A high-speed camera for clean combustion diagnostics and research innovations

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Optical diagnostic tools have advanced significantly in recent years in industrial and academic facilities for non-intrusive and effective methods. A high-speed camera is an essential tool for advanced research activities at the Clean Combustion Engine Laboratory of the University of Windsor. Our research focuses on the renewable fuel and clean combustion process for current and future engines, from autoignition of high reactivity fuels such as diesel and dimethyl ether, to spark ignition of low reactivity air-fuel mixture, such as natural gas, gasoline and ethanol. Several constant-volume combustion vessels, a rapid compression machine (RCM), and a single-cylinder research engine equipped with optical diagnostic tools are employed to study the ignition and dynamic combustion control process. As clean combustion engines continue to be the powerhouse of the transportation in the next 50 years, government regulations and OEM pursuits for customer needs of highly-efficient, renewable fueled, and ultra-low clean engines are the driving force for advanced combustion control and diagnostic research. This high-speed camera plays an essential role for the precision diagnostic research on transient events of a combustion process which outcomes will be not only in the mechanism studies of advancing scientific knowledge but also the smart control of the combustion towards renewable and sustainable fuel-flexible clean engines. The diagnostic parameters obtained through the proposed equipment will provide with the crucial information for the highly efficient engine combustion control, including hybrid vehicles and autonomous driving lookup tables for optimized engine operating modes. Through the collaborative industrial projects in the past years, many research outcomes resulted from the use of the high-speed camera have led to recent patents on ignition innovations that attracted our partners to use in their clean engine advancement. Both PI and co-PI have the expertise in clean engines, combustion diagnostics and emission control using optical diagnostics and combustion simulation. HQPs will learn image processing, optical manipulation of specific filters to identify certain light sources or emissions of light, and the correlation to combustion process and flow field principles. As optical techniques are widely used in industry and research labs, the knowledgeable engineers in this area are in demand for imaging analysis and diagnostic methodologies for calibration and efficiency improvements. HQPs in the research team will apply the advanced knowledge in high-tech diagnostic system for ion-current, corona plasma and ultra-high pulsation LED light source to develop the best-practical approaches of solving engineering problems.