Hydrogen as the Fuel for a Spark Ignition Otto Cycle Engine

Hydrogen has been suggested, in recent years, as an alternate fuel for the spark-ignition, otto-cycle engine. When hydrogen is used in this manner, the combustion characteristics in the cyclic engine conditions become increasingly important. This paper describes engine experiments with hydrogen as the fuel. Initial work is presented in which it is found that combustion is essentially complete at maximum cylinder pressure. Based on this operating characteristic of the hydrogen fuel, burning times and spatial burning velocities are given for a number of conditions of engine speed and compression ratio.