A novel ignition timing strategy to regulate the energy balance during the warm up phase of an SI engine

The warm up characteristics of an engine have a significant impact on engine performance and exhaust emissions. In SI engines, the light-off performance of the catalytic converter is also important. One of the methods used to shorten the light off time of the catalytic converter is to retard the ignition time. When the ignition time is retarded, the temperature of the exhaust gases increases. However, in this case, the warm up performance of the engine itself may be adversely affected. In this study, firstly, the effects of ignition timing on the energy balance during the warm up period in an SI test engine were revealed. Then, a novel ignition timing strategy was proposed in order to increase the temperature of the exhaust gases, and not to reduce the engine performance. The novel ignition timing strategy working on the principle of sequentially advanced and retarded ignition at certain intervals during the warm up period provides several advantages. When the novel ignition strategy is applied, the energy loss through the exhaust gas was increased up to 7.2% for several operating conditions, while the reduction in engine performance is eliminated. Moreover, 20% reduction in NO emission has been achieved.