode configurations that are not standard. These include a ground strap over the center electrode, multiple electrode and various electrode shapes. For ... http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=29 Ideally, the air-fuel charge in the cylinder is stoichiometric.  That is a ratio of 14 parts air and one part fuel. In practice, the air charge will be greater than14 parts to favor more complete combustion to limit carbon monoxide, CO, air pollution. With today's fuel injection system, the fuel ... http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=25 The spark plug in the engine translates electrical power to chemical action.  The electrical voltage is initially zero across the spark plug gap.  With an air/fuel charge in the gap, the charge is in the insulation state, and the spark voltage is zero.  Then, the first power action is the ... http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=22 Resistance in spark plugs was originally added to control electromagnetic interferance, EMI.  With the introduction of television, there was a continual disturbance of television reception with vehicles producing EMI from the sparking of the spark plugs.   To reduce EMI, spark plug wires went resistive, and resistance was inserted in the spark ... http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=19 In the Automotive System Block Diagram, the spark plug is illustrated as the connective link to the gas engine power system.  In this respect, there are hundreds of OEM spark plugs of varied types, and with each OEM number that has been specified for specific vehicles and engines. The spark ... http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=14 The above diagram illustrates the interactive component system of the automotive engine.  In operation, the computer program is responsive to the Driver Control which optimizes the Air/Fuel quantity, and ratio for speed and load requirement.  Additionally, with the computor monitoring the engine RPM, the spark timing is advanced or retarded.  ... http://sparkplugengineering.com/word/?p=12