On use of CO2 chemiluminescence for combustion metrics in natural gas fired reciprocating engines

Flame chemiluminescence is widely acknowledged to be an indicator of heat release rate in premixed turbulent flames that are representative of gas turbine combustion. Though heat release rate is an important metric for evaluating combustion strategies in reciprocating engine systems, its correlation with flame chemiluminescence is not well studied. To address this gap an experimental study was carried out in a single-cylinder natural gas fired reciprocating engine that could simulate turbocharged conditions with exhaust gas recirculation. Crank angle resolved spectra (266-795 nm) of flame luminosity were measured for various operational conditions by varying the ignition timing for MBT conditions and by holding the speed at 1800 rpm and Brake Mean effective Pressure (BMEP) at 12 bar. The effect of dilution on CO2* chemiluminescence intensities was studied, by varying the global equivalence ratio (0.6-1.0) and by varying the exhaust gas recirculation rate. It was attempted to relate the measured chemiluminescence intensities to thermodynamic metrics of importance to engine research - in-cylinder bulk gas temperature and heat release rate (HRR) calculated from measured cylinder pressure signals. The peak of the measured CO2* chemiluminescence intensities coincided with peak pressures within +/- 2 CAD for all test conditions. For each combustion cycle, the peaks of heat release rate, spectral intensity and temperature occurred in that sequence, well separated temporally. The peak heat release rates preceded the peak chemiluminescent emissions by 3.8-9.5 CAD, whereas the peak temperatures trailed by 5.8-15.6 CAD. Such a temporal separation precludes correlations on a crank-angle resolved basis. However, the peak cycle heat release rates and to a lesser extent the peak cycle temperatures correlated well with the chemiluminescent emission from CO2*. Such observations point towards the potential use of flame chemiluminescence to monitor peak bulk gas temperatures as well as peak heat release rates in natural gas fired reciprocating engines. (C) 2010 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.