Look into the Flames

摘要

You can learn a lot about the inner working of an engine from physical tests - how it heats up, cools down, behaves during acceleration and more. Looking at the test cell data from a dynamometer, Tony Willcox, director of simulation and controls at Pinnacle Engines, can gauge the engine's average performance characteristics such as torque, power, fuel flow, and emissions. He can examine crank-angle-resolved data to analyze cylinder and port pressures, rotation speed and piston position during a series of combustion events. But Willcox and the simulation team at Pinnacle are also interested in what they cannot see or measure. To extract every last joule of energy from fuel, they would need to peel off the engine cover and look inside to reduce energy loss from spark to exhaust. And that's where they run into the limitations of physical tests. "Optical engine technologies exist that enable some visibility into the cylinder," he says, "but they present their own sets of challenges. For example, their configurations are limited, and it's very expensive to implement them."