JP2010096128A - Spark-ignition internal combustion engine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem of adhesion of soot, that is, carbon produced at the combustion to the dielectric tip end face exposed to the combustion chamber when a through-hole for an antenna is prepared in the combustion chamber and is filled with the dielectric so as to be sealed, since the antenna is necessary for radiating a microwave in the case of producing plasma in a combustion chamber with a magnetron. <P>SOLUTION: The spark-ignition internal combustion engine for igniting a fuel/air mixture by reacting plasma produced in a combustion chamber and spark discharge generated by an ignition plug by an electromagnetic wave output by a high frequency generating device comprises an electromagnetic wave supply path for guiding the electromagnetic wave into the combustion chamber provided in a cylinder head with the end part on the combustion chamber inner side sealed with dielectric. The dielectric is maintained at a temperature higher than a predetermined temperature during the engine operation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a spark ignition internal combustion engine that generates plasma in a combustion chamber and ignites an air-fuel mixture by plasma and spark discharge by an ignition plug.

    2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a spark ignition internal combustion engine mounted on a vehicle, particularly an automobile, an air-fuel mixture in a combustion chamber is ignited at each ignition timing by spark discharge between a center electrode and a ground electrode of a spark plug. In such ignition by an ignition plug, for example, in an internal combustion engine of a type in which fuel is directly injected into a cylinder, if the injected fuel is not distributed at the spark discharge position of the ignition plug, it rarely occurs.

For this reason, in such an internal combustion engine, a plasma atmosphere is generated in the discharge region of the spark plug, for example, as described in Patent Document 1, in order to compensate for the spark discharge of the spark plug, and an arc is generated in the plasma atmosphere. It is known that the discharge is performed to surely ignite the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber without applying a higher voltage than in the past and to obtain a stable flame.
JP 2007-32349 A

  By the way, as a method for generating plasma under atmospheric pressure, for example, a method using a magnetron is considered. When plasma is generated in a combustion chamber by a magnetron, an antenna that radiates microwaves is required. An example of an antenna that can be used is a beam antenna. When this beam type antenna is provided in the combustion chamber, a through hole must be formed in the wall surface of the combustion chamber.

  However, a through-hole that leads to the outside cannot be formed in the combustion chamber. For this reason, with respect to the through hole provided for the beam type antenna, a dielectric is filled and the through hole is sealed. In this way, when the dielectric is filled in the through-hole, the dielectric is made to be substantially flush with the wall surface of the combustion chamber, so that the soot, that is, carbon generated by combustion adheres to the dielectric front surface exposed to the combustion chamber. There are things to do. In this case, the microwave passing through the dielectric is absorbed by the carbon, and a desired microwave output cannot be obtained.

  Therefore, the present invention aims to eliminate such problems.

  That is, the spark ignition internal combustion engine of the present invention is a spark ignition internal combustion engine that ignites an air-fuel mixture by reacting plasma generated in a combustion chamber by electromagnetic waves output from a high frequency generator and spark discharge by an ignition plug. Thus, an electromagnetic wave supply path for guiding electromagnetic waves to the combustion chamber is provided in the cylinder head with the end on the combustion chamber side closed by a dielectric, and the dielectric is maintained at a temperature exceeding a predetermined temperature during operation of the engine. It is characterized by that.

  According to such a configuration, the dielectric that closes the end of the electromagnetic wave supply path that guides the electromagnetic wave into the combustion chamber is maintained at a temperature that exceeds a predetermined temperature during operation of the engine, so that carbon adhesion is suppressed. Is possible. Therefore, it is possible to minimize the absorption of electromagnetic waves supplied into the combustion chamber.

  In the above configuration, specifically, the dielectric is provided with a heating layer that generates heat in response to an electromagnetic wave passing on the surface side facing the combustion chamber, the surface of the combustion chamber being coated. Can be mentioned. According to such a configuration, when the electromagnetic wave is supplied from the electromagnetic wave supply path, the heating layer generates heat and is maintained at a temperature higher than a predetermined temperature, and carbon is applied to the surface facing the combustion chamber of the dielectric by the heat. Adhesion can be suppressed.

  Further, in the above-described configuration, the dielectric is thermally insulated from the cylinder head. In this case, specifically, the dielectric is preferably provided so as to protrude into the combustion chamber. According to such a configuration, when the dielectric generates heat due to its own dielectric loss (dielectric loss), the heat is not absorbed by the wall in the combustion chamber, and similarly, on the surface of the dielectric facing the combustion chamber. Suppresses adhesion of carbon.

