Abstract
In order to make a successful lean burn, it has been an important subject for certain ignition with small spark energy. Experimental and numerical researches have been performed to obtain the detailed information about the ignition and combustion characteristics of flanged spark plugs in flow fields using propane-air mixture. It was mainly investigated that the attached flanges had effects on reduction of ignition energy and acceleration of flame propagation in a swirling flow field modeled an actual engine. We obtained results that the minimum ignition energy decreases in a wide range of swirling flow velocity, and that the flame propagation velocity accelerates. The degrees of these useful effects depend on the flange shape.
