0% found this document useful (0 votes)
172 views11 pages

Advanced Ignition Systems: Technical Possibilities and Limitations

The document discusses three advanced ignition systems: MultiCharge (MCI), Alternating Current (ACI), and Coupled-MultiCharge (CMC). It provides an overview of their technical capabilities and limitations compared to the traditional Transistor Coil Ignition (TCI) system. All systems aim to increase combustion efficiency in downsized, turbocharged engines through improved ignition performance. The MCI can provide a long, quasi-continuous spark while the ACI provides high energy in an uninterrupted burn but for a limited time. The CMC combines long, uninterrupted sparking with high energy delivery.

Uploaded by

Anas Maksoud
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
172 views11 pages

Advanced Ignition Systems: Technical Possibilities and Limitations

The document discusses three advanced ignition systems: MultiCharge (MCI), Alternating Current (ACI), and Coupled-MultiCharge (CMC). It provides an overview of their technical capabilities and limitations compared to the traditional Transistor Coil Ignition (TCI) system. All systems aim to increase combustion efficiency in downsized, turbocharged engines through improved ignition performance. The MCI can provide a long, quasi-continuous spark while the ACI provides high energy in an uninterrupted burn but for a limited time. The CMC combines long, uninterrupted sparking with high energy delivery.

Uploaded by

Anas Maksoud
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 11

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/298433880

Advanced Ignition Systems: Technical Possibilities and Limitations

Conference Paper · December 2013

CITATIONS READS

3 1,019

4 authors, including:

Peter Weyand
Delphi Luxembourg
13 PUBLICATIONS   46 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Peter Weyand on 16 March 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.


Advanced Ignition Systems: Technical Possibilities and Limitations
Frank Lorenz, Dr. Peter Weyand, Etienne Jacque, Dr. Sebastian Schilling Delphi Powertrain Systems,
Luxembourg

Abstract: Striving for maximum efficiency gains, the TCI-system did though substantially increase, from
highly diluted gasoline combustion process is a key ~40 mJ ten years ago to about 100 mJ nowadays.
technology to reach 95g/km CO2. Various advanced
ignition systems were developed in the past to deal Many publications of the last years clearly showed
with the challenges with stratified combustion or high that a high power supplied to the spark has a
dilution. On the one hand they must be capable to positive effect on the combustion [3,9]. Especially on
generate a high voltage to breakdown the spark plug stratified combustion the MCI-system shows an
gap in downsized turbo charged engines; on the advantage compared to single shot TCI-systems.
other hand they have to supply a big amount of The MCI-systems presented here are designed for a
energy in a short time during the burn-phase of the short (re-)charge time compared to standard coils.
arc. As a side effect the average power output has
increased.
Due to the proven robustness and cost effectiveness
of traditional ignition systems based on fly-back
A detailed description of the MCI system can be
transformer topology, these systems will stay the
found in [4]. The AC-Ignition system is well
leading technology within the next years. The
described in [2]. The main focus of this paper will be
present paper is giving an overview of the different
the Coupled MultiCharge Ignition System (CMC). It
advanced ignition systems developed at Delphi –
is based on the conventional flyback-converter
namely the MultiCharge (MCI), the Alternating
topology. Functionally, it has strong links to the Dual-
Current (ACI) and the Coupled-MultiCharge (CMC)
Coil-Ignition system (DCI) [3].
Ignition System. The MCI-system is already in mass
production and is capable to provide long effective
All presented systems are based on the standard
spark duration with a quasi-continuous spark only
transformer-based ignition system (TCI). Therefore
interrupted for coil recharge. The ACI-system is
the TCI system will be described first. The MCI-
providing a higher amount of energy to the ignition
system and the CMC share common building blocks
arc and has an uninterrupted but limited burn time.
with the TCI.
The CMC-system is combining the advantages of
both long, uninterrupted spark and high energy
All advanced ignition systems are using a coil-
delivery. The technical limitations and benefits of the
integrated microcontroller-based electronics.
different systems will be shown in this paper.
Software algorithms for different applications and
Keywords: Advanced Ignition Systems, MultiCharge combustion methods can be easily adapted once
Ignition new requirements are rising. The microcontroller is
also handling the internal coil diagnostics, is running
1. Introduction fail safe processes and coil self-protection
algorithms. It is conditioning signals, data and
The last years have seen a continuing downsizing of information according to the required interface
Otto-engines. For the realization of the limiting value standards, and is transmitting coil status data to the
of 95 g CO2/km in 2020 the combustion process is engine control unit that is acting as a master. This
one part that needs to be optimized. Different mechanization is providing a high flexibility to the
combustion strategies are under investigation, e.g. calibration engineer for the development of the
lean burn combustion or high EGR dilution systems. ignition function in an order of magnitude that was
With those, advanced ignition systems are unthinkable up to now.
necessary to ignite the lean or highly diluted mixture.
The MultiCharge-system is already in series In the last chapter a comparison between the
production and could significantly reduce the fuel different ignition systems on a single cylinder engine
consumption together with the used combustion is presented.
process [1].

