Optical Measurement of in the material hardness.

This procedure
is well established, but the measurement
values are only available much later:
or with other applications cannot be at-
tained in a single measurement.
available to the test engineers in real
time at the test bench or in the vehicle.
This would make it possible to sig-

the Valve Temperature

The engine must first be dismantled and In special cases, thermocouples are also nificantly increase the efficiency of the
the valves analyzed in the lab, which integrated in the valves and monitored development process both in terms of
from a time perspective is difficult to through telemetric signal transmission. the mechanics and the application. The
incorporate into today’s dynamic devel- This procedure is expensive and critical specifications defined:
opment processes. It is still only possible in terms of reliability and has therefore
to use certain materials, which means not established itself as a standard.
____ Modern engine development demands ever more flexible and dynamic processes. The core aspects that the measurement valves may not
are the speed and precision of the measuring methods. Porsche Engineering has developed a method for reflect the actual state. Furthermore, > Measurement range of up to ap-
contactless transient online measurement of component temperatures that can be used directly on the the results only indicate the maximum Requirements and motivation prox. 500 degrees Celsius for intake
temperature reached with the applied valves and approx. 900 degrees for
engine test bench or in the vehicle. This new tool provides a substantial foundation for further increases
application state in a measured oper- The focus of the development by Porsche exhaust valves, with a sensor
both in specific engine power as well as future CO2 and consumption optimizations. ating point. Information regarding the Engineering was the generation of a ambient temperature of max.
valve temperature in other load points measurement signal that could be made 125 degrees Celsius.
By Johannes Wüst and Maximilian Fischer > Measurement accuracy comparable
to or better than thermometric
valves (<10 kelvins)
> High dynamic range of the signal
and availability of the measurement
signal in real time
> Resistant to reflections and
slight soiling
> Small size
Legal regulations and customer de- ments in the turbocharger field, injec- haust valves: One option is to limit the Protective glass Focus Glass
mands for lower-consumption vehicles tion technology and combustion pro- exhaust-gas temperatures in the upper optics fiber
have led to major changes in the engines cess development, will continue to rise load range through mixture enrichment
of new vehicle generations in recent in the near future. and thus also reduce the component
years. Three primary tendencies have temperatures of the exhaust valves. From initial deliberations to mar-
shaped the technological development: These performance optimizations lead This makes it possible to use cheaper ket launch in 2013, the project went
first, the introduction of direct fuel in- directly to a significant increase in the materials for the exhaust valves, albeit through multiple development cycles.
jection, which is meanwhile practically specific heat energy, which in turn in- with higher fuel consumption in these Since that time, the measuring method
universal in Europe. Now developers are creases the thermal load for many en- load ranges. On the other hand one can has been successfully used in some cus-
faced with the question of implementing gine components. It primarily affects use higher-quality materials, e.g. replac- tomer projects. It was used, for example,
the future Euro 6 emissions limits with the pistons, gas exchange valves, cylin- ing a common steel alloy such as X50 to examine the causes of valve damage
the lowest possible additional produc- der heads, the exhaust manifold and the with Nimonic, or using sodium-filled and excessive wear on valve-seat rings.
tion costs. Second, naturally aspirated turbocharger. The most common reme- valves. Both options lead to a signifi- Other uses included a comparison of
engines have been replaced by turbo- dial measures are to modify the engine cant increase in part prices. In general, IR different valve designs with and with-
charged engines with a smaller displace- cooling, design means such as an inte- however, the focus is on completely ex- Detector out sodium filling as well as different
ment, a shift referred to as downsizing. grated exhaust manifold, piston cooling hausting the thermomechanical poten- Controller engine applications in order to select
Third, further optimizations such as or higher-quality materials. As a rule, tial of the material and the design. the most cost-effective valve material
thermal management, start-stop func- however, this results in additional costs. for every application variant.
tions, hybridization and friction reduc- Data
tion have come into play. In any engine development process, one State of the art for measuring Acquisition The development tool is currently in use
must continuously take account of the valve temperatures at Porsche Engineering in its 4th stage
Direct fuel injection and downsizing in the conflict between technical objec- of evolution. ›
particular have resulted in rising spe- tives such as reduced consumption To determine the valve temperatures, Measurement
cific engine power. Values between 90 and the marketability of a vehicle, i.e. thermometric valves have been used for object
and 100 kW / l are now the state of the cost thresholds. A typical example is many years from which the valve tem-
art and, in view of continuous enhance- the fuel selection and the design of ex- perature can be deduced from changes Technical setup

