Analysis of processing methods for combustion pressure measurement in a diesel engine

Abstract

This paper analyzes combustion chamber pressure data processing methods related to the number of cycles averaged, top dead center referencing and pressure referencing (pegging). A total of 1000 consecutive engine cycles were measured in a four-cylinder diesel engine. The number of cycles that minimizes the influence of cycle-to-cycle oscillations depends on engine operating conditions and the parameters under analysis. The top dead center (TDC) referencing, using the motored curve, revealed that the thermodynamic loss shifts the peak pressure − 0.4 °CA from TDC. Four pegging methods were compared—least-squares, fixed-point, three-point and two-point—introducing as main novelty the fact they have not been previously investigated on the same baseline conditions. The least-squares based method showed the lowest sensitivity to random noise, but with longer processing time, and the fixed-point method presented higher dispersion in the heat release analysis. The three-point referencing method considers a variable polytropic coefficient, but suffers from noise sensitivity, and the two-point referencing method presented close values and higher dispersion in comparison with the least-squares method. The choice of which method to use depends on the type of analysis, signal quality and processing time available.