Due to the comparably low cost of a transformer


based ignition (TCI), this system is still the one most
commonly used. The maximum output energy of the

Page 1/10
2. Transistor Coil Ignition (TCI) RAMP: With a high-signal coming from the ECU the
transistor Q1 will be switched on and the
2.1 Functional Description electromagnetic storage Lp will be charged to a
maximum primary current Ipmax . The stored energy
The TCI system is well known and on the market inside the magnetic circuit can be calculated as:
since many years. Considering that all the other
advanced systems are based on the same principle , (1)
as the TCI, the function of this system will be
described here in a short way.
whereas Ipmax is the maximum primary current at the
end of the RAMP-cycle.
A general electrical schematic of a TCI system is
shown in Figure 1 with the electrical elements:
FIRE: With the low-signal of the ECU, the transistor
Q1 will be switched off and the primary current flow
 Rp, representing the primary resistance, including stops immediately. Because of the induction law a
the harness resistance and the copper winding high voltage is induced on the secondary side of the
resistance. transformer. The maximum high voltage Usmax that
can be delivered by the system can be approximated
 Lp, representing the primary inductance that is as follows:
coupled by a transformer with the turns ratio ü to
the secondary side. .

√ (2)
 Rs, representing the secondary resistance. It is
modelling all resistive losses of the secondary For simplification reasons, the copper and iron
side. losses are not considered. Especially the iron or
eddy current losses can have a high impact on the
 Cs, representing the secondary capacitance. It is maximum secondary voltage. The high electrical
modelling the winding capacity of the secondary field between the electrodes of the spark plug is
coil of the transformer and the geometrical ionizing the gas molecules in-between and a
capacitance of the spark plug including its streamer breakdown of the gas is generated. The
connection to the high voltage exit of the coil. required high voltage to initiate this breakdown
.

depends on the air-density and can be calculated by


 Zs, representing the air-gap between the Paschen’s law [5]. After the high voltage breakdown
electrodes of a spark plug. . the voltage across the spark gap drops within a few
.
nanoseconds to only several hundred volts. This is
the so-called burn voltage. In this phase the majority
 Ds, representing the diode that is necessary to of the stored energy in the inductance is discharged
prevent a pre-ignition during the initial charge of within a few milliseconds. The amount of the stored
the coil. energy (EOut) that is delivered to the ignition spark is
reduced by the resistive losses on the secondary
side.

(3)

The output energy Eout and the maximum secondary


current, Ismax, are two important parameters of a TCI-
system. Usually, a “Zener”-load of 800 V or 1000 V
is used to measure the output energy. The zener-
load is simulating the burn voltage. The higher the
zener-voltage is chosen the higher the output energy
Figure 1: General schematic of a standard TCI becomes, because the influence of the resistive
system losses is decreasing.

