Cyclic variability has long been recognized as limiting the range of operating conditions of spark ignition engines, in particular, under lean and highly diluted operation conditions. The cyclic combustion variations can be characterized by the pressu...
Cyclic variability has long been recognized as limiting the range of operating conditions of spark ignition engines, in particular, under lean and highly diluted operation conditions. The cyclic combustion variations can be characterized by the pressure parameters, combustion parameters, and flame front parameters. The coefficient of variation in indicated mean effective pressure ($COV_{IMEP}$) defines the cyclic variability in indicated work per cycle, and it has been found that vehicle driveability problems usually result when $COV_{IMEP}$ exceeds about 10%. For analysis of the cyclic variability in SI engines at idling, the results show that cyclic variability by the $COV_{IMEP}$ or the coefficient of variation in maximum pressure can be explained and may be consequently reduced by the help of the optimum spark timings.