Optical diagnostics integrated with laser spark delivery system

Optics: measuring and testing – With plural diverse test or art

Reexamination Certificate

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

C356S317000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07420662

ABSTRACT:
A spark delivery system for generating a spark using a laser beam is provided, and includes a laser light source and a laser delivery assembly. The laser delivery assembly includes a hollow fiber and a launch assembly comprising launch focusing optics to input the laser beam in the hollow fiber. The laser delivery assembly further includes exit focusing optics that demagnify an exit beam of laser light from the hollow fiber, thereby increasing the intensity of the laser beam and creating a spark. Other embodiments use a fiber laser to generate a spark. Embodiments of the present invention may be used to create a spark in an engine. Yet other embodiments include collecting light from the spark or a flame resulting from the spark and conveying the light for diagnostics. Methods of using the spark delivery systems and diagnostic systems are provided.

REFERENCES:
patent: 3258910 (1966-07-01), Seymour
patent: 4314530 (1982-02-01), Giacchetti
patent: 4416226 (1983-11-01), Nishida et al.
patent: 4523552 (1985-06-01), Mukainakano et al.
patent: 4852529 (1989-08-01), Vowles
patent: 4917014 (1990-04-01), Loughry et al.
patent: 5328665 (1994-07-01), Geiger
patent: 5367869 (1994-11-01), DeFreitas
patent: 5617717 (1997-04-01), Asquith et al.
patent: 5673550 (1997-10-01), Few et al.
patent: 5983871 (1999-11-01), Gordon et al.
patent: 6053140 (2000-04-01), Feichtinger et al.
patent: 6520142 (2003-02-01), Nogi et al.
patent: 6676402 (2004-01-01), Early et al.
patent: 6700662 (2004-03-01), Gupta et al.
patent: 6749726 (2004-06-01), Edelman et al.
patent: 6762835 (2004-07-01), Zhang et al.
patent: 6796278 (2004-09-01), Ryan, III
patent: 6802290 (2004-10-01), Wintner et al.
patent: 6898359 (2005-05-01), Soljacic et al.
patent: 6903357 (2005-06-01), Robb
patent: 7114858 (2006-10-01), Gupta et al.
patent: 2003/0136366 (2003-07-01), Herdin et al.
patent: 2005/0063646 (2005-03-01), Gupta et al.
patent: 2006/0032471 (2006-02-01), Yalin et al.
patent: 2006/0055925 (2006-03-01), Yalin et al.
patent: 63-90643 (1988-04-01), None
patent: 63-105261 (1988-05-01), None
patent: WO 98/11388 (1998-03-01), None
Lee et al.; “Laser Spark Ignition of Chemically Reactive Gases”;AIAA Journal; 1969, 7(2):312-317.
Ronney; “Laser Versus Conventional Ignition of Flames”;Opt. Eng.; Feb. 1994; 33(2):510-521.
Spiglanin et al.; “Tiime-Resolved Imaging of Flame Kernels: Laser Spark Ignition of H2/O2/Ar Mixtures”;Combustion and Flame; 1995; 102:310-328.
Ma et al.; “Nd: YAG Laser Ignition of Natural Gas”;ASME: ICE-Spring Technical Conference, Paper No. 98-ICE-114; 1998, 30-3:117-125.
Phuoc et al.; “Laser-Induced Spark Ignition of CH4/Air Mixtures”;Combustion and Flame; 1999; 119:203-216.
Phuoc; “Brief Communication—Single-Point Versus Multi-Point Laser Ignition: Experimental Measurements of Combustion Times and Pressures”;Combustion and Flame; 2000; 122:508-510.
Chen et al.; “Visualization of Laser-Induced Breakdown and Ignition”;Opt. Exp.; 2001; 9(7):360-372.
Kopecek et al.; “Laser Ignition of Methane-Air Mixtures at High Pressures”;Exptl. Therm. and Fluid Sci.; 2003; 27:499-503.
Beduneau et al.; “Measurements of Minimum Ignition Energy in Premixed Laminar Methane/Air Flow by Using Laser Induced Spark”;Combustion and Flame; 2003; 132:653-665.
Lackner et al.; “Investigation of the Early Stages in Laser-Induced Ignition by Schlieren Photography and Laser-Induced Fluorescence Spectroscopy”;Opt. Exp., 2004; 12(19):4546-4557.
Bradley et al.; “Fundamentals of High-Energy Spark Ignition with Lasers”;Combustion and Flame; 2004; 138:55-77.
Kopecek et al.; “Laser Ignition of Methane-Air Mixtures at High Pressures and Diagnostics”;Jnl. Of Eng. for Gas Turb. and Power; 2005; 127:213-219.
Weinrotter et al.; “Laser Ignition of Ultra-Lean Methane/Hydrogen/Air Mixtures at High Temperature and Pressure”;Exptl. Therm. and Fluid Sci.; 2005; 29:569-577.