In Figure 2, the primary and secondary current and


the secondary voltage are shown for a standard
ignition cycle. The TCI system is often also
described as a RAMP & FIRE system:

Page 2/10
the wear of the electrode surfaces during the break-
down phase the parasitic capacitance should
preferably be small. The breakdown voltage itself is
being influenced by the electrodes geometry and
distance. It furthermore depends on the gas
composition and pressure, following Paschen’s law.
Downsized, highly turbocharged engines can reach
a breakdown voltage of more than 40 kV. Usually,
there is only one breakdown during each ignition
cycle. If the spark is being extinguished after the
initial breakdown and then reignited, more than one
breakdown can be observed. Although these
secondary breakdowns are likely showing a lower
breakdown voltage, they are still contributing to
spark plug wear.

Figure 2: Primary Current, secondary voltage and


secondary current measured at a spark plug. The high
voltage breakdown after the inital charge is a peak of
up to several 10 kV.

2.2 Factors that influence the ignition

In-cylinder flow motion: Especially in engines with


high turbulence inside the combustion chamber the
ignition spark can be expanded or even extinguished
[2]. A long expanded arc has a higher electrical
resistance and consequently a higher burn voltage.
This leads to increased electrical power consumption
from the energy stored in the coil. Finally, since the
stored energy is constant, the burn time of the Figure 3: Variation of the burn time at the same
system is significantly decreasing. The cyclic operating point at an engine: Blue line: Low burn
variation of the in-cylinder flow and turbulence is the voltage, low flow speed or turbulence at spark plug
reason for the changing burn time from one location; Green Line: High burn voltage, high flow
combustion event to the next. Error! Reference source speed or turbulence at spark plug location;
ot found. shows two of these events recorded under
the same speed and load conditions. One of the Often, an arc-phase occurs right after the breakdown
ignition events runs at a much higher burn voltage phase it depends mainly on the peak secondary
leading to a burn time that is more than 1 ms shorter, current and the pressure. This phase is the second
at about 50% of the burn time of the second event most contributor to the wear since the plasma of the
shown. spark is much hotter during an arc phase than it is
during a glow phase.
Spark plug wear: The mechanisms of the spark plug At a lower secondary current or if the secondary
wear and its main contributors have been quite well current density (j < 10 – 100 A/cm2, [6]) at the
studied in the literature, [e.g. 6]. In [2] a comparison electrodes is too small the discharge process is
of different ignition systems is shown and the called a glow-discharge. It is characterized by a
influence on the wear of the three major phases of a higher burn voltage than an arc discharge.
spark event, the breakdown-, the arc-discharge- and
the glow-discharge-phase is being discussed. Figure 4 shows arc and glow phases and its burn
voltage for different ignition systems. It should be
The breakdown phase is a main contributor to the mentioned that the burn voltage is shown as
wear. After the high-voltage is generated and the negative values.
electrical field has become high enough to break
down the gap between the plug electrodes, the
secondary parasitic capacitance is discharged within
a few nanoseconds into the created ionized channel,
heating its plasma up to several 10,000 Kelvin.
Extreme peak current and highly accelerated
electrons are driving the wear. Obviously, to reduce

Page 3/10
Pictures after runs in N2 pressure and large distance between the
High Energy Coil
Heavy Material
melting electrodes (worn out plugs)
arc phase glow phase
 Preferably constant secondary current at varying
combustion conditions which are defining the
0.4 [µm3/Spark] in N2
4.3 [µm3/Spark] in Air
burn voltage of each ignition event
 An adjustable secondary current to adapt to the
Burn Voltage [V]

glow phases Heavy


MCI, 4 Sparks wear boundary conditions of the combustion and to
minimize the spark plug wear.
no arc phase
- [µm3/Spark] in N2
4.8 [µm3/Spark] in Air  A freely selectable burn time
arc phases

Time [ms]  High efficiency


Material
glow phase
ACI-2P
Figure 4: Spark plug wear at the TCI- and MCI-
melting

