Final Scientific and Technical Report - Practical Fiber Delivered Laser Ignition Systems for Vehicles

Technical Report · Sun Mar 30 00:00:00 EDT 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1126457· OSTI ID:1126457

Yalin, Azer ^[1]

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1. Seaforth, LLC

Research has characterized advanced kagome fiber optics for their use in laser ignition systems. In comparison to past fibers used in laser ignition, these fibers have the important advantage of being relatively bend-insensitivity, so that they can be bent and coiled without degradation of output energy or beam quality. The results are very promising for practical systems. For pulse durations of ~12 ns, the fibers could deliver >~10 mJ pulses before damage onset. A study of pulse duration showed that by using longer pulse duration (~20 – 30 ns), it is possible to carry even higher pulse energy (by factor of ~2-3) which also provides future opportunities to implement longer duration sources. Beam quality measurements showed nearly single-mode output from the kagome fibers (i.e. M2 close to 1) which is the optimum possible value and, combined with their high pulse energy, shows the suitability of the fibers for laser ignition. Research has also demonstrated laser ignition of an engine including reliable (100%) ignition of a single-cylinder gasoline engine using the laser ignition system with bent and coiled kagome fiber. The COV of IMEP was <2% which is favorable for stable engine operation. These research results, along with the continued reduction in cost of laser sources, support our commercial development of practical laser ignition systems.

• Research Organization: Seaforth, LLC
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Contributing Organization: Seaforth LLC, Colorado State University, Argonne National Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: SC0010100
• OSTI ID: 1126457
• Report Number(s): Final Scientific and Technical Report
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ignition
laser ignition
vehicles
fiber optics