Ma et al.; “Laser Spark Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Methane-Air Mixtures”;Combustion and Flame; 1998; 112:492-506.
Klett et al.; “Ignition Characteristics of Methane-Air Mixtures Established Using a Rapid Compression Machine”;ASRE Meeting; Mar. 15-16, 2005; pp. 1-28.
Dale et al.; “Application of High Energy Ignition Systems to Engines”;Prog. Energy Comb. Sci.; 1997; 23:379-398.
Phuoc; “An Experimental and Numerical Study of Laser-Induced Spark in Air”;Opt. and Lasers in Eng.; 2005; 43:113-129.
Kandala et al.; “Computational Modeling of Localized Laser Energy Deposition in Quiescent Air”;AIAA 2002-2160; 2002; pp. 1-8.
Dors et al.; “Computational Fluid-Dynamic Model of Laser-Induced Breakdown in Air”;Appl. Optics; 2003; 42(30):5978-5985.
Rosen et al.; “Laser-Induced Breakdown in Nitrogen and The Rare Gases at 0.53 and 0.35 μm”;J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.; 1987; 20:1264-1276.
Turcu et al.; “Measurement of KrF Laser Breakdown Threshold in Gases”;Opt. Comm.; 1997; 134:66-68.
Stakhiv et al.; “Laser Ignition of Engines via Optical Fibers?”;Laser Physics; 2004; 14(5):738-747.
Siegman; “Output Beam Propagation and Beam Quality From a Multimode Stable-Cavity Laser”;IEEE J. Quant. Elect.; 1993; 29(4):1212-1217.
Adelgren et al.; “Energy Deposition in Supersonic Flows”;AIAA, Paper 2001-0885; Jan. 2001.
Kono et al.; “Mechanism of Flame Kernel Formation Produced by Short Duration Sparks”;Proceedings of the Combustion Institute; 1989; pp. 1643-1649.
Morsy et al.; “Numerical Simulation of Front Lobe Formation in Laser-Induced Spark Ignition of CH4/Air Mixtures”;Proceedings of the Combustion Institute; 2002; 29:1613-1619.
Bradley et al.; “The Measurement of Laminar Burning Velocities and Markstein Numbers for Iso-octane-Air and Iso-octane-n-Heptane-Air Mixtures at Elevated Temperatures and Pressures in an Explosion Bomb”;Combustion and Flame; 1998; 115:126-144.
Bradley et al.; “Spark Ignition and the Early Stages of Turbulent Flame Propagation”;Combustion and Flame; 1987; 69:71-93.
Kaminski et al. “Spark Ignition of Turbulent Methane/Air Mixtures Revealed by Time-Resolved Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence and Direct Numerical Simulations”;Proceedings of the Combustion Institute; 2000; 28:399-405.
Dale et al.; “Laser Ignited Internal Combustion Engine—An Experimental Study”;SAE 780329; Feb./Mar. 1978.
Konorov et al.; “Laser Breakdown with Millijoule Trains of Picosecond Pulses Transmitted Through a Hollow-Core Photonic-Crystal Fibre”;J. Physics D: Appl. Phys.; 2003; 36:1375-1381.
Sato et al.; “Hollow-Waveguide-Based Transmission of Q-Switched Nd:YAG Laser Beam for Biological Tissue Ablation”;SPIE Conference on Specialty Fiber Optics for Medical Applications, San Jose, CA,SPIE; Jan. 1999; 3596:50-54.
Sato et aol. “Vacuum-Cored Hollow Waveguide for Transmission of High-Energy, Nanosecond Nd:YAG Laser Pulses and Its Application to Biological Tissue Ablation”;Optics Letters; 2000; 25(1):49-51.
Su et al.; “Beam Delivery By Large-Core Fibers: Effect of Launching Conditions on Near-Field Output Profile”;Applied Optics; Sep. 1992; 31(27):5816-5821.
Allison et al.; “Pulsed Laser Damage to Optical Fibers”;Applied Optics; 1985; 24(19):3140-3145.
Phuoc; “Laser Spark Ignition: Experimental Determination of Laser-induced Breakdown Thresholds of Combustion Gases”;Optics Communications; 2000; 175:419-423.
Matsuura et al.; “Hollow Fibers for Delivery of Harmonic Pulses of Q-Switched Nd: YAG Lasers”;Applied Optics; Jan. 2002; 41(3):442-445.
Matsuura et al.; “Hollow-Fiber Delivery of High-Power Pulsed Nd: YAG Laser Light”;Optics Letters; Dec. 1998; 23(23):1858-1860.
Phuoc et al.;“Optical Characterization of the Laser-induced Spark In Air,”Optical Diagnostics in Engine

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Optical diagnostics integrated with laser spark delivery system does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Optical diagnostics integrated with laser spark delivery system, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Optical diagnostics integrated with laser spark delivery system will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3975034

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.