Visualizing combustion using electrical impedance tomography

The techniques developed for electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) have been adapted to characterize combustion phenomena in a scaled model of an internal combustion engine. The method is able to locate flame position, measure flame size and monitor the effect of varied air/fuel ratio. Flame failure can be identified. The technique can measure flame front arrival time and reliably depict the development of the combustion process in a research model of a single cylinder internal combustion (IC) engine. Low-resolution images at over 300 frames per second have been captured.