Erasmo Recco

Combustion diagnosis via block vibration signal in common rail diesel engine

This article presents a diagnostic technique in which nonintrusive measurements are used with the aim of indirect characterization of the combustion process of an internal combustion diesel engine. The developed technique is based on the vibration signal coming from a mono-axial accelerometer placed in a selected location of the engine block. Such a location is able to guarantee high sensitivity to vibration caused by forces directly linked to the combustion process and low sensitivity to all the other excitation sources. The technique is applied to the signals acquired during two series of experimental tests, carried out on the same kind of engine (multi-cylinder diesel engine, equipped with common rail injection system), in two separate engine test facilities in order to test the engine stand-alone and the engine dressed up with the integrated automatic transmission, aimed at reproducing its real operation condition (it is mainly employed in mini-car sector application). The obtained results suggest the potential applicability of the technique both in the laboratory, during the tuning between the injection parameter settings and the engine, and in the regular running condition of the engine for combustion process diagnosis.

Accelerometer signal to characterize the combustion development in multiple injection diesel engine

This work constitutes one of the last steps of a comprehensive research program in which vibration sensors are used with the purpose of developing and setting up a methodology that is able to perform a real time control of the combustion process by means of non-intrusive measurements.Previous obtained and published results have demonstrated that a direct relationship exists between in-cylinder pressure and engine block vibration signals. The analysis of the processed data have highlighted that the block vibration signal may be used to locate, in the crank–angle domain, the combustion phases (the start of the combustion, the crank angle value corresponding to the beginning of main combustion and to the in-cylinder pressure maximum value) and to quantify the in-cylinder pressure development by evaluating the pressure peak value and the pressure rise rate caused by the combustion process.The aim of this work is to extend and validate the developed methodology when a multiple-injection strategy is imposed on the engine.The paper presents the results obtained during the experimentation of a two cylinder diesel engine equipped with a common rail injection system, that was performed in the Laboratory of the Mechanical and Industrial Department of ‘ROMA TRE’ University. During the tests, a wide variation of the injection parameters settings is imposed on the engine (timing and duration) in its complete operative field.Copyright

Remote Combustion Sensing in Diesel Engine via Vibration Measurements

An efficient control of the combustion process is required in order to comply with regulations on pollutant emissions from internal combustion engines. Literature presents investigations devoted to explore the potentiality of externally mounted sensor (speed sensor, microphone, and accelerometer) for combustion diagnosis. A relationship exists between the combustion event measured via an in‐cylinder pressure transducer and engine block vibration measured via an accelerometer. Time and frequency domain processing of acquired signals highlighted the correlation between parameters able to characterize the combustion development and features derived from the engine block vibration data. A methodology was developed by the authors that demonstrated to be suitable for real‐time estimation of combustion progress based on engine vibration. A two‐cylinder common rail diesel engine of small displacement was tested; two configurations were investigated, naturally aspirated, and turbocharged. The in‐cylinder pressure and block vibration signals were acquired and processed in time and frequency domains. The vibrational components mainly related to the combustion process were extracted, and indicators of the combustion positioning were computed. The angular positions of start of combustion (SOC) and MFB50 computed via the heat release curve by means of the in‐cylinder pressure measurements were compared to those obtained by means of the accelerometer signal. High correlation coefficients were obtained for the data acquired during the testing of both naturally aspirated and turbocharged configurations in the complete engine operative field.