LASER IGNITION SYSTEM

Presented by:
Ashish Dhull
Roll No- 170161610008
 Introduction
• Nowadays, combustion engines and other combustion processes play an
overwhelming and important role in everyday life.
• Economic as well as environmental constraints.
• Fuel not burnt properly.
• Emit toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx), to overcome this they would require
the plugs to produce higher-energy sparks in order to do so.
• While this is technically possible, the voltages involved would burn out
the electrodes quite quickly.
• Poor performance in igniting leaner mixtures.
• Restrictions in engine design
CI Ignition

Types of Ignition

SI Ignition
CONVENTIONAL IGNITION
SYSTEM:
SPARK PLUG IGNITION
(SI)
• Conventional spark plug ignition has been used for many
years. For ignition of a fuel-air mixture the fuel-air mixture is
compressed and at the right moment a high voltage is
applied to the electrodes of the spark plug.
• It requires a high voltage , that is applied to the electrodes of
the spark plug. The field strength reaches values of
approximately 3·104V/cm.
• Electrons are accelerated by the field and hit other atoms or
molecules, thus ionizing additional atoms and an avalanche-
like reproduction of ionized atoms occurs and the
compressed fuel/air-mixture is ignited.
 Location of
spark plug is
not flexible
Ignition location
Erosion of plug
cannot be
electrodes
chosen optimally

Plug electrods
High turbulance
distrub the gas
required
flow

Drawbacks
Of SI
Multi point System Not possible to
ignition not ignite during
feasible fuel spray

Slow flame Frequent

propagation maintainance

Degrades at high
Cannot burn
temperature
leaner mixtures
and pressure
WHAT IS LASER..???
 Laser pumping energy

High reflector
Output Coupler

Gain Medium
Nd:YAG Laser Beam
LASER IGNITION :
PRINCIPLE
Schematic Diagram for LASER Ignition System

Plasma Formation
NON-RESONANT
BREAKDOWN
WORKING OF LASER
IGNITION SYSTEM
• The laser ignition system has a laser transmitter with a fibre-optic cable
powered by the car’s battery.
• It shoots the laser beam to a focusing lens that would consume a much
smaller space than current spark plugs.
• The lenses focus the beams into an intense pinpoint of light by passing
through an optical window, and when the fuel is injected into the engine,
the laser is fired and produces enough energy (heat) to ignite the fuel.
• The plasma generated by the Laser
beam results in two of the
following actions :
i. Emission of high energy photons
ii. Generation of shock waves
• The high energy photons, heat and
ionise the charge present in the
path of laser beam which can be
seen from the propagation of the
flame which propagates
longitudinally along the laser
beam.
• The shock waves carry energy out
wards from the laser beam and
thus help in propagation of flame.
Flame Propagation
ENERGY REQUIRED FOR
IGNITION
• Field Strength of a typical spark plug= 3.104 V/cm.
• Pulse energy of LASER beam given by
D=2×wf=2× M2× (2λf/πd) ……….(1)
• Volume irradiated by LASER beam

V= (4πwf 3)/3 ……….(2)

• No of particles N in a volume V is given by
N= pv/kt ……….(3)
• Finally, Energy for dissociating and ionizing all particles inside volume V is
given by
W= N.(Wd + 2Wi) ……….(4)
• Using these equations for a spot radius of about 100 μm the equations
give maximum energy of approximately 1 mJ.
ADVANTAGES OF LASER
INDUCED SPARK IGNITION
• Location of laser spark plug is flexible
• Does not require maintenance.
• Leaner mixtures can be burned.
• High pressure and temperature does not
affect the performance.
• Flame propagation is fast.
• Multipoint fuel ignition is possible.
• Absence of quenching effects on electrodes.
• Precise ignition timings possible.
• Higher Turbulance not required.
Flame Propagation for LI and SI systems

NOx emissions for different combustion types

Comparison for various factors
 CONCLUSION
• LASER ignition leads to a higher fuel burning and
lower NOx emissions (reduction of about 20%)
• LASER Ignition gives significantly shorter power
duration compared to Spark Ignition.
• LI in engines has demonstrated improvements in
combustion stability.
• It is anticipated that this, combined with the
capability to control the ignition location and timing,
will play a significant role in optimisation of future
engines.
• The only limitation of LIS is it’s highly expensive setup.
Thank You