Electrical diagnostic of high voltage discharges produced by a new spark-plug

As the sparks produced by a conventional spark plug do not assure each time a complete combustion of the gasoline into the internal combustion engines, among different types of solutions given by worldwide researchers and car manufacturers (pulsed laser ignition, multi-ignition points systems, multi-electrodes spark-plugs etc.) we have proposed and tested a new type of ignition system that has as main element a double spark-plug. It can produce two quasi-simultaneous sparks having a cumulated length of over five times higher than the ones produced by a conventional spark plug. The power supply consist of an electronic ignition coil used on modern cars controlled by a microcontroller based unit that can provide different types of control pulses, with one or two pulses having adjustable width for each combustion cycle. The aim of this paper is to present a characterization of the high voltage discharges produced by the double spark plug, taking into account the electrical parameters such the discharge energy, current or breakdown voltage. The results are shown as a comparison with those obtained for a conventional ignition system. A short correlation between the electrical parameters and the plasma rotational temperature is also presented.