3. MultiCharge Igniton System (MCI)


system
arc phase
start of 2nd pulse, no arc phase 0.2 [µm3/Spark] in N2
The Delphi MCI is a current-controlled multispark
Limitations of a TCI-systems: In the future TCI- 3.8 [µm3/Spark] in Air
system [4]. It is using a closed loop control for both
systems with an energy of 200 mJ and maybe more 25[Hz], 730h Nitrogen 8 [bar]
25[Hz], 450h Air 6 [bar]
primary and secondary current. This is guaranteeing
Time [ms]
could become necessary to meet the requirements a precisely defined charging state of the coil when
of combustion. It is well known, that a higher firing. The coil recharge times can be below 100 µs,
secondary current and a longer burn time, i.e. higher a time too short to let the plasma thread of the just
energy, increases the chance to create a self- interrupted spark cool down completely. However,
sustaining flame kernel on lean combustion mixtures the hot gases are driven off the spark plug gap by
[3,8]. On the other hand, the ignition spark can be the in-cylinder swirl and tumble and the so-called
blown out easier at a lower secondary current [3]. entrainment flow [5] originating from the movement
Due to the continuously decreasing secondary of the injected fuel spray. At the time of the next
current of a TCI system the time during which a high breakdown the previous and still hot spark channel is
current is present is very short. This is reducing the providing a comparably low-resistive path for the
probability to ignite the mixture. The burn time and next spark: The arc is following the flow.
the maximum secondary current are impacting each
other. This situation is shown in Figure 5. 3.1 Functional Description
is 1
𝐸𝑂𝑢𝑡 𝑈 ∙𝐼 ∙𝑇 Every MC-cycle is commanded by a usual engine
Ismax 2 𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑛 spark timing signal (EST), defining the coil dwell time
(length) and the ignition timing, i.e. the spark
advance (rear edge). The length of an MC-cycle can
vary and reach up to 20 ms, for instance during cold
start and very low engine rpm. The cycle is either
Tburn
terminated via a second command by the ECU or by
the logic in the coil software. In the latter case the
t microcontroller is calculating the engine speed and is
using this information to stop the MC-cycle after the
Figure 5: Relation between the maximum secondary engine has moved by a certain number of degrees of
current and the burn time on standard TCI systems crank-angle.
With the amount of output energy the ignition coils
are getting bigger and require more packaging The principal schematic is similar to the TCI-system
space. Furthermore the heat consumption of a with the difference that the primary and secondary
system needs to be considered, for a 200 mJ-system current is measured to control the system (Figure 6).
and an efficiency of 50% the coil needs to dissipate The system uses a fast inductance to minimize the
a heat of 200 mJ per ignition event. At ambient recharge times. To get an appropriate energy in a
temperatures of 130°C and more this factor needs to short time loaded into the transformer the system
be considered in the application, this applies also for needs to run at higher primary current than a normal
all other advanced systems with a high amount of TCI-system.
output energy.
Secondary Current Treshold: At the falling edge of
The « perfect » ignition system : A desirable ignition the Engine Spark Timing signal (tDwell) a breakdown
system would have the following electrical of the gap occurs and the spark begins to burn with
characteristics: the secondary current (Figure 7 green curve). While
 High secondary voltage capability to initiate the burning, the MCI-system is constantly monitoring the
initial breakdown even under high in-cylinder secondary current and interrupts the spark when an
adjustable threshold value is reached (secondary

Page 4/10
current threshold) in order to recharge the primary needs to be adjusted – of course, within its physical
coil again. Spark energy and burn time t Burn implicitly limits.
set by this threshold, depend on the respective
thermodynamic conditions in the combustion For the MCI-system the situation is different - the
chamber. energy needs to be recharged during the short firing
cycle from the 12V vehicle battery. If the harness
resistance is too high the recharge during the MC-
cycle would take too long and would be limiting if not
questioning the performance of the system. Due to
this it is important to minimize the harness resistance
for the MCI-system as well as for other advanced
ignition systems.

