The development of fuel-efficient and clean natural gas engines requires new development tools. Modern combustion schemes are demanding high standards on the control of the mixture formation. For liquid fuels this process is examined by optical measuring methods in engine research. So far, for quantitative and significant measurements in natural gas engines commercial measurement systems are not available.
With funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) a powerful joint project of industrial and academic partners has formed between LaVision, Volkswagen AG, Laser Laboratory Goettingen e.V., and the Institute for Combustion and Gasdynamics of the University Duisburg-Essen. The measurement technique will be optimized for robustness and practical operation under realistic test stand conditions. LaVision expands the field of applications for optical engine indication (ICOS) and Laser Imaging to current automotive research topics.