Patent ID: 11965455
Assignee: WOODWARD, INC.
Field: Engines, pumps, turbines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC F  Y | IPC F

Claim 0:
1. A method of igniting an air/fuel mixture in an internal combustion engine, the method comprising:
receiving an air/fuel mixture into a pre-combustion chamber, the pre-combustion chamber enclosing a portion of an igniter;
igniting the air/fuel mixture in in the pre-combustion chamber with the igniter to produce a flame, the pre-combustion chamber having a wall and a plurality of passages in the wall proximal a cylinder head;
moving a piston toward a top dead center position wherein at the top dead center position a portion of the wall extends into a bowl defined in a face of the piston of the internal combustion engine with the face and the bowl at a first end and the cylinder head at a second end opposite the first end, the bowl having a bowl wall defining a volume having a center;
directing, while the piston is moving to or at the top dead center position, the flame to eject the pre-combustion chamber through the plurality of passages in the wall of the pre-combustion chamber proximal to the cylinder head away from the center of the volume, wherein a first portion of the flame is ejected along a trajectory that is adjacent to and along a periphery of the cylinder head, to a peripheral sidewall of a main combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine through a gap defined between the cylinder head and the face of the piston, and a second portion of the flame is ejected to the portion of the bowl wall adjacent the face and is redirected by the bowl wall to along a periphery of the bowl wall; then
igniting, by the directed flame, air/fuel mixture in the main combustion chamber adjacent the periphery of the cylinder head, adjacent the bowl wall, and adjacent the peripheral sidewall; and then
igniting air/fuel mixture in the main combustion chamber in a central region of the main combustion chamber with a propagating flame front of ignited air/fuel mixture away from the periphery of the cylinder head, away from the bowl wall, and away from the peripheral sidewall.