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EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) is adopted to reduce NOx emission in spark ignition engines. The effects of dilution with CO₂ and N₂, the main components of EGR, on laminar flame were investigated. It had been found that CO₂ and N₂ dilutions affected not only laminar burning velocity but also the response of flame to the flame stretch due to the change in the thermo-diffusive properties of the mixtures by the dilutions. Thus, turbulent flames were also investigated at fixed flame stretch factors to examine solely the thermo-diffusive effects on turbulent flame.

In this research, a spark plug with an optical fiber has been developed to obtain the emission spectra from the spark discharge and flame kernel. This developed spark plug with an optical fiber can obtain the time series of emission spectra from the spark discharge and Initial flame kernel in the real spark-ignition engine using EMCCD spectrometer. The plasma vibrational temperature of the spark discharge can be measured using the emission spectra from the electrically excited CN violet band system. The plasma of the spark discharge and gas rotational temperature of the initial flame kernel can be also measured using emission spectra from OH* radicals (P and R branches). The plasma temperature of the spark discharge was almost 8,000 K and the gas temperature of the Initial flame kernel approached that of the adiabatic flame temperature.

EGR (Exhaust gas recirculation) can reduce the pumping loss and improve the thermal efficiency of spark ignition engines. The techniques for combustion enhancement under high EGR rate condition has been required for further improvement of the thermal efficiency. In order to develop the technique of combustion enhancement by turbulence, the influences of turbulence scale on combustion properties, such as probability of flame propagation, EGR limit of flame propagation, flame quenching and combustion duration were investigated under the condition of same turbulence intensity. Experiments were carried out for stoichiometric spherically propagating turbulent i-C8H18/Air/N2 flames using a constant volume vessel. It was clarified that all of these combustion properties were affected by the turbulence scale. The development of spherically propagating turbulent flame during flame propagation was affected by the turbulence scale.

Syngas, is an alternative fuel consisting mainly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in various proportions. An understanding of the effects of the varying constituents on the combustion characteristics is important for improvement of the thermal efficiency of syngas-fueled engines. The effects of hydrogen concentration and mixture pressure on the turbulent burning velocity of outwardly propagating stoichiometric flames of hydrogen-carbon monoxide-air were studied in a constant volume fan-stirred combustion chamber at a constant mixture temperature of 350 K. The mole fraction of hydrogen in the binary fuel was varied from 0 to 1.0, at mixture pressures of 0.10, 0.25 and 0.50 MPa. The turbulence intensity was kept constant at 3.27 m/s. For fixed mixture pressures, it was found that the turbulent burning velocity increased with an increase in hydrogen fraction primarily due to increase in the unstretched laminar burning velocity.