The Knocking Syndrome - Its Cure and Its Potential

In his paper “The Knock Syndrome - its Cures and its Victims” (SAE 841339) Oppenheim proposed to change the whole process of the internal combustion engine replacing moving flames by homogeneous and simultaneous combustion. Intensive research work on flame propagation and auto-ignition phenomena led to new insights into combustion over recent years. The implementation of auto-ignition on two-stroke S.I. engines revealed the potential for simultaneous reductions in fuel consumption and NOx emission.

Deploying the principle for the four-stroke piston engine and standard fuel would provide optimum conditions for application in common vehicles. The basic problem of homogeneous combustion is presented and some options of control are discussed. A methodology is proposed to apply a new type of combustion simply through a consistent combination of modern technology available for the S.I. engine. The practical investigations and examination of the proposed concept will be realized as part of the joint European research project “4-SPACE”.