Search Results

In this research, a spark plug with an optical fiber has been developed to obtain the emission spectra from the spark discharge and flame kernel. This developed spark plug with an optical fiber can obtain the time series of emission spectra from the spark discharge and Initial flame kernel in the real spark-ignition engine using EMCCD spectrometer. The plasma vibrational temperature of the spark discharge can be measured using the emission spectra from the electrically excited CN violet band system. The plasma of the spark discharge and gas rotational temperature of the initial flame kernel can be also measured using emission spectra from OH* radicals (P and R branches). The plasma temperature of the spark discharge was almost 8,000 K and the gas temperature of the Initial flame kernel approached that of the adiabatic flame temperature.

The authors have previously proposed a plume ignition and combustion concept (i.e., PCC combustion), in which a hydrogen fuel is directly injected to the combustion chamber in the latter half of compression stroke and forms a richer mixture plume. By combusting the plume, both cooling losses and NOx formation are reduced. In this study, thermal efficiency was substantially improved and NOx formation was reduced with PCC combustion by optimizing such characteristics as direction and diameter of the jets in combination with combustion of lean mixture. Output power declined due to the lean mixture, however, was recovered by supercharging while keeping NOx emissions at the same level. Thermal efficiency was further improved by slightly re-optimizing the jet conditions.

The objective of this study is to investigate the initial flame propagation characteristics of turbulent flame in an engine cylinder through time-series analysis of radical emissions. A spark plug with optical fiber was developed in this study. The plug sensor is M12 type that makes it possible to mount in practical engine. The spark plug sensor can detect radical emissions in time-resolved spectra through time-series spectroscopic measurement. In this spectra, some kinds of radical emissions such as OH*(306nm), CH*(431nm) and C2*(517nm) based on principle of chemiluminescence are observed. In this study, the spark plug sensor was applied to both compression-expansion machine (CEM) and practical engine. As a result of CEM with bottom viewed high-speed camera, three kinds of spectra could be detected.

Bio-gas as an internal combustion (I.C.) engine fuel has many advantages such as cheaper fuel cost, low emission levels and especially the neutral recirculation loop of carbon dioxide, which is one of the principal factors in global warming. In this study, positive potentialities of bio-gas were investigated using a micro co-generation engine. The mixing ratio of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) was changed to simulate various types of bio-gases. Intake air and fuel flow rates were controlled to change the equivalence ratio. The engine load condition could be changed with the electric output power used. Base on the result, the higher CO2 content rate slowed down the engine speed in the same load condition and the combustion speed generally decreased under the same load condition with maintaining the engine speed. However thermal efficiency increased with lean burn conditions and NOX emission decreased with higher CO2 mixing rates.

Hydrogen spark-ignition (SI) engines based on direct-injection (DI) have been investigated because of their potential for high thermal efficiency and solving the problems related to knocking, backfiring, and pre-ignition. Wide range flammability limits in hydrogen engine enable smooth engine operation for a very lean mixture with low NOX. However, a too lean mixture may increase ignition delay and causes severe cyclic variations. There is a possibility that the turbulence occurred during injection of fuel surround the spark plug in the combustion chamber is major contributor to this phenomenon. To overcome this problem, a better understanding of the spark discharge and spark ignition during transient hydrogen jet is necessary. Therefore, it is very important to study an effect of local equivalence ratio and behavior of spark discharge in SI engine. This paper describes a mixing process of hydrogen jet using spark-induced breakdown spectroscopy (SIBS) in a constant volume vessel.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the air/fuel ratio (AFR) of turbulent premixed flames in a spark-ignition (SI) engine. We developed a spark plug sensor with an optical fiber to detect the chemiluminescence spectra, specifically the intensity of the spectral lines related to OH*, CH*, and C2* free radicals. The sensor was composed of a sapphire window and optical fiber and is applicable to automobile SI engines. Measurements of the chemiluminescence intensity from OH*, CH*, and C2* radicals were obtained in turbulent premixed flames with a propane-air mixture for different AFRs in a compression-expansion machine (CEM). The performance of the spark plug sensor was compared with a Cassegrain reflector using an intensified charge-coupled device. The results showed good agreement with measurements obtained using the Cassegrain reflector. The spark plug sensor was shown to be useful for measuring chemiluminescence of turbulent premixed flames in an SI engine.