40 Porsche Engineering Magazine engineering insights engineering insights Porsche Engineering Magazine 41

Water jacket
Exhaust valve
Beam measurement position
Sensor integration in cylinder head of a Porsche 911 engine
The measuring system
The central component in valve temper-
ature measurement is a pyrometric in-
frared sensor. In pre-trials, appropriate
sensor types were selected on the basis
of their suitability for the application.
The measurement chain consists of the
infrared sensor, a controller and a mea-
surement PC. The sensor is protected
against the high exhaust-gas tempera-
tures and exhaust backpressure with
sapphire glass. The measurement signal
can easily be integrated into the conven-
tional systems in engine test benches. If
the measurement is to be conducted in
42 Porsche Engineering Magazine
Intake valve
the vehicle, the signal can alternatively
be recorded in the application computer
to detect direct reactions to the applica-
tion status.
The construction design must be tested
individually for each engine type. The
purpose and reason for the measurement
can impact the placement of the sensor.
One challenge of this design—assuming
that it cannot be included in the cast part
in prototype cylinder heads—is creating
the sensor access through the oil cham-
ber, the cooling water jacket and into
the outlet port. One problematic issue
was that the sealing of the sleeve against
engineering insights
Glass fiber
Focus optics
Protective glass
the cooling water causes significant dif-
ficulties here, which was resolved using
an elaborate welding procedure. This
enables the procedure to be used on al-
ready developed cylinder heads.
In the current stage of evolution, an-
other sensor type is in use that can be
mounted completely separately from
the engine via a fiber-optic cable. In ad-
dition to even greater dynamics, this
design is even more resistant to thermal
loads, soiling and mechanical sensor
loads. Possible optical reflections are
avoided by means of black matte coat-
ings and an optimal incidence angle of
the “measurement beam.”
Soiling of the optics and solutions
to this problem
One neuralgic issue is the soiling of
the protective glass by soot from the
exhaust gas. In particular where valve
temperature measurements are to be
carried out over lengthy testing periods,
the deposits of certain fuels in differ-
ent countries can substantially shorten
the potential measuring period. To re-
solve this issue, the engineers developed
two different measures: a design that
enables fast cleaning of the protective
glass and a two-color pyrometer.
The principle of two-color pyrometry is
based on the use of two infrared detec-
tors that measure in different wavelength
700
680
(1) Exhaust valve temperature (°C)
660
640
A C
620
600
580
0 30
(1) Exhaust valve temperature
Valve lift and valve temperature at 7,000 rpm and full load
ranges. The fiber optics still receive Concept validation
the signal and direct it in the sensor
housing to the two sensors through a To demonstrate the capabilities of the
prism. The specific signal intensity of system, in early 2014 an extensive in­-
each wavelength analogous to the tem- ternal series of tests was conducted
perature makes it possible to compare with two test vehicles in Nardò, Italy.
the signals in the controller by deriving Both vehicles withstood the two-day,
coefficients. This increases the preci- 1,600 km outbound trip as well as the
sion of the measurement and any signal return on their own steam to demon-
attenuation is compensated for. This strate the robustness of the measuring
also makes it possible to determine the system through long-term data logging.
intensity loss and thus also the degree
of soiling. Specifying a maximum per- The measurements at Porsche Engi-
missible signal attenuation value causes neering’s Nardò Technical Center were
the controller to switch off the sensor conducted as part of an extensive test-
when the threshold value is reached; ing program. Both test vehicles were
the optics must then be cleaned. This equipped with direct-fuel-injection,
procedure ensures the uniform quality flat-six naturally aspirated engines in
of the measurements. two different performance classes. ›
Measures exhaust valve temperature and valve lift, n = 7000 / WOT
11
9
7
(2) Valve lift (mm)
B
5
D
3
1
Valve open
-1
60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
Cam angle (Deg)
(2) Valve lift (3) For explanations of A–E, see page 44
engineering insights Porsche Engineering Magazine 43
 Measurement raw data and definition of data analysis segments

Speed profile for measurements on NTC ring track 900

T_AV3_S (°C)
T3—Exhaust gas temperature
800

1st lap 2nd lap 700

sea level 600 T_AV—Exhaust valve temperature

(m)

T3 (°C)
500
75.77
400
28.06
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Time (sec.)

