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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.

Investigation of knocking combustion in a hydrogen spark-ignition engine is one of the major challenges for future vehicle development. The knock phenomenon in a Spark-Ignition (SI) engine is caused by autoignition of the unburned gas ahead of the flame. The explosive combustion of the end-gas creates a pressure wave that leads to damage of the cylinder wall and the piston head of the engine. We observed autoignition in the end-gas region due to compression by the propagating flame front using a high-speed colour video camera through the optically accessible cylindrical quartz window on the top of the cylinder head. Moreover, a high-speed monochrome video camera operating at a speed of 250, 000 frame/s was used to measure the pressure wave propagation. The goal of this research was to improve our ability to describe the effect of the autoignition process on the end-gas and propagating pressure wave during knocking combustion with the help of a high-speed video camera.

Experimental investigations of fuel breakup very close to nozzle of practical high-pressure swirl injector, which is used in gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine, were carried out. In GDI engines, fuel is directly injected into cylinder therefore the spray characteristics and mixture formation are of primary importance. In this research, visualizations of primary spray formation process were demonstrated using a high-speed video camera (maximum speed: 1Mfps) with a long-distance microscope. Initial state and development of the spray were discussed under the different injection pressure condition. During the injection period, the length and thickness of the liquid sheet, which is produced from the nozzle exit, were measured using Ar-ion laser sheet and high-speed camera. Primary spray structure and behavior of liquid sheet, especially surface wave of liquid sheet, at nozzle exit were discussed using obtained images.

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.

It is well known that the wavelet transform is a useful time-frequency analysis method for an unsteady signal and major attention has been focused on the selection of the mother wavelet (MW) because the MW plays an important role in the wavelet transform. In this study, we analyze the pressure signal in a spark-ignition engine and the vibration of the engine block measured by a knock sensor under the knocking conditions when knocking is caused. We then propose a new method of the knocking detection that utilizes the knocking signal measured with a knock sensor as a MW. We call this method the Instantaneous Correlation Method (ICM). The degree of similarity between the MW and the vibration of the engine block was judged and only the knocking signal from the vibration of the engine block was extracted. The results obtained here show that the method proposed in this study is useful for knocking detection even if the engine speed is very high of 6000rpm.

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.

Recently, in order to warm up the catalyst temperature rapidly, the retard ignition management has been developed. However, the excess retard of ignition causes the combustion instability and misfire. In this case, the ion sensor has been used for detecting the combustion quality for the late burned cycle under the idling condition. Several researchers have focused on the potential of ion-current measurement for the retard ignition management. However, the interpretation of ion-current during the exhaust process under the idling condition is not clear. In this study the source of ion-current for the late burned cycle during the exhaust process is focused. In order to measure the flame propagation process in the cylinder and the exhaust pipe, the single-cylinder test engine was used instead of production engine. Several ion probes were mounted on the cylinder head gasket, the piston head and the exhaust pipe for detecting the flame front.

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.