An internal combustion engine includes a housing defining an internal cavity, an inner body sealingly moving within the internal cavity for defining at least one combustion chamber of variable volume, a pilot subchamber in communication with the at least one working chamber, an ignition element in communication with the pilot subchamber, a main injector communicating with the at least one combustion chamber, and a pilot injector having a tip in communication with the pilot subchamber. The tip of the pilot injector includes at least a first injection hole defining a first spray direction and a second injection hole defining a second spray direction different from the first spray direction. The first spray direction extends toward the communication between the pilot subchamber and the at least one working chamber. A method of performing combustion in an internal combustion engine is also discussed.

Described herein is a combustion pre-chamber apparatus for a main combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine that includes a body that defines an internal combustion cavity. The apparatus also includes at least one orifice that extends through the body. The at least one orifice includes a first end open to the internal combustion cavity and a second end open to the main combustion chamber. The first end is bigger than the second end.

To effectively suppress strong knock that occurs in the operating region of high load and high rotation in a specific engine having a pre-chamber in a combustion chamber, the engine includes a piston that defines a combustion chamber together with a cylinder block and a cylinder head. The combustion chamber 6 includes a sub-chamber and a main chamber separated from the sub-chamber by a pre-chamber having through-holes. The specific ratio obtained by dividing the ratio ϕp/Vpc of a hole diameter ϕp of the through-holes to a volume Vpc of the sub-chamber by a compression ratio is greater than or equal to 0.26 mm/cm.sup.3 and less than or equal to 2.30 mm/cm.sup.3.

A method for operating a spark ignited gaseous fuel internal combustion engine is disclosed. The engine may have at least one main combustion chamber and at least one ignition device configured to initiate an ignition event within an ignition region. The method may include supplying pressurized fuel to the ignition region at times between about 30° to about 0° crank angle before the ignition event is initiated by the ignition device for enriching the ignition region with fuel. The method may also include initiating an ignition event in the ignition region for combusting an enriched air/fuel mixture within the ignition region.

An igniter system for a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine having one or more cylinders including at least one igniter per cylinder is disclosed. The igniter system can comprise: a combustion chamber connected to a main cylinder of the engine by a restricted diameter bore, wherein a lean burn fuel mixture is introduced into the combustion chamber by the normal compression stroke of the engine; a hydrogen valve that injects a hydrogen rich gas into the combustion chamber forming a mixture of hydrogen and air having a hydrogen concentration above the stoichiometric ratio for hydrogen and air in the combustion chamber; and a spark ignition source that injects hot unburned hydrogen into the main cylinder, thereby initiating ignition.

A pre-chamber arrangement (100) for a gas engine (1), including a pre-chamber body (20) accommodating a volume (30); and an inlet passage (40) with an inlet port (42), for supplying a gaseous medium (50) into the pre-chamber volume (30); the pre-chamber volume (30) extends in a longitudinal direction (1) between a top end (32) and a bottom end (34); the pre-chamber volume (30) is configured to accommodate an end of a spark plug (60) at the top end (32) and at the bottom end (34), the pre-chamber body (20) has openings (26) for allowing gas to flow between the pre-chamber volume (30) and a main combustion chamber (10) of the gas engine (1); the inlet port (42) is positioned, at a distance (D) from the top end (32) of the pre-chamber volume (30), in the longitudinal direction (L), such that a volume of residual gases is trapped at the top end of the pre-chamber volume when the gaseous medium is supplied into the pre-chamber volume during an intake stroke.

A precombustion chamber gas engine includes a main-chamber forming portion forming a main combustion chamber, a precombustion-chamber forming portion forming a precombustion chamber communicating with the main combustion chamber via a plurality of nozzle holes, and an ignition device disposed in the precombustion chamber and having an ignition portion spaced from a main chamber central axis of the main combustion chamber at a predetermined distance. In a plan view, the precombustion chamber has a near-ignition region including the ignition portion and a far-ignition region opposite to the near-ignition region separated by a borderline passing through a precombustion chamber central axis of the precombustion chamber and perpendicular to a straight line passing through the precombustion chamber central axis and the ignition portion. The distance between the precombustion chamber central axis and a precombustion-chamber-side opening end, connected to the precombustion chamber, of a specific far nozzle hole which is at least one nozzle hole in the far-ignition region is shorter or longer than the distance between the precombustion chamber central axis and a precombustion-chamber-side opening end of a specific near nozzle hole which is at least one nozzle hole in the near-ignition region.

A feed and ignition device for a gas engine has an injector for the direct blowing-in of a combustion gas into a combustion chamber of the gas engine. The device also has a pre-combustion chamber into which a fuel can be introduced and a plurality of overflow openings distributed in the peripheral direction of the injector over the periphery of the feed and ignition device via which the pre-combustion chamber can be directly connected fluidically to the combustion chamber. A spark ignition device ignites a fuel-air mixture including at least the fuel introduced into the pre-combustion chamber. The pre-combustion chamber, the overflow openings, and the spark ignition device are formed by a first structural unit and the injector is formed by a second structural unit formed separately from the first structural unit.

A method of providing a passive ignition pre-chamber for an internal combustion engine. The pre-chamber is typically implemented as a cap on the electrode end of a spark plug and encloses a pre-chamber volume in which fuel is mixed with air to form a consistently ignitable mixture. The pre-chamber is passive in the sense that gas exchange with the engine's main combustion chamber is realized by local flow fields near nozzles into the main chamber and by pressure differences between the pre-chamber and the main chamber. The nozzles are sized such that at least one of the nozzles has a larger diameter than the remaining nozzles, as optimized using flow field and pre-chamber turbulence analysis.

Operating a gaseous fuel engine system includes urging a mixture containing a gaseous hydrogen fuel and air into a pocket in an igniter fluidly connected to a cylinder to form an ignition charge, and igniting the ignition charge via a flame kernel formed by energizing spark electrodes of the igniter. The method further includes igniting a main charge containing the gaseous hydrogen fuel via a flame jet of the ignition charge from the igniter. The pocket is shielded from the cylinder sufficiently to form within the pocket a flow field protecting the flame kernel, while fluidly connected to the cylinder sufficiently to clear the pocket of residual combustion gases.