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Technical Paper

Automotive Ignition Transfer Efficiency

2002-10-21
2002-01-2839
Measurement and analysis of typical automotive spark ignitions operating up to 30Kv and 30 to 100ma show the electrical-to-plasma (energy) transfer efficiency to be very low, significantly less than one-percent (1%).1 The reason for this low energy transfer efficiency is high resistance in the driving circuit that is in series with the rather low resistance of the ignition spark. The largest components of resistance are in the ignition coil and the high voltage cables. The latest evolution of ignition systems has been the elimination or severe shortening of the high voltage cable and the incorporation of one ignition coil attached directly to the individual spark plug. While this has eliminated much, and in some cases all, of the transfer losses attributed to the cables, the system as a whole is still very inefficient in the electrical-to-plasma conversion efficiency because the spark coil and spark plugs still have many times the resistance of the spark discharge channel.
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