非平衡プラズマと点火

抄録

Recently “plasma-assisted combustion”, especially for the use of non-equilibrium plasma for ignition has garnered interest as a new combustion technology for high efficiency and low emissions in combustors such as internal combustion engines. In this paper the focus is placed on the review of non-thermal plasma ignition and introduction of authors' recent results of this field. The ignition characteristics of non-thermal plasma are examined and compared with those of a conventional spark ignition. It is shown that a streamer discharge characterized by non-thermal plasma can ignite combustible mixtures as well as conventional thermal plasma and there are also some advantages, such as volumetric ignition and less heat loss. Through OH LIF measurement, a number of OH radical is shown to accumulate from pulse to pulse during a train of repetitive pulses, and the created radicals can initiate chemical chain reaction, which results in ignition finally.