The railplug: Development of a new ignitor for internal combustion engines. Annual report, January 16, 1992--January 15, 1993
The railplug project is essentially divided into three main tasks: (1) Railplug System Development, (II) Application of Railplugs to Engines, and (III) Railplug Durability. Railplug system development is subdivided into two categories: power supply development and ignitor development. In addition to these two categories, there is also a significant amount of work in progress to standardize the evaluation techniques used to measure railplug system performance. These issues are described below. The railplug requires a high voltage spike to breakdown the gap between the rails followed by some sustained voltage to drive the arc down the rails. The power supply chosen is a parallel circuit supply. The parallel circuit utilizes a high voltage ({approximately}20 kV) ignition coil in parallel with relatively low voltage (<600 V) capacitors to supply the breakdown and follow-on energies to the plug. The capacitors are charged off of line voltage while an automotive battery and opening switch provide the input to the ignition coil. The circuit is simple, inexpensive, and reliable, but has the drawback of requiring a high voltage diode to isolate the low voltage capacitors from the high voltage impulse. This is not really a single element, but rather consists of many diodes serially connected to achieve a high stand-off voltage. It has a limited average current rating, which means that high rep rates (>{approximately}30 Hz) are currently not attainable. The diode also consumes significant amounts of energy. This power supply has consistently discharged railplugs at pressures up to 500 psig.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG05-91ER12115
- OSTI ID:
- 10184072
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/12115-2; ON: DE93003068
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Oct 1992
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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