MO_Mom_ist (Nm)
km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km km
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 600
500
km 0 km 12.5 km 0 km 12.5
400
300 Engine load
240 km / h 260 km / h 280 km / h vmax 280 km / h 260 km / h 240 km / h 200
100
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Time (sec.)
Constant speed

Acceleration

Constant speed

Acceleration

Constant speed

Acceleration

Constant speed

Off throttle

Constant speed

Off throttle

Constant speed

Off throttle

Constant speed

ESP_v_Signal (km / h)
300
280
260
240
220
Vehicle speed
200
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Time (sec.)

Vehicle speed profile on the circular track in Nardò Individual measurement and definition of the static evaluation ranges, taking a 1 km journey as a reference

The exhaust valves to be tested were 7,000 rpm under a full load but not yet
– Expansion effects and gas-pressure Under a load, the highest exhaust valve Conclusion itself over a total deployment duration
sodium-filled, hollow-shaft valves. steady conditions. In addition to the
oscillation in the exhaust channel (C), temperature (T_AV) measured in this of over 25,000 defect-free kilometers.
temperature, it also shows the valve lift.
– Cooling due to heat transfer from test series was 805.6 °C. This was With this new measuring methodology, In early 2014, the procedure was suc-
Testing included varying fuel types, the surface to the inside of the reached while using the poor-quality Porsche Engineering has created a valu- cessfully used for the first time for tem-
driving profiles and sensors as well as We see extremely high temperature gra- valve, the valve seat and the valve fuel in conjunction with a slight ap- able tool for the development of engines perature measurement on the turbine
alternating application values for igni- dients that are only visible with mass- guide (D). plication modification. The highest that are more efficient, lighter and yet wheel of a VTG turbocharger. As an
tion angle, oxygen value, exhaust back- less measuring methods. The interpre- recorded exhaust-gas temperature T3 more powerful and robust. The mea- enhancement, a water-cooled infrared
pressure and coolant temperature. The tation of these temperature gradients Another effect may be a rise and fall of 893.8 °C was determined using a surement results are directly available sensor was used.  n
scope of the test matrix alone shows is not easy, however. The curve of the in temperature due to passing over the conventional thermocouple while us- during the test and the effect of remedial
the data acquisition potential of this locally measured valve temperature is hottest point on the valve (E). ing Super Plus 100 in conjunction with measures can be represented in a direct
measuring technology. interpreted as an interaction of at least only a slight application modification— comparison of “before and after” values.
four different effects: To evaluate the test matrix, the entire a lean adjustment in the composition of This significantly shortens development
dataset was highly compressed through the mixture. The highest exhaust valve and testing times. Another advantage
Results – Heating by means of exhaust escap- statistical analyses of average and max- temperatures overall were recorded in of the contactless measuring method is
ing at high pressure from the com- imum values. A uniform driving profile the fired thrust. Here the new non-in- that it offers additional means of CO2
Even a small sampling of the results bustion chamber (in the figure on (top figure) ensured directly compa- ertial measuring system was able to re- and fuel savings by better exploiting the
underscores the capabilities of the mea- page 43, item A), rable results. For the statistical evalua- cord temperatures of over 900 degrees thermomechanical limits of the valves.
suring system. One example is the high- – Apparent cooling due to movement tions, in each case the engineers looked Celsius, the upper temperature limit of
resolution temperature signal. The fig- of the measurement position towards at a one-kilometer section of the sec- the sensor calibration selected for this The robustness and reliability of the
ure on page 43 shows a load point at the colder valve shaft (B), ond measurement lap (figure to right). test series. measuring system has already proven

44 Porsche Engineering Magazine engineering insights engineering insights Porsche Engineering Magazine 45