Super-knock suppression for highly turbocharged gasoline engines using lean mixture control strategy with the same energy density

Super-knock has been the main obstacle to improve power density and engine efficiency of modern gasoline engines. Previous researches show that the key points of super-knock are composed of pre-ignition and detonation. The former is the inducement and the latter is the root reason why super-knock could damage engines dramatically. Lots of studies have been conducted to suppress super-knock by eliminating pre-ignition. Using a rapid compression machine, this work explores the lean mixture control strategy to eliminate detonation and thus suppressing super-knock. Furthermore, a one-dimensional simulation model was set up to investigate the mechanism of how lean mixture could suppress detonation and super-knock. The experimental and simulation results show that based on detonation and super-knock operating condition, adding 80% additional air while keeping the same fuel energy density could transfer combustion from detonation mode to super-sonic auto-ignitive deflagration mode. The peak pressure and pressure oscillation could be reduced significantly. This indicates that boosted lean burn could suppress detonation and thus suppress super-knock effectively, even if pre-ignition occurs. It could be an effective and practical control strategy to protect modern highly turbocharged gasoline engines.