Nonlinear dynamics of cycle-to-cycle combustion variations in a lean-burn natural gas engine

Temporal dynamics of the combustion process in a lean-burn natural gas engine was studied by the analysis of time series of consecutive experimental in-cylinder pressure data in this work. Methods borrowed to the nonlinear dynamical system theory were applied to analyze the in-cylinder pressure time series under operating conditions with different equivalence ratio. Phase spaces were reconstructed from the in-cylinder pressure time series and Poincaré section calculated from each phase space. Poincaré sections show that the in-cylinder combustion process involves chaotic behavior. Furthermore, return maps plotted from time series of indicated mean effective pressure show that both nonlinear deterministic components and stochastic components are involved in the dynamics of cycle-to-cycle combustion variations in the lean burn natural gas engine. There is a transition from stochastic behavior to noisy nonlinear determinism as equivalence ratio decreases from near stoichiometric to very lean conditions.