Date of Award

Fall 2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Committee Director

Chunqi Jiang

Committee Member

Shu Xiao

Committee Member

Linda Vahala

Committee Member

Jason Sanders

Abstract

Transient plasma ignition (TPI) uses highly non-equilibrium plasmas, driven by less than 100 nanosecond, high-voltage pulses, to initiate combustion. The effects of pulse repetition frequency (PRF) and ultrashort nanosecond rise times on TPI are investigated in this work using lean, stoichiometric, and rich air-fuel mixtures at atmospheric pressure. Experimental data show the transient plasmas driven by ultrashort rise time, high voltage pulses at high PRF’s enhance the combustion of lean or stoichiometric air-methane mixtures in a static chamber. In particular, increasing PRF enhances the combustion performance by means of reduced delay times independent of the equivalence ratio of the air-fuel mixture. Plasmas driven by shorter rise time pulses improve combustion performance by reducing ignition delay time and increasing peak pressure in lean and stoichiometric mixtures. As TPI promises improved combustion efficiency and reduced emission, this study provides important pulse power parameter information to optimize TPI for combustion.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/skjc-8882

ISBN

9798641815930

ORCID

0000-0001-5654-8188

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