Two Minutes

Boosting engine performance

Song-Charng Kong's Iowa State University laboratory features five internal combustion engines. Kong, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is happy to point out a new turbocharger here or an experimental one-cylinder engine over there. And no matter where you look, the lab engines are loaded with sensors recording cylinder pressure, energy release and exhaust emissions.

The lab's research agenda: Kong and his 13 graduate students are busy with a lot of projects. Here are a few: They're studying diesel engines with the goal of reducing emissions. They're developing a computer model of a gasoline engine that will make it much easier and faster to research and develop new engine technologies. They're figuring out how to optimize new technologies such as multiple fuel injections per combustion cycle. And they're studying the combustion of hydrogen-carrying ammonia in engines, which could be an early step to developing a hydrogen economy.

High-tech tools: Kong and his students are working with Terry Meyer, an Iowa State assistant professor of mechanical engineering, to use high-speed, laser-based sensors that can record images of injection sprays and combustion inside an engine.

Kong's favorite paperweight: Kong keeps a piston by his office computer.

-- Mike Krapfl