  The present invention is configured as described above, and the dielectric that closes the end of the electromagnetic wave supply path that guides electromagnetic waves into the combustion chamber is maintained at a temperature that exceeds a predetermined temperature during operation of the engine. Adhesion can be suppressed. Therefore, absorption of electromagnetic waves supplied into the combustion chamber can be minimized.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an engine 100, which is a spark ignition type internal combustion engine, showing an enlarged mounting portion of a spark plug 1 in one cylinder, for example, of a three-cylinder double overhead camshaft (DOHC) type. 3 and the opening 5 of the exhaust port 4 are arranged opposite to each other centering on a spark plug 1 attached to substantially the center of the ceiling portion of the combustion chamber 6 and are opened at two locations per cylinder. That is, the engine 100 is attached to the cylinder block 7, and the camshafts 9 and 10 are attached to the intake side and the exhaust side of the cylinder head 8 forming the ceiling portion of the combustion chamber 6, respectively. The intake port 2 of the cylinder head 8 is opened and closed by an intake valve 11 that reciprocates when the camshaft 9 rotates, and the exhaust port 4 is opened and closed by an exhaust valve 12 that reciprocates when the camshaft 10 rotates. Is. In addition to the spark plug 1, an electromagnetic wave supply path 13 that supplies microwaves, which are electromagnetic waves for generating plasma, into the combustion chamber 6 is provided in the ceiling portion of the combustion chamber 6.

  The electromagnetic wave supply path 13 is connected to a waveguide for guiding a microwave output from a high-frequency generator (not shown), that is, a magnetron and a control circuit for controlling the output and output timing of the magnetron. That is, the electromagnetic wave supply path 13 is a through-hole penetrating the wall surface of the cylinder head 8, and the power supply end 14 on the combustion chamber 6 side is closed by a closing member 15 that is a dielectric.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the closing member 15 that closes the power supply end portion 14 has a high dielectric loss, for example, a thin film-like carbon material 16 as a heating layer and a low dielectric loss. It has a structure in which it is sandwiched between high dielectric constant dielectrics such as ceramics 17 and 18. In this case, the vicinity of the tip of the power supply end 14 is closed with the ceramic 17, the carbon material 16 is integrally attached to the end surface of the ceramic 17 on the combustion chamber 6 side, and the ceramic is attached to the end surface of the carbon material 16 on the combustion chamber 6 side. The closing member 15 is formed by integrally attaching 18. The ceramic 18 covers the carbon member 16 and prevents the carbon member 16 from being exposed to the combustion chamber 6. The closing member 15 completely seals the power supply end 14 of the electromagnetic wave supply path 13. In the closing member 15, the carbon material 16 is used, but any material having a high dielectric loss can be applied.

  In such a configuration, the spark plug 1 is attached to each cylinder of the engine 100. In the engine 100, when the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber 6 is ignited by using the spark plug 1, the spark discharge of the spark plug 1 is caused to react with the plasma generated in the combustion chamber 6. The discharge is larger than the spark discharge in the case where the discharge does not react with the plasma.

    At the time of ignition, a spark discharge is generated in the spark plug 1 by an ignition coil (not shown), and a high-frequency electric field is generated by microwaves almost simultaneously with or immediately after the spark discharge to generate plasma, whereby the combustion chamber 6 It is the structure which burns the inside air-fuel mixture rapidly.

  Specifically, the spark discharge by the spark plug 1 becomes plasma in a high-frequency electric field, and the flame becomes large.

  This is because the flow of electrons due to the spark discharge and the ions and radicals generated by the spark discharge oscillate and meander due to the influence of the high-frequency electric field, resulting in a longer path length and the number of collisions with surrounding water and nitrogen molecules. This is due to a dramatic increase. Water molecules and nitrogen molecules that have been struck by ions and radicals become OH radicals and N radicals, and the surrounding gas that has been struck by ions and radicals is ionized, in other words, a plasma state. The flame will increase dramatically.

  As a result, the air-fuel mixture is ignited by the spark discharge increased by reacting with the high-frequency electric field, so that the ignition region is expanded and the two-dimensional ignition of only the spark plug 1 is changed to the three-dimensional ignition. Therefore, the initial combustion is stabilized, and the combustion rapidly propagates into the combustion chamber 6 as the radicals increase, and the combustion expands at a high combustion rate.

  In this embodiment, since the carbon member 16 is used inside the closing member 15, a microwave of electric power with the electric power absorbed by the carbon member 16 added is output.

