Nitric oxide in a diesel engine: Laser-based detection and interpretation

The main objective of the work described in this thesis is the development of a method to determine the nitric oxide (NO) density with both spatial and temporal resolution during the combustion inside the cylinder of a diesel engine by means of laser diagnostics. As a tool to observe the NO molecules the Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) technique is used. This non-intrusive technique allows to detect minority species in combustion with spatial and temporal resolution. The intensity of the fluorescence resulting from the NO molecules, that are excited by the laser radiation is a measure for the amount of NO present in the cylinder of the running engine. The engine used is a one-cylinder, two-stroke, direct injection diesel engine. The engine is made optically accessible by mounting two quartz windows in the cylinder wall through which the laser beam can traverse the combustion chamber. A third window is placed in the centre of the cylinder head and is used to detect the fluorescence. The engine was operated in steady-state, on standard commercial diesel fuel and non-oxygen enriched intake air, in contrast to most other experiments reported in literature. In previously described experiments the research engine was mostly operated in skip-fired mode on a substitute fuel and often extra oxygen was supplied to the intake air. The experiments reported in this thesis have shown that it is possible to observe NO inside the combustion chamber of the two-stroke diesel engine applying the LIF technique.