Flow characteristics of misfired gas in the exhaust manifold of a spark ignition engine

Abstract

Misfiring in spark ignition engines should be avoided, otherwise unburned fuel and oxygen are brought into the catalyst, and subsequent combustion greatly increases the temperature, possibly resulting in immediate damage to the catalyst. As a new concept of misfire detection method, the signal fluctuation of a wide-range oxygen sensor has been introduced to monitor the fluctuation of the oxygen concentration at the exhaust manifold confluence point. The current research aims to develop a tool that is capable of predicting the variation in oxygen concentration at the exhaust manifold confluence point, and to investigate the flow characteristics of the misfired gas in the exhaust manifold under misfiring conditions in a cylinder. The oxygen concentration at the confluence point could be predicted by comparing the gas flowrate from the misfiring cylinder with the total exhaust gas flowrate. The gas flowrates from each of the cylinders were calculated using a one-dimensional engine cycle simulation including a gas dynamic model of the intake and exhaust systems. The variation in oxygen concentration was also determined experimentally using a fast-response hydrocarbon analyser. The trend of the oxygen concentration fluctuation calculated by the analytical model was compared with the experimental results. The analytical model could duplicate the measured trend of the fluctuation of oxygen concentration at the confluence point, which was characterized by twin peaks for one misfiring. The twin peaks are mainly caused by the mixing of the misfired gas with the burned gas from normally operating cylinders. The effects of engine load and speed on the characteristics of the variation in oxygen concentration were also investigated analytically and experimentally.