A method for starting an internal combustion engine comprises the steps of: providing an internal combustion engine having at least one cylinder and a piston supported at a crankshaft for repeated reciprocal movement in the cylinder so as to define a main combustion chamber, the internal combustion engine further having an ignition device arranged in said cylinder with an igniter portion and a fuel injector which are both arranged at a pre-chamber, wherein the pre-chamber has a plurality of orifices for providing fluid communication between said pre-chamber and the main combustion chamber, injecting fuel in the pre-chamber, and igniting the injected fuel in the pre-chamber for pre-heating of the pre-chamber prior to injecting fuel in the main combustion chamber for combusting the injected fuel in the main combustion chamber.

Systems, devices, and methods described herein provide one or more radical chemicals generators (RCGs) and/or mini-chambers (M-Cs) that can be used to provide enhanced radical ignition (ERI) in an internal combustion engine. RCGs as described herein can include quenching systems (QSs) that can be configured to quench a flame of combustion products to produce a jet of partial combustion products containing radical species (RS). The jet of partial combustion products can be injected to a main combustion chamber (MCC) of an engine to induce ERI. ERI can proceed under leaner fuel conditions and lower temperatures compared to those needed for conventional thermally induced, fuel oxidation chain initiation reaction processes.

A pre-combustion chamber system is presented. The pre-combustion chamber system includes a pre-combustion chamber housing defining a pre-combustion chamber, a cooling chamber housing surrounding the pre-combustion chamber housing, a cooling chamber defined between the pre-combustion chamber housing and the cooling chamber housing. The pre-combustion chamber system includes a flow agitator arranged in the pre-combustion chamber housing protruding into the pre-combustion chamber. The flow agitator increases flow disturbance in the pre-combustion chamber for improving mixture of fuel and air. Cooling of the pre-combustion chamber system is improved by dividing the cooling chamber into a cooling inner chamber and a cooling outlet chamber or by arranging cooling fins in the pre-combustion chamber housing extending into the cooling chamber.

A spark ignition engine includes: a pre-chamber (PC); a main chamber (MC); and a cylinder head coupled with a water jacket. The PC includes: a spark plug; and a PC body. The spark plug is surrounded by a jacket with thermal-conductive substance. The thermal-conductive substance is solid at room temperature and liquid at working temperature of the PC. At working temperature of the PC, the liquid thermal-conductive substance conducts heat from the spark plug to the water jacket. The PC body is coated with a layer of non-thermal-conductive substance.

A pre-combustion chamber system is presented. The pre-combustion chamber system includes a pre-combustion chamber housing defining a pre-combustion chamber, a cooling chamber housing surrounding the pre-combustion chamber housing, a cooling chamber defined between the pre-combustion chamber housing and the cooling chamber housing. The pre-combustion chamber system includes a flow agitator arranged in the pre-combustion chamber housing protruding into the pre-combustion chamber. The flow agitator increases flow disturbance in the pre-combustion chamber for improving mixture of fuel and air. Cooling of the pre-combustion chamber system is improved by dividing the cooling chamber into a cooling inner chamber and a cooling outlet chamber or by arranging cooling fins in the pre-combustion chamber housing extending into the cooling chamber.

Systems, devices, and methods described herein provide one or more radical chemicals generators (RCGs) and/or mini-chambers (M-Cs) that can be used to provide enhanced radical ignition (ERI) in an internal combustion engine. RCGs as described herein can include quenching systems (QSs) that can be configured to quench a flame of combustion products to produce a jet of partial combustion products containing radical species (RS). The jet of partial combustion products can be injected to a main combustion chamber (MCC) of an engine to induce ERI. ERI can proceed under leaner fuel conditions and lower temperatures compared to those needed for conventional thermally induced, fuel oxidation chain initiation reaction processes.

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.

The ignition insert with an active pre-chamber (1) comprises an insert well (72) arranged in a cylinder head (3) of an internal combustion engine (2), said well (72) accommodating a cylindrical insert body (70) which is indexed in rotation and in which are arranged an ignition pre-chamber (71), an insert spark plug well (83) receiving a spark plug (12), and a injector radial orifice (88) which is aligned with a injector lateral well (73) arranged in the cylinder head (3) so as to receive an injector nose (16), said body (70) being terminated by a pre-chamber nose (75) opening into a combustion chamber (5), and being held in the insert well (72) by fixing means (82) cooperating with clamping means (74).

Operating a gaseous fuel engine system includes spark-igniting a gaseous hydrogen fuel and air in a prechamber sparkplug to ignite a main charge containing gaseous hydrogen fuel and air in a cylinder. Operating the gaseous fuel engine system also includes determining a preignition condition and conveying cooling air to the prechamber sparkplug based on the preignition condition to limit preignition of gaseous hydrogen fuel and air in the prechamber sparkplug. Related apparatus and control logic is also disclosed.

The invention relates to a cylinder head (1) for an internal combustion engine, with a prechamber (2) which is arranged in the cylinder head (1) and is defined by an inner wall surface (11) of a prechamber wall (5), wherein the prechamber (5) comprises a first chamber portion (3) and a second chamber portion (4), wherein the first chamber portion (3) has a greater maximum diameter (D) than the second chamber portion (4), wherein at least one ignition device (16) opens into the first chamber portion (3), and the second chamber portion (3) comprises at least one overflow channel (7) for the passage of flow into a combustion chamber (8) which adjoins a fire deck (6). Am improved dissipation of heat can be achieved if at least one inner wall surface (11) of the first chamber portion (3) comprises at least one first flattened portion (13).