  As described above, when the microwave supplied from the high-voltage AC generator is supplied into the combustion chamber 6 through the electromagnetic wave supply path 13 while the engine 100 is operating, the power supply end 14 is closed. The member 15 reacts with the carbon material 16 through the passage of microwaves and generates heat due to its dielectric loss. As a result, the ceramic 18 on the tip side integrated with the carbon material 16 is heated. In this case, when the operation of the engine 100 is continued, the ceramic 18 becomes a temperature that exceeds a predetermined temperature at which it is difficult to cause soot, and thereafter, the temperature is maintained by supplying microwaves to the combustion chamber 6. Therefore, it is possible to suppress soot from adhering to the ceramic 18 and to supply the microwave to the combustion chamber 6 satisfactorily. Further, in this embodiment, the carbon material 16 is covered with the ceramic 18 so that the carbon material is exposed, and soot adheres to the carbon material to increase the carbon layer, thereby reducing the microwave power. Can be suppressed.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

  In the above-described embodiment, the closing member having the two-layer structure at the tip portion has been described. However, the closing member may be formed of a single dielectric having a high dielectric loss other than carbon.

  Further, in the case of a closing member that does not have a two-layer structure, such as the closing member 15 of the above-described embodiment, the dielectric 19 as the closing member is protruded from the inner wall surface of the combustion chamber 6 only at the tip portion 20. Alternatively, it may be attached to the electromagnetic wave supply path 13. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the tip portion 20 of the dielectric 19 is heated by the combustion gas for each combustion stroke. On the other hand, since the dielectric 19 protrudes from the inner wall surface of the combustion chamber 6, the heat of the dielectric 19 is insulated from the inner wall surface of the combustion chamber 6, that is, the cylinder head 8. For this reason, the tip portion 20 of the projecting dielectric 19 is hardly cooled by the cylinder head 8 and is maintained at a temperature exceeding a predetermined temperature. Therefore, it is possible to suppress wrinkles from adhering to the dielectric 19.

  Further, as such a heat insulating structure, a gap 21 may be formed around the tip portion 20 of the dielectric 19 so as to eliminate contact with the cylinder head 8 as shown in FIG. Thus, by forming the gap 21 surrounding the tip portion 20 of the dielectric 19, the gap 21 insulates the tip portion 20 and the cylinder head 8. Therefore, the heat at the tip portion 20 of the heated dielectric 19 does not propagate to the cylinder head 8, and therefore the dielectric 19 can be maintained at a temperature exceeding a predetermined temperature during operation of the engine 100.

  In the above-described embodiment, the high frequency generator provided with the magnetron has been described. However, instead of the magnetron, a traveling wave tube or the like may be used, and further, a semiconductor microwave oscillation circuit may be provided.

  In addition, the specific configuration of each part is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  As an application example of the present invention, it can be used for a spark ignition type internal combustion engine that uses gasoline or liquefied natural gas as fuel and requires spark discharge by an ignition plug for ignition.

1 is an enlarged sectional view showing a main part of an engine to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. Sectional drawing which expands and shows typically the front-end | tip part of the electromagnetic wave supply path of the embodiment. Sectional drawing which expands and shows typically the front-end | tip part of the electromagnetic wave supply path of other embodiment of this invention. Sectional drawing which expands and shows typically the front-end | tip part of the electromagnetic wave supply path of further another embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Spark plug 6 ... Combustion chamber 8 ... Cylinder head 13 ... Electromagnetic wave supply path 14 ... Feed end 15 ... Closure member 16 ... Carbon material 17 ... Ceramic 18 ... Ceramic 19 ... Dielectric 21 ... Gap

Claims (4)

  A spark ignition internal combustion engine that ignites an air-fuel mixture by reacting plasma generated in a combustion chamber by electromagnetic waves output from a high-frequency generator and spark discharge by a spark plug, and having an electromagnetic wave supply path for guiding the electromagnetic waves into the combustion chamber A spark ignition internal combustion engine in which an end on the combustion chamber side is closed by a dielectric and is provided in a cylinder head, and the dielectric is maintained at a temperature exceeding a predetermined temperature during operation of the engine.   2. The spark ignition type internal combustion engine according to claim 1, wherein the dielectric is provided with a heating layer that generates heat in response to electromagnetic waves passing on the surface side facing the combustion chamber so as to cover the surface inside the combustion chamber.   The spark ignition internal combustion engine according to claim 1, wherein the dielectric is thermally insulated from the cylinder head.   The spark ignition internal combustion engine according to claim 3, wherein the dielectric is provided so as to protrude into the combustion chamber.

Images