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Single cylinder optical engines are used for internal combustion (IC) engine research as they allow for the application of qualitative and quantitative non-intrusive, diagnostic techniques to study in-cylinder flow, mixing, combustion and emissions phenomena. Such experimental data is not only important for the validation of computational models but can also provide a detailed insight into the physical processes occurring in-cylinder which is useful for the further development of new combustion strategies such as gasoline homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) and Diesel low temperature combustion (LTC). In this context, it is therefore important to ensure that the performance of optical engines is comparable to standard all-metal engines. A comparison of optical and all-metal engine combustion and emissions performance was performed within the present study.

Non-intrusive, crank-angle resolved measurements of piston temperature have been performed in a single-cylinder direct-injection (DI) Diesel engine operating under highly-dilute low-temperature combustion (LTC) conditions. The laser-induced phosphorescence (LIP) technique exploits the temperature-dependent characteristics of rare-earth or transition metal doped ceramic phosphors. This paper describes the calibration procedure and subsequent application of the technique to measure piston surface temperature in a single-cylinder, optically-accessible Diesel engine for various parametric variations including fueling rate and injector nozzle characteristics. In addition, measurements of the nozzle tip temperature of a Diesel injector are also reported. Furthermore, a fiber-optic solution has been developed which enables piston surface temperature measurements to be performed in standard metal (i.e. non-optical) single-cylinder and multi-cylinder engines.