Date:         Thu, 7 Sep 2000 16:10:53 EDT
Reply-To:     FrankGRUN@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Frank Grunthaner <FrankGRUN@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Thinking swap?  Engine options are only half the story...What
              about the t...
Comments: To: thewestyman@mindspring.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

True. The other point to be made here is that there is no localization of the
pressure pulse along the vector of the arc formed by the spark discharge. The
fuel ignition is a free radical triggered reaction and diffusion limited. The
flame front moves at supersonic (averaged) velocities traversing the chamber
in a few hundred nanoseconds to microseconds depending on chamber geometry.
The heat released by combustion then heats the surrounding gas by conduction
(process too fast for convective effects) and the details of the pressure
rise now depend on internal chamber mixing. This includes swirl, squish and
valve overlap as well as the detailed shape of the piston surface and the
stroke (piston dwell time).

The primary impact of a centrally located plug is the need to diffusively
trigger the reaction as opposed to radiatively preheating areas of the
chamber to trigger a metastable mixture.

Even surface gap-plugs are not capable of a centro-symmetric arc.

frank Grunthaner