THIS paper is a sequel of the paper, “Photo-Electric Combustion Analysis,” presented at the 1936 Semi-Annual Meeting of the Society. The indicator described in that paper has been used to study combustion of 28 fuels and chemicals. A complete table of information of the materials used as fuels is included.
The results obtained from over 1000 oscillograms show a different shape of ignition-lag curve versus injection advance angle than it is ordinarily thought to have.
Even though the cetane values for these 28 fuels varied from 24 to 100, they all had nearly the same ignition lag when injected near the dead-center position. This minimum value is shown to be about 1/1000 sec. The fuels of higher-cetane value reach this minimum at an earlier injection angle than do those of low-cetane value.
The paper shows how a high-cetane fuel can be just as rough as a low-cetane fuel if the injection timing is too early. Moreover, a low-cetane fuel can give smooth operation if injected late enough during the compression stroke of an engine with a high compression ratio.