Flow direction characteristics in the vicinity of the spark plug in an S. I. Engine

The flame speed may be decomposed into the burning speed and the flame transport speed. The flame transport speed is affected considerably by the flow direction, variation rate of flow direction, and flow speed in the combustion chamber. Especially, the flow direction and the variation rate of flow direction at the spark plug location during the ignition period have an important effect on the ignition process and the early flame propagation process. We measured the flow direction component and the variation rate of flow direction with a hot wire probe at the spark plug location. It was shown that the representative flow direction of ignition period is the right-vertical direction of crank shaft and it was used to investigate the variation rate of flow direction.