Precision In-Cylinder Pressure Sensor System for Heavy Duty Diesel Engines

The proposal is for the development an innovative technique to continuously determine, in real-time, the cylinder gas pressure in diesel engine cylinders. The technique is based on the electro-chemical phenomena of ionized species formatiion during the combustion process. The ionized species reduce the electrical resistance between two electrodes and their concentratuion is measured by a probe in an electric circuit. The measured ion current signal carries basic thermodynamic and kinetic information about the combustion process, including the cylinder gas pressure. The signal is fed into the engine control unit (ECU) which readjusts different engine systems, including the fuel injection system and enables the engine to autonomously and on the fly operate properly on a variety of distillate fuels, typically jet (JP-8, JP-5, Jet-A1) and worldwide diesel fuels without loss in power and fuel economy. In phase I the design of the probe and the data acquisition system and the connecting cable will be completed. A demonstration of the operation of the sensor and data acquisition will be made on an actual engine.