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🔧 Spark Timing & Cylinder Pressure Curve

A 3D slider-crank engine model showing how ignition (spark) timing shifts the cylinder pressure-vs-crank-angle curve, and how too much advance triggers engine knock.

Engineering & Materials3DAdvanced60 FPS

A 3D single-cylinder engine driven by exact slider-crank kinematics, paired with a live cylinder pressure-vs-crank-angle curve that shows exactly why ignition fires before top dead centre — and what happens when it fires too early.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

A Wiebe-style combustion model shows how the flame's finite burn duration forces the spark to fire before TDC, and how compression ratio and spark advance together control whether the engine makes power cleanly or knocks.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust engine speed, spark advance and compression ratio and watch the pressure curve's peak shift on the live graph. Push spark advance and compression ratio too high together to trigger a knock event.

💡 Did You Know?

Peak cylinder pressure in a real engine typically lands 12–20° after top dead centre — firing the spark exactly at TDC actually loses torque, because the flame hasn't finished releasing its energy yet.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D slider-crank engine model showing how ignition (spark) timing shifts the cylinder pressure-vs-crank-angle curve, and how too much advance triggers engine knock.

engine-simulationignition-timingcylinder-pressureinternal-combustionslider-modelengine-dynamicsperformanceThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install