correct..detonation occurs when there's 2 flame fronts traveling at each other, and theymeet in the middle.
i simply misunderstood what i read in your post, that's all.
<<S>>
No problem. You do not know me, nor what I have been up to for the last 10 years. Studying ways to improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine is one thing that has held my interest since I was a kid. I only started really delving into it in the last 10 years or so.
I would augment your description of 'detonation' though. It does not require two flame paths to occur. If the mixture is pre-detonated, and completes, while the piston is moving up for the compression cycle, before TDC (top dead center), then the most damaging of detonation can occur. A single point of ignition is all that is needed.
In today's engines the exhaust valve is normally the culprit, but not always. The key is the burn cycle has to complete before TDC to qualify for 'detonation'. How that happens can be a number of ways.
Normally, if the burn cycle time changes, then one must adjust the engine timing to compensate. Modern engines with electronic controls can automatically compensate the timing to prevent damaging detonation if the burn cycle time changes.