3.2 Ways to Improve the System Performance

To increase the performance of a MCI-system it is


necessary to increase the average output power of
the system. During the recharge-cycles no energy
Figure 6 : Schematic of the MC-system. Primary and can be delivered to the spark. Therefore, to optimize
secondary current are measured to control the the system the recharge-times must be minimized:
system The same energy than before needs to be stored in
the transformer in a shorter time. This can be done
by increasing the input power. It is given by
Primary Current Threshold ∙ and obviously there are two ways:

1. By a higher maximum primary current. This


requires the windings of the transformer to be
tDwell adapted, but is increasing the resistive losses
tRech
with increasing the height of the primary current
and thus has an effect on the system efficiency.

tBurn 2. By a higher battery supply voltage – e.g. 48 V.


This requires a 48 V topology in the vehicle or a
Secondary Current DC-DC converter. The adaption for the ignition
Treshold coil is comparably easy and can be realized with
a few more electronic components.
Figure 7 : Primary and secondary current at the MCI- In Figure 8 three different MCI-systems based on the
system same magnetic circuit are shown – two coils
Primary Current Treshold: After the interruption of designed for 12 V operation and one designed for 48
the spark current is the coil is recharged. The primary V. The secondary winding parameters have been
current ip, Figure 7 blue curve, starts with the current adapted in a way that the discharge characteristics
that corresponds to the residual charge in the coil. of each coil are almost similar. Especially the 48 V
During coil recharge, the system is now monitoring system has a very low recharge time of about 100
the primary current. The recharging continues until ip s. Compared to a 12 V system this is significantly
has reached an adjustable threshold (primary current reducing the time where there is no spark. Table 1
threshold). Then a new ignition event takes place. shows the performance data of the different
The adjustable current threshold for the coil recharge systems. A good indicator for the performance of an
can be set independently from the current value of MCI-system is the ratio between the burn-time (tBurn)
the initial charge by the EST signal. and the recharge-time (tRech), this value is directly
connected with the average output power (Pavg). As
Primary harness resistance: The height of the mentioned as higher the input power is as higher is
harness resistance for the TCI-system is not very the average output power.
important and can be compensated with a longer
charge time Tdwell. To adapt the system to a specific
energy value only the maximum primary current

Page 5/10
Table 1 : Overview of different MCI-systems, based the two devices M1 and D3 is capable to disconnect
on the same magntic structure. The average power the two transformers from the supply voltage. The
was measured for one MC-periode at a zener load of function of this stage is described later – in standard
1000 V. operation switch M1 is conductive. The system is
closed-loop controlled, using a microcontroller. For
MCI-System Ipmax / A Ubat / V tBurn / tRech Pavg / W
this, the primary and secondary current as well as
the voltage across the diodes is being measured.

MCI-12V,23A 23 12 0.93 50

MCI-12V,45A 45 12 1.53 69

MCI- 48V,15A 15 48 2.48 78

Figure 9: Schematic of the CMC-system with the two


different transformers T1 and T2. The primary current
flow can be limited by the step-down-converter.

Standard Operation: This situation is shown in


Figure 10.

1. For the initial charge both transformers are


charged at the same time. The length is
determined by the length of the EST-signal.
Figure 8 : Three MCI systems using a similar
magnetic structure, but different operating voltages 2. Both stages are simultaneously switched off
resp. maximum primary peak current which initiates the high voltage breakdown. Both
HV-diodes are conducting current in forward
direction and there is no need to block a voltage
of up to 40 … 45 kV, necessary when the
4. Coupled MultiCharge System (CMC) switch-off is asynchronous or time delayed, like
on the usual Dual Coil Ignition systems (DCI).
The limitation of the MCI-system is the missing spark
during the recharge cycle. The CMC-system 3. To generate a stable spark both stages are kept
overcomes this limitation by using two magnetic switched off for a few s. Then, transformer T1
circuits to store the energy. is being recharged again by switching on the
driver Q1. The switch Q2 remains off.
4.1 Functional Description
4. Once the secondary current has reached the
Figure 9 is illustrating the schematic of the CMC- secondary current threshold Q1 and Q2 will be
system. Two transformers T1 and T2 are coupled to toggled – Q1 switched off and Q2 switched on.
the same spark plug by two High-Voltage-Diodes D1 Transformer T1 is now firing and T2 is
and D2. The two coils are identical and have the recharging.
same magnetic structures and winding parameters.
Q1 and Q2 are switching the respective transformer 5. The toggling of the two drivers is continued as
stage on or off. The diodes are conventional HV- long as desired and can be stopped by the ECU.
diodes (4 – 8 kV) which are available for the One of the transformers is always switched on
automotive market. The step-down-converter with

