Experimental study on energy characteristics and ignition performance of recessed multichannel plasma igniter*

Abstract

In the extreme conditions of high altitude, low temperature, low pressure, and high speed, the aircraft engine is prone to flameout and difficult to start secondary ignition, which makes reliable ignition of combustion chamber at high altitude become a worldwide problem. To solve this problem, a kind of multichannel plasma igniter with round cavity is proposed in this paper, the three-channel and five-channel igniters are compared with the traditional ones. The discharge energy of the three igniters was compared based on the electric energy test and the thermal energy test, and ignition experiments was conducted in the simulated high-altitude environment of the component combustion chamber. The results show that the recessed multichannel plasma igniter has higher discharge energy than the conventional spark igniter, which can increase the conversion efficiency of electric energy from 26% to 43%, and the conversion efficiency of thermal energy from 25% to 73%. The recessed multichannel plasma igniter can achieve greater spark penetration depth and excitation area, which both increase with the increase of height. At the same height, the inlet flow helps to increase the penetration depth of the spark. The recessed multichannel plasma igniter can widen the lean ignition boundary, and the maximum enrichment percentage of lean ignition boundary can reach 31%.