Spark-excited fluorescence sensor
First Claim
1. A spark-excited flourescence sensor for detecting at least one gaseous species in vehicular exhaust gas flowing in an exhaust pipe of a vehicle, comprising:
- (a) a spark plug to excite molecules in said vehicular exhaust gas from a ground state to excited states, whereby said molecules in said excited states emit fluorescence upon decay to said ground state, said spark plug installed in a portion of said exhaust pipe;
(b) a guard housing provided with an optical fiber window to collect said fluorescence emitted, said guard housing installed in a portion of said exhaust pipe and positioned to receive said fluorescence generated by said spark plug through said optical fiber window;
(c) an optical fiber bundle to transmit said collected fluorescence as an optical signal, a portion of said fiber optic bundle installed in said guard housing and positioned to receive said fluorescence transmitted through said optical fiber window;
(d) a plurality of bandpass filters, each bandpass filter set to pass a unique band associated with a pre-determined gaseous species and adapted to receive said optical signal from said optical fiber bundle;
(e) a plurality of detectors for converting said optical signals to corresponding electrical signals, each detector operatively associated with one of said bandpass filter; and
(f) signal processing means to provide output signals corresponding to the concentration of each gaseous species detected.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A spark-excited fluorescence sensor (10) is provided which enables monitoring of various gas species (14), such as H2, COx, NOx, N2, NHx and hydrocarbons added to a system as source fuels and/or additive agents, or discharged from a system as exhaust including pollutants, for more efficient use of fuels for optimizing performance of the system, and, also, for reducing pollutants in the atmosphere. The spark-excited fluorescence sensor of the invention comprises a spark plug (12) to excite molecules of the gaseous species, an optical fiber window (18) and an optical fiber bundle (20) to collect and transmit, respectively, the fluorescence, bandpass filters ( 24 ) to select predetermined wavelengths corresponding to the gases to be detected, detectors (26), and signal processor (28 ) . The output from the signal processor is then used to improve overall performance of the system.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A spark-excited flourescence sensor for detecting at least one gaseous species in vehicular exhaust gas flowing in an exhaust pipe of a vehicle, comprising:
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(a) a spark plug to excite molecules in said vehicular exhaust gas from a ground state to excited states, whereby said molecules in said excited states emit fluorescence upon decay to said ground state, said spark plug installed in a portion of said exhaust pipe; (b) a guard housing provided with an optical fiber window to collect said fluorescence emitted, said guard housing installed in a portion of said exhaust pipe and positioned to receive said fluorescence generated by said spark plug through said optical fiber window; (c) an optical fiber bundle to transmit said collected fluorescence as an optical signal, a portion of said fiber optic bundle installed in said guard housing and positioned to receive said fluorescence transmitted through said optical fiber window; (d) a plurality of bandpass filters, each bandpass filter set to pass a unique band associated with a pre-determined gaseous species and adapted to receive said optical signal from said optical fiber bundle; (e) a plurality of detectors for converting said optical signals to corresponding electrical signals, each detector operatively associated with one of said bandpass filter; and (f) signal processing means to provide output signals corresponding to the concentration of each gaseous species detected. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for monitoring various gaseous species in vehicular exhaust gas flowing through an exhaust pipe to generate information for providing a more efficient engine performance, comprising:
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(a) exciting said various gaseous species in said exhaust pipe from a ground state to excited states, whereby said molecules in said excited states emit fluorescence upon decay to said ground state; (b) collecting said fluorescence emitted; (c) transmitting said collected fluorescence as an optical signal; (d) selecting pre-determined bands of wavelengths corresponding to said gaseous species to be detected; (e) detecting said pre-determined bands of wavelengths and converting said optical signals to corresponding electrical signals; and (f) processing said electrical signals to provide output signals corresponding to the concentration of each gaseous species detected. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification