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The flow into and out of the piston top-land crevice of a spark-ignition engine has been studied, using a square-cross-section single-cylinder engine with two parallel quartz glass walls which permit optical access to the entire cylinder volume. Schlieren short-time exposure photographs and high speed movies were used to define the essential features of this flow. The top-land crevice and the regions behind and between the rings consist of volumes connected through the ring gaps. A system model of volumes and orifices was therefore developed and used to predict the flow into and out of the crevice regions between the piston, piston rings and cylinder wall.

The design and operating characteristics of a single-cylinder transparent spark-ignition engine for Schlieren flow visualization are described. The engine is built on a CFR engine crankcase using the CFR piston and cylinder as a crosshead for the square cross-section piston and cylinder assembly. The square cross-section assembly has two parallel steel walls and two parallel quartz glass walls to permit optical access to the entire cylinder volume over the complete engine operating cycle. The CFR head and valve mechanism completes the assembly. It is shown that the engine operates satisfactorily with propane fuel under typical engine operating conditions. Schlieren short time-exposure photographs and high speed movies were taken to define details of the flow and density fields through the engine cycle. Photographs which illustrate key features of these fields are presented and described.