Page 6/10
while the other one is off. The toggling is whereas UMake is the so called make-voltage that is
triggered by the secondary current threshold. induced on the secondary side of a transformer
during a charge cycle. UBurn is the burn-voltage at the
6. At the end of the ignition cycle the secondary spark-plug. The voltages across the diodes are
current is ramped down by the use of the step- continuously monitored by the microcontroller. If they
down-converter to avoid a high secondary are exceeding certain limits a protection algorithm is
current peak, which would have a negative becoming active:
impact on spark plug wear.
1. Either by switching both switches Q1 and Q2 off.
With this algorithm a continuous, uninterrupted Consequently, both transformers are being
secondary current can be supplied to the spark. discharged and the diodes are conducting
current in forward direction.

2. Or by switching both switches Q1 and Q2 on. In


this case, both transformers are being recharged
and the diodes just have to withstand the make-
voltage (UMake). After both transformers are
recharged to an appropriate level, the CMC-
cycle will restart from the beginning.

Variable Load: The load for an ignition coil is the


Secondary Current ignition spark. Depending on the conditions in the
Threshold combustion chamber the burn voltage can vary over
many hundreds of volt during a single ignition event.
For the following considerations the ignition system
is seen as a black box, Figure 11.

Figure 10 : Standard Operation of the CMC-system. A


continous secondary current is generated. 𝑷𝑰𝒏 𝑼𝑰𝒏 ∙ 𝑰𝑰𝒏 𝑷𝑶𝒖𝒕 𝑼𝑶𝒖𝒕 ∙ 𝑰𝑶𝒖𝒕

Step-Down-Converter: The step-down-converter 𝑷𝑳𝒐𝒔𝒔


consists of the two components M1 and D3 and can
limit the input energy to a desired level. To do so, the
switch M1 is interrupting the connection to the car Figure 11: Power flow chart of an ignition system.
battery and the primary current in the inductivity L1 UOut is given by the burn voltage. This value varies
(L3) can flow over Q1 (Q2) and RP through the with the turbulence at the spark gap location
freewheeling path formed by Diode D3. To hold the PIn is the input power delivered by the power supply,
current at a constant level M1 needs to be pulsed. PLoss combines all internal losses and POut
With the step-down-converter it is possible to limit represents the power supplied to the spark. For the
the primary current to a value that can be freely design of the system the following three situations
chosen. Due to the transformer law this is impacting will be looked at:
the secondary current in a similar way. In other
words, the shaping of the primary current is used to (5)
shape the secondary current in the desired way. This
is offering a great amount of flexibility and the
(6)
application can be easily adapted to the individual
energy and high voltage requirements of any speed
(7)
and load point of the engine map. Burn time and
secondary current can be set independent of each
other and only based on necessity – a major The first situation was already described as the
difference to conventional TCI systems. standard operating condition. The other two
scenarios will be discussed comparing a CMC
system with a step-down-converter, one without a
High Voltage Diode Protection: During the CMC-
step-down-converter and a purely time-controlled
cycle one diode is conductive in forward direction
system (DCI) [3].
while the other one must be able to block the
following voltage:
Low load conditions: Low turbulence in the
combustion chamber results in low burn voltage for
, (4)
the spark. This is described by the equation (6). Due