Hydrogen spark-ignition (SI) engines based on direct-injection (DI) promise significant advantages in terms of thermal efficiency and power output, as well as a means of overcoming problems related to knocking, backfiring, and pre-ignition. In a DI hydrogen engine, the fuel/air mixture is formed by injecting a jet of hydrogen into the air inside the combustion chamber. An Ar-ion laser beam was used as a light source to visualize the hydrogen jet in a constant-volume chamber. This allowed us to study the structure of the jet in addition to other physical processes resulting from hydrogen gas injection. Combustion experiments were conducted in a single-cylinder SI optical research engine equipped with a DI system to detect the early kernel growth assisted by the spark, as well as flame propagation. Various equivalence ratios and fuel injection timings were analyzed to identify the effects on combustion.

Effects of injection parameters on combustion and emission characteristics of diesel PCCI engine operating on optical and test engine was investigated. PCCI combustion was achieved through slightly narrow included angle injector, low compression ratio coupled with exhaust gas recirculation. Analysis based on diesel spray evolution, combustion process visualization and analysis was carried out. Spray penetration was evaluated and related to the exhaust emissions. Advancing the injection timing and EGR extended the ignition delay, decreased NOx emissions and increased HC, smoke and CO emissions. Higher injection pressure led to low emissions of NOx, smoke, HC and comparable CO. Optimum spray targeting position for minimum emission was identified. Impingement on the piston surface led to deterioration of emissions and increased fuel consumption while spray targeting the upper edge of Derby hat wall showed improvement in emission and engine performance.

The combustion and exhaust emissions characteristics of a supercharged dual-fuel natural gas engine with a single cylinder were analyzed. We focused on EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) to achieve higher thermal efficiency and lower exhaust emissions. The combustion of diesel fuel (gas oil) as ignition sources was visualized using a high-speed video camera from the bottom of a quartz piston. The luminous intensity and flame decreased as the EGR rate increased. Furthermore, the ignition delay became longer due to the EGR. Characteristics of the combustion and exhaust emissions were investigated with changing EGR rates under supercharged conditions. The indicated mean effective pressure and thermal efficiency decreased with increasing EGR rate. In addition, NOx emissions decreased due to the EGR. In this study two-stage combustion was observed.

This paper describes the development and application of a spark plug sensor using an infrared absorption technique to quantify the instantaneous residual gas concentration near the spark plug. The residual gas fraction inside engine cylinder is assumed to be proportional to CO2 concentration. The relationship between CO2 concentration and absorption strength of CO2 was determined for various pressures and temperatures in advance using a constant volume vessel with electric heating system. The spark plug sensor for in-situ CO2 concentration measurement was applied to a compression-expansion engine and also to a port injected motorcycle SI engine. It was possible to qualify the CO2 concentration inside residual gas during the compression stroke using the developed optical system with new spark plug sensor in compression-expansion machine.

Non-intrusive measurement of transient unburned gas temperatures was developed with a fiber-optic heterodyne interferometry system. Using the value of the Gladstone-Dale constant for DME gas and combustion pressure we can calculate the in-cylinder temperature inside unburned and burned region. In this experimental study, it was performed to set up a fiber-optic heterodyne interferometry technique to measure the temperature before and behind the combustion region in a DME-HCCI engine. At first, measured temperature was almost the same as the temperature history assuming that the process that changes of the unburned and the burned are polytropic. In addition, we measured the temperature after combustion which of condition was burned gas with DME-HCCI combustion. The developed heterodyne interferometry used the spark-plug-in fiber-optic sensor has a good feasibility to measure the unburned and burned temperature history.

Emissions remain a critical issue affecting engine design and operation, while energy conservation is becoming increasingly important. One approach to favorably address these issues is to achieve homogeneous charge combustion and stratified charge combustion at lower peak temperatures with a variable compression ratio, a variable intake temperature and a trapped rate of the EGR using NVO (negative valve overlap). This experiment was attempted to investigate the origins of these lower temperature auto-ignition phenomena with SCCI and CAI using gasoline fuel. In case of SCCI, the combustion and emission characteristics of gasoline-fueled stratified-charge compression ignition (SCCI) engine according to intake temperature and compression ratio was examined. We investigated the effects of relative air/fuel ratio, residual EGR rate and injection timing on the CAI combustion area.

This paper describes the development and application of a spark plug sensor using a 3.392 μm infrared absorption technique to quantify the instantaneous gasoline concentration near the spark plug. We developed an in situ laser infrared absorption method using a spark plug sensor and a 3.392 μm He-Ne laser as the light source; this wavelength coincides with the absorption line of hydrocarbons. First, we established a database of the molar absorption coefficients of premium gasoline at different pressures and temperatures, and determined that the coefficient decreased with increasing pressure above atmospheric pressure. We then demonstrated a procedure for measuring the gasoline concentration accurately using the infrared absorption technique. The history of the molar absorption coefficient of premium gasoline during the experiment was obtained from the established database using measured in-cylinder pressures and temperatures estimated by taking the residual gas into consideration.

