To see what is preventing the combustion process from completely exploiting its theoretical potential:
Numerous iterations in combustion system development are necessary largely because the final few millisecond events of mixture formation, in-cylinder flow and combustion are impaired by inconspicuous details of internal flow, ignition initiation or combustion chamber cooling. There are in particular the defining performance targets of an engine such as fuel consumption, high torque and high power density which gain the highest benefit from a systematic and comprehensive development process.
But how to be sure that volumetric efficiency and compression ratio are really optimized for best torque and high power density?
AVL VisioKnock provides the sensor technology to document combustion processes. It in particular focuses on the weakness of a combustion system by recognition of self ignition centers under knocking conditions. With each individual variant analysis the development engineer can not only assess the thermodynamic limits of the engine, but he can directly see in which areas of the combustion chamber the compression ignition limits are exceeded. Component and process improvements are thus enabled under direct and systematic control of events occurring in the combustion chamber. This direct feedback from the combustion chamber saves iteration loops in the development process and provides the necessary security in the choice of best design variants.
VisioKnock sensor application is perfectly simple: for the measuring process the original spark plug is replaced by a VisioKnock spark plug. The spark plug geometry and thermal value comply with those of the original spark plug.