Page 7/10
to the imbalance of ingoing and outgoing power, the circuit cannot deliver the power necessary to
difference in power is being stored as magnetic maintain the constant high secondary current. After
energy in the transformer. On a time-controlled DCI ~1 ms the algorithm is falling back into the
system, this is pushing the transformer into MultiCharge-Mode. This is necessary to maintain a
saturation and inefficient operating conditions. The relatively high but now interrupted spark current.
st
1 picture of Figure 12 is showing this situation. The
dashed line has been put at the desired maximum 1.
primary current. Above this current value saturation
will occur and the primary current will be increasing
rapidly causing a significant loss on efficiency and
undesirable heat generation in the coil windings.
There are two possibilities to overcome this problem:

1. CMC without step-down-converter: Once the


primary current has reached the saturation point
of the transformer both switches Q1 and Q2 are
being switched off. By doing this, both
transformers are discharging into the spark plug
gap, while the primary current is zero. The
switches will stay off for a few 100 s, before the
algorithm is jumping back to the standard CMC- 2.
cycle. This situation is shown in the 2nd picture of
Figure 12. It can be seen that each time the
primary current is reaching the threshold the
secondary current jumps and doubles his value.
These spikes that occur during the time both
switches Q1 and Q2 are off would significantly
increase the spark plug wear.

2. CMC with step-down-converter: This special


electrical circuit is limiting the primary current to
rd
a specified value. The 3 picture of Figure 12 is
showing this. Once the primary current has
reached the primary current threshold it is being
held at - or at least in the vicinity of - this limit 3.
with the help of the step-down-converter.
Primary and secondary current can be held in
the desired range.

High load conditions: Certain combustion methods


are creating high turbulence or in-cylinder flow at the
spark plug location. This situation is described by
equation (7). Here the DCI-system is reaching its
physical limit; the input power is too low to hold the
secondary current at the requested high level. In the
1st picture of Figure 13 a time-controlled DCI
system is shown, the toggling between the
transformers is fixed at 150 s. Here, the secondary Figure 12: Low load conditions: 1. On time controlled
current is unstable and varying over a wide range. systems the transformer is going into magnetic
After ~0.5 ms the spark is extinguished and needs to saturation. 2. On systems controlled without a step-
be re-ignited. Due to the meanwhile low primary down-converter the high secondary current peaks have
current, the high voltage that is generated on the a negative impact on the spark-plug-wear. 3 System
secondary side of the transformer is also low. This with the step-down-converter, the primary and
can result in an inability to break down the spark secondary current does not show any runaways
nd
plug gap and to establish another spark. The 2
picture of Figure 13 is showing a CMC-system. Controllable secondary output current: The output
Here, the secondary current is ramping down over power of the system can be controlled by adjusting
time. Due to the high load and thus energy the secondary and the primary current threshold in
consumption of the secondary circuit the primary CMC-operation. The primary current threshold has a

Page 8/10
direct impact on the maximum secondary current. It The key data of the different ignition systems is
can be easily calculated using the transformer law, shown in Table 2. For the TCI- and MCI-system a
Ismax = Ipmax / turns_ratio. With this flexibility, the standard production system and for the CMC-system
system can be adapted to different load conditions a prototype system was used. All systems are
and operating points and the spark plug wear can be designed for a battery voltage of 12 V.
limited.
Table 2: Key data of the used ignition systems at
1000V-Zener-load. **Current peaks after initial
charge, resp. after initial breakdown ***Current
peaks in CMC-Mode
Tdwell/ Eout / Ipmax / Ismax / tBurn /
System ms mJ A mA ms

TCI 3 110 14 110 2.15

MCI 0.88 170 21 134 3


70** 380**
CMCI 0.48 440 35*** 190*** 3

5.2 Results

In the following section the results of the two


different tests are discussed.
EGR-Sweep, 2000RPM, 3 bar (Figure 14): At an
EGR-rate of 20 percent the fuel consumption could
be reduced with a CMC-system by 4 % compared to
the MCI-system. Especially at higher EGR-rates the
gap between the CMC-system and the TCI and MCI
is growing since the achieved combustion stability
(COV) using the CMC-system is much better. CMC
can reach a higher dilution limit before misfire or
engine roughness is becoming a show stopper.

