Diesel Combustion Chamber Sampling - Hardware, Procedures, and Data Interpretation

In-cylinder sampling appears to be the only available means for obtaining detailed information of the diesel combustion process. This information is necessary to understand pollutant formation because of the intimate relationship between formation rates and local cylinder conditions.

This paper discusses efforts to (1) examine and improve sampling valve design, (2) evaluate potential effects of the valve and the sampling system on sample composition, (3) find methods to extract useful information from sampling data.

Sampling hardware is currently being used to study combustion in engines, but further work is needed to quantify the influence of hardware and procedures on sample composition and to design experiments to provide data containing maximum information.