Abstract

A diode-laser-absorption-spectroscopy-based sensor system was used to perform high-speed (100 Hz to 5 kHz) measurements of gas properties (temperature, pressure, and ${\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$ vapor concentration) at the turbocharger inlet and at the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler exit of a diesel engine. An earlier version of this system was previously used for high-speed measurements of gas temperature and ${\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$ vapor concentration in the intake manifold of the diesel engine. A 1387.2 N m tunable distributed feedback diode laser was used to scan across multiple ${\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$ absorption transitions, and the direct absorption signal was recorded using a high-speed data acquisition system. Compact optical connectors were designed to conduct simultaneous measurements in the intake manifold, the EGR cooler exit, and the turbocharger inlet of the engine. For measurements at the turbocharger inlet, these custom optical connectors survived gas temperatures as high as 800 K using a simple and passive arrangement in which the temperature-sensitive components were protected from high temperatures using ceramic insulators. This arrangement reduced system cost and complexity by eliminating the need for any active water or oil cooling. Diode-laser measurements performed during steady-state engine operation were within 5% of the thermocouple and pressure sensor measurements, and within 10% of the ${\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$ concentration values derived from the ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ gas analyzer measurements. Measurements were also performed in the engine during transient events. In one such transient event, where a step change in fueling was introduced, the diode-laser sensor was able to capture the 30 ms change in the gas properties; the thermocouple, on the other hand, required 7.4 s to accurately reflect the change in gas conditions, while the gas analyzer required nearly 600 ms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first implementation of such a simple and passive arrangement of high-temperature optical connectors as well as the first documented application of diode-laser absorption for high-speed gas dynamics measurements in the turbocharger inlet and EGR cooler exit of a diesel engine.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

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