5. Single Cylinder Tests


For a comparison of the different ignition system a
single cylinder engine was used. These tests are
giving a quick overview but are not exhaustive. More
tests need to be performed at different load
conditions to evaluate the influence of the
theoretically unlimited burn time of the CMC-system.
Further tests are planned especially in stratified
operation.

5.1 Test Setup


Figure 14 : EGR sweep at 2000 rpm / 3 bar NMEP
The geometry of the cylinder head is based on the
M272-Daimler-engine. For the comparison test in Lambda-Sweep, 2000RPM, 3 bar (Figure 15): Here
homogenous operation a low load point was chosen only a comparison between the CMC- and TCI-
(2000 rpm / 3 bar NMEP). At this operation point an system was performed. For moderate Lambda
EGR- and a Lambda-sweep was performed. values no big differences between the systems can
be noticed. At higher Lambda-ratios, i.e. very lean
mixtures, the CMC-system shows an increasing

Page 9/10
benefit and can still reliably ignite where the TCI is [4] P. Weyand, C. Weiten, W. F. Piock, S.
misfiring already. The CMC-system is capable to Schilling: “Adaptive Multi Charge Ignition for
initiate a stable combustion at Lambda-values up to Critical Combustion Conditions”, MTZ 2007
1.7. [5] Küchler, Andreas: Hochspannungstechnik.
VDI, 1996
[6] Rager J.: “Funkenerosion an Zündkerzen-
elektroden”, PhD University Stuttgart, 2006
[7] U. Schaupp, D. Bertsch, H. Winter, R.
Schaub, W. Schmolla: “Thermodynamic
Potential of the Spray-Guided Combustion
System for Gasoline Engines at Mercedes-
Benz”, 16th Aachener Colloquium, 2007
[8] Maly, RudolfR., “Die Zukunft der
Funkenzündung”, MTZ - Motortechnische
Zeitschrift, 59, 1998
[9] Graf J.: “Innovative Zündung”, FVV, Heft 959,
2012

Figure 15: Lambda sweep at 2000 rpm / 3 bar NMEP

6. Summary

An overview of function and performance of existing


conventional ignition systems like Single Charge
Ignition (TCI) and MultiCharge Ignition has been
given. A new type of Dual Coil Ignition Systems has
been introduced, called Coupled MultiCharge
Ignition, CMC. Of course, it is self-explanatory that
the CMC system always can be run as a single
charge ignition system or a MCI system if this is
sufficient for the specific operating conditions. This is
achieved by simply limiting the CMC operation to
one of the two transformers. CMC functionality will
be commanded only when required from the
combustion process such as lean burn, high EGR
dilution, or stratified operation. The CMC combines
everything in one package from a simple TCI,
through MCI until a powerful high energy ignition
with unlimited burn-time and a continuous spark with
widely adjustable spark parameters. Its energy is
scalable as well as its secondary spark current.

7. References
[1] Schütz, Markus and Doll, Gerhard and Waltner,
Anton and Kemmler, Roland}: Der neue 3,0-l-V6-
DI-Ottomotor mit Bi-Turbo von Mercedes-Benz,
MTZ - Motortechnische Zeitschrift, 74
[2] F. Piock, P. Weyand, V. Heise, E. Wolf: “Ignition
Systems for Spray-Guided Stratified Combustion”,
Detroit, SAE 2010-01-0598
[3] Alger, T., Gingrich, J., Roberts, C., Mangold, B. et
al., "A High-Energy Continuous Discharge Ignition
System for Dilute Engine Applications," SAE
Technical Paper 2013-01-1628

Page 10/10

View publication stats

You might also like