An in-spark-plug flame sensor was developed to measure local chemiluminescence near the spark gap in a practical spark-ignition (SI) engine in order to study the development of the initial flame kernel, flame front structure, transient phenomena, and the correlation between the initial flame kernel structure and cyclic variation in the flame front structure, which influences engine performance directly. The sensor consists of a commercial instrumented spark plug with small Cassegrain optics and an optical fiber. The small Cassegrain optics were developed to measure the local chemiluminescence intensity profile and temporal history of OH*, CH*, and C2* at the flame front formed in a turbulent premixed flame in an SI engine. A highresolution monochromator with an intensified chargecoupled device (ICCD) and spectroscopy using optical filters and photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) were used to measure the time-series of the three radicals, as well as the in-cylinder pressure.

In this study, a spark plug sensor for in-situ fuel concentration measurement was applied to a port injected lean-burn engine. Laser infrared absorption method was employed and a 3.392 μm He-Ne laser that coincides with the absorption line of hydrocarbons was used as a light source. In this engine, the secondary valve lift height of intake system was controlled to obtain appropriate swirl and tumble flow in order to achieve lean-burn with the characteristics of intake flow. For such in-cylinder stratified mixture distribution, the fuel concentration near the spark plug is very important factor that affects the combustion characteristics. Therefore, the mixture formation process near the spark plug was investigated with changing fuel injection timing. Under the intake stroke, the timing that fuel passed through near the spark plug depended largely on the fuel injection timing.

A dual fuel engine fueled with methane from an inlet port and ignited with diesel fuel was prepared. This study focuses on the effects of early injection and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on the characteristics of combustion and exhaust emissions. The injection timing was changed between TDC and 50 degrees before the TDC. In the early injection timing, smoke was never seen and hydrocarbons were smaller compared with those at the normal injection timing. However, the combustion becomes too early to obtain an appropriate torque when the equivalence ratio increases. Then, moderate EGR was very effective to force the combustion to retard with lower NOx, higher thermal efficiency and almost the same hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. The engine operated even under the condition of stoichiometric mixture.

A fiber optical heterodyne interferometry system was developed to obtain high temporal resolution temperature histories of unburned and burned gases non-intrusively. The effective optical path length of the test beam changes with the gas density and corresponding changes of the refractive index. Therefore, the temperature history of the gas can be determined from the pressure and phase shift of the interference signal. The resolution of the temperature measurement is approximately 0.5 K, and is dependent upon both the sampling clock speed of the A/D converter and the length of the test section. A polarization-preserving fiber is used to deliver the test beam to and from the test section, to improve the feasibility of the system as a sensor probe. This optical heterodyne interferometry system may also be used for other applications that require gas density and pressure measurements with a fast response time, or a transient temperature record.

In order to investigate the relation between ion current and combustion characteristics, the ion current signal from a spark plug as an ion probe, pressure history and flame development were measured in a homogeneous propane-air mixture in closed combustion chambers. The flame propagation was measured by Schlieren photography technique. When negative bias is applied to the central electrode of the spark plug, the ion current flows only due to an early flame kernel existing near the spark plug. When positive bias is applied to the central electrode, the ion current flows from the central electrode to the combustion chamber wall and to the ground electrode. Consequently, the ion current is dominated by the contact area between the flame and the combustion chamber wall. The appearance period of ion-current is related to the combustion duration. This method was applied to the combustion analysis of the spark ignition engine.

The structures of the turbulent premixed flame in the engine cylinder under lean burn conditions were investigated using ion probe method. The flow fields were measured with an LDA for two tumble ratios and two compression ratios. And ion-current signal was analyzed to discuss the interaction between the turbulence and the flame structure. The effects of turbulence and equivalence ratio on the characteristic values of the turbulent flame, that is to say number of ion-current peaks, thickness of flame front and thickness of burning zone of the flamelet, were investigated. In normal combustion, the structure of the turbulent flame front is almost the same as the laminar flame. In the lean limit, the flamelet is broken and stretched and then the structure may change.

A turbulent gas jet impinging on a flat wall was visualized by a laser sheet method. Velocity fields were determined from the images with a high speed video system by processing them in terms of the cross correlation method for the jet and particle tracking method for the ambient air from the same images. The vortex flow near the transient jet tip impinging on the wall was visualized and analyzed successfully. The velocity field obtained from the above methods was compared to that determined with a laser Doppler anemometer. The path line of a certain period which was taken with a CCD camera with controlled shutter was analyzed and the mean rate of air entrainment was determined quantitatively. The spatial and temporal change of the entrainment rate was estimated and it was found that the entrainment rate near the upstream part of the jet tip region is larger because of the vortex.