Fiber Optic Delivered Laser Ignition Systems

1. Motivation for Use of Laser Ignition

Laser ignition is of growing interest for a number of applications including reciprocating engines
(mobile or stationary), ground based turbines, aero-turbines, rocket engines, and scramjet engines. The
primary focus of this paper is ignition of large-bore reciprocating gas engines as are used for
(distributed) power-generation and for pumping and compression of natural gas. There are three
primary motivations for using laser ignition in reciprocating engines. First, laser ignition tends to allow
ignition of leaner mixtures as compared to conventional spark plugs, owing to a combination of the lack
of flame-quenching electrodes and the overdriven early flame speeds, resulting in reduced NOx
emissions. Second, the engines are trending towards higher-pressures for which spark plug erosion
becomes increasingly problematic (higher breakdown voltages). Finally, one has freedom of locating the
spark within the engine cylinder allowing one to access more optimum ignition locations. The push to
develop practical laser ignition systems has spurred the development of compact diode-pumped
passively Q-switched Nd:YAG sources. However, in applications where there are multiple ignition sites
(e.g., 6-20 engine cylinders), a distributed approach with a single laser and fiber optic delivery may be
preferred. Such an approach can potentially provide implementations that are simpler, less expensive,
safer, and more reliable in an engine environment, but fiber delivery has been challenging.
2. Fiber Optic Delivery Optical Requirements and Related Research
We consider approaches where a single-laser source is multiplexed to the individual engine cylinders
via optical fibers. (While also of interest, we do not discuss related approaches that use a single laser
pump source to fiber deliver pump light to gain-elements (typically Nd:YAG rods) on individual
cylinders.) We focus on widely used non-resonant breakdown with nanosecond duration Nd:YAG lasers
(1064 nm) for which fiber delivery has been challenging. A first essential requirement for fiber delivery is
to reliably transmit high peak-power (MW) pulses with sufficient beam quality (low M2) to allow
refocusing of the output beam to an intensity exceeding the breakdown threshold of the gas, i.e.,
IBD,Air100-300 GW/cm2 for 10 ns pulses at atmospheric pressure, and scales with pressure as ~p-0.5
[1]. Typical fuel-air mixtures of interest have air volume fraction >90% so that the breakdown threshold
is comparable to that of pure air. A second essential requirement is to deliver sufficient laser pulse
energy to exceed the minimum ignition energy meaning >~10-20 mJ for the case of lean natural gas
engines [2].

For conventional solid silica fibers, relatively large (~100-1000 m) cores are needed to deliver the
required pulse energies, since smaller cores would damage due to the high intensity. But there is a
trade-off which is that larger cores lead to degraded output beam quality, which then limits the ability to
focus the output light to high intensity for spark formation. By paying close attention to the fiber launch
and focusing optics, El-Rabii et al. have achieved a sparking rate of <1% in air at atmospheric pressure
(increasing to 90% in air at 6 bar) using silica fiber with core of 940 m *3+. Previous attempts to use
multimode solid silica fibers for igniting engines have also been limited. Biruduganti et al. used a 1 mm
core silica fiber to deliver 35 mJ of 532 nm light for ignition of a single cylinder natural gas engine, but
could not reliably spark in atmospheric pressure air or start the engine without altering the ignition
timing *4+. Mullett et al. used 400 and 600 m solid core silica fibers to operate an engine *5+, but with
an ignition rate of only 35% for the 600 m core fiber and 8% for the 400 m core fiber. They attributed
the high misfire rate to poor beam quality at the fiber output.

