To fulfil strict emission regulations and the need for higher efficiency of future Diesel engines require an optimized combustion process. Optical investigations represent a powerful tool for getting a better understanding of the ongoing processes. For medium speed Diesel engines, optical investigations are relatively rare or not available. The “Institut für Kolbenmaschinen” (IFKM) and MAN Diesel & Turbo SE performed extensive optical in-situ investigations of the injection and combustion process of a MAN 32/44 CR single cylinder medium speed Diesel engine that provide previously unavailable insights into the ongoing processes. The optical investigations aimed on fuel spray visualization, high-speed soot luminescence measurement and two colour pyrometry applied for five combustion chamber regions.
To apply the optical measurement techniques, two optical accesses were designed. Access no. 1 is placed near the cylinder liner. Access no. 2 is located close to the injector in a 46° angle to the cylinder vertical axis. An insert was used which consists of an illumination port and a visualization endoscope. Additionally some special nozzle designs were used beside the standard nozzle, which have one separated nozzle hole. This enables a simultaneous view from both optical accesses on the same flame cone.
For Mie-Scattering investigation a pulsed Nd:YAG-Laser with 532 nm wavelength was used for illumination and a CCD-camera with an upstream 532 nm optical filter was used for visualization. This combination allows observing the liquid fuel distribution even after start of combustion. Penetration depth of liquid fuel spray was analysed for different swirl numbers, intake manifold pressures, injection timings and injection pressures.
High-speed flame visualization was done by two CMOS cameras which were mounted at two different optical accesses with view on the same flame cone. Due to this application a simultaneous measurement of the flame distribution of two different views was possible. This enables a 3-dimensional investigation of the flame propagation process.
In addition, the advanced two colour pyrometry was applied for five different regions of the same flame cone. Due to a calibration after each measurement the absolute radiant flux can be calculated and thus the absolute temperature and soot concentration. With this procedure it was possible to give a real temperature and soot concentration distribution of the flame cone.
To provide more detailed information about the combustion process, selected engine operation points were simulated with a modified version of the CFD code KIVA3v-Release2 at the IFKM. The simulated results were compared to the measured data.