Our group has shown spark delivery in atmospheric pressure air using cyclic olefin polymer-coated
silver hollow fibers. The experiments used 10 ns pulses of energy 32 mJ delivered via a 700 m hollow
core fiber having output beam quality of M2 = 15; however, practicality was limited by bending-induced
beam quality degradation [6]. Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) and photonic bandgap fibers (PBGs) employ
periodic hole-structures within the (silica) fiber material to modify the refractive index and guide the
light pulses. Conventional PCFs has shown limited success for laser ignition but kagome PCFs have
recently shown delivery of pulse energies of ~10 mJ and ignition of simple butane flames. Also of
interest is high power delivery by recently developed polymer PBG fibers using one-dimensional Bragg
gratings [7].
3. Spark Delivery and Ignition Using Large Clad Multi-Mode Silica Fibers
Our group has demonstrated the use of large clad silica fibers for spark delivery and engine ignition
[8, 9]. Large clad refer to fibers with clad-to-core diameter ratios significantly greater than 1.1, for
example a 745 m clad on a 200 m core fiber or 720 m clad on a 400 m core fiber. These dimensions
are commercially available but are in contrast to widely used multimode fiber having clad to core
diameter ratios of ~1.1-1.2 (e.g., 440 m clad on a 400 m core, or 660 m clad on a 600 m core). The
benefits of the large-clad fiber can be seen in Fig. 1a) which shows beam profiles of the (unfocused) light
exiting the fibers for large clad (top) and regular clad (bottom) [3]. The speckle pattern in the profile
from the regular clad fiber is due to interference between multiple modes exiting the fiber, while the
profile from the large clad fiber is closer to that of single mode light. The improved output beam quality
(reduced M2) of the large clad fibers is attributed to increased mechanical rigidity of the large clad
fibers, which leads to reduced mode coupling at the core-clad interface. We have shown that sparks can
be formed at the output of the large-clad fibers with 100% reliability [8]. For pulse durations of 6 ns we
could deliver 8 mJ pulses and by increasing the duration to 50 ns we could deliver 25 mJ. Close attention
must be paid to optimize the fiber launch and to use low-stress mounting and positioning; more work is
needed in this area to increase the practicality of the fibers.
Ignition Images
Figure 1. Laser ignition using large clad fiber. a) Improved beam quality at exit of large clad fiber. Top
beam profile shows high spatial-quality at output of a large clad fiber while bottom is for regular clad
fiber of the same diameter [3]; b) Setup for on-engine testing (above and side views); c) Net Mean
Effective Pressure (NMEP) obtained in a single cylinder natural gas engine with laser and electrical
ignition.
We have also performed engine testing on a single cylinder engine (Waukesha co-operative fuel
research engine) converted to run on bottled methane [8, 10]. These tests used large clad fibers with
length of 2.85 m, core diameter of 400 m, and clad diameter of 720 m. In this configuration we could
deliver 11 mJ pulse energy with 25 ns pulse duration. The overall system is shown in Fig. 1b) and
included the laser and launch optics, fiber, and an optical spark plug. The optical spark plug had mating
connectors for the fiber optic and housed a diverging lens followed by a collimating lens and then a 10
mm focal length focusing lens (GradiumTM). (The role of the diverging lens was to shorten the length of
the overall plug by more strongly expanding the beam exiting the fiber). A 3 mm thick sapphire window
with copper gaskets sealed the optical spark plug from high pressure combustion gases in the engine
cylinder. The overall transmission of the system was 65-70% so that 11 mJ at the fiber input
corresponded to 7 mJ at the laser spark location. The engine was boosted with compressed air so that
various loads and air-fuel ratios could be achieved. Laser timing relative to engine crank angle was
controlled with a delay generator and custom circuitry. The final output beam (7 mJ) from the plug could
form sparks in pressures as low as 3.5 bar which guaranteed sparking at higher pressures and allowed
engine startup without changing the ignition timing. The amount of work available from the engine after
accounting for pumping losses is expressed as net mean effective pressure (NMEP). The observed trend
of laser ignition providing higher NMEP for given intake manifold pressure, as shown in Fig. 1c, is
consistent with the measured higher specific fuel efficiencies found from the engine output power and
fuel consumption. For higher pressure operation (8 and 12 bar NMEP), laser ignition provided an
average increase in fuel efficiency of ~1-2% relative to electrical ignition (relative increase of ~5-15%).
The laser also extended the lean limit of engine operation. The comparisons of NMEP and efficiency
were performed at the laser lean limit. The poorer efficiency for electrical ignition may be related to the
engine being operated overly lean for the electrical ignition.
References:

* [1] Phuoc, T.X., Laser spark ignition: experimental determination of laser-induced breakdown
thresholds of combustion gases. Optics Communications, 175(4-6): p. 419-423 (2000).
* [2] Kopecek, H., et al., Laser ignition of methane-air mixtures at high pressures. Exptl. Therm. and
Fluid Science, 27(4): p. 499-503 (2003).
* [3] El-Rabii, H. and G. Gaborel, Laser ignition of flammable mixtures via a solid core optical fiber.
Applied Physics B-Lasers and Optics, 87(1): p. 139-144 (2007)
* [4] Biruduganti, M., et al., Performance Analysis of a Natural Gas Generator using Laser Ignition,
ICEF2004-983, Fall Technical Conference ASME (2004).
* [5] Mullett, J.D., et al., A comparative study of optical fiber types for application in a laser-induced
ignition system. J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 11 054007 10pp. (2009).
* [6] Yalin, A.P., et al., Use of hollow-core fibers to deliver nanosecond Nd : YAG laser pulses to form
sparks in gases. Optics Letters, 30(16): p. 2083-2085 (2005).
* [7] Ruff, Z., et al., Polymer-composite fibers for transmitting high peak power pulses at 1.55 microns.
Optics Express, 18(15): p. 15697-15703 (2010).
* [8] Joshi, S., N. Wilvert, and A.P. Yalin, Delivery of high intensity beams with large clad step-index
fibers for engine ignition. Applied Physics B-Lasers and Optics 108(4): p. 925-932 (2012).
* [9] Hurand, S., et al., Mode coupling and output beam quality of 100-400 mu m core silica fibers.
Applied Optics, 50(4): p. 492-499 (2011).
* [10] Wilvert, N., S. Joshi, and A. Yalin. On Comparative Engine Performance Testing With Fiber
Delivered Laser Ignition And Electrical Ignition. Proceedings of the ASME 2012 Internal Combustion
Engine