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Besides pollutant emissions, fuel consumption and performance, vehicle NVH constitutes a further object during engine development and optimization. In recent years, research activity for diesel engine noise reduction has been devoted to investigate aerodynamic noise due to intake and exhaust systems and surface radiated noise. Most of the attention has been concerned with the identification and analysis of noise sources in order to evaluate the individual contribution (injection, combustion, piston slap, turbocharger, oil pump, valves) to the overall noise with the aim of selecting appropriate control strategies. Several studies have been devoted to analyze combustion process that has a direct influence on engine noise emission; the impact of injection strategies on the combustion noise has been evaluated and approaches able to separate engine combustion and mechanical noise components have been presented.

In the last years, the increasing concern for the environmental issues of IC engines has promoted the development of new strategies capable of reducing both pollutant emissions in atmosphere and noise radiation. Engines can produce different types of noise: 1) aerodynamic noise due to intake and exhaust systems and 2) surface radiated noise. Identification and analysis of noise sources are essential to evaluate the individual contribution (injection, combustion, piston slap, turbocharger, oil pump, valves) to the overall noise with the aim of selecting appropriate control strategies. Previous paper focused on the combustion related noise emission. The research activity aimed at diagnosing and controlling the combustion process via acoustic measurements. The optimal placement of the microphone was selected, where the signal was strongly correlated to the in-cylinder pressure development during the combustion process.

A methodology has been developed by the authors, in which non-intrusive measurements (engine block vibration) are used for diagnostic purposes of combustion process in Diesel engines. A previous paper of the authors has been devoted to demonstrate the direct relationship between in-cylinder pressure and accelerometer signals, when the vibration transducer is placed in sensitive location. Moreover, in the engine block vibration a frequency band in which such a relationship is very strong has been selected. The aim of this work is to provide a deeper insight into the effects of injection parameters on engine block vibration, in order to investigate the possibility of detecting modification of the in-cylinder pressure evolution by means of the accelerometer signal with the final objective of optimizing the combustion process by means of non-intrusive transducer.

The present work aims at developing and setting up a methodology in which non-intrusive measurements (engine block vibration) are used for monitoring combustion characteristics (combustion diagnosis, combustion development). The engine block vibration appears as a very complex signal in which different sources can be identified, since every moving component or physical process involved in the operation of the engine produces a vibration signal (exhaust valve open/close, inlet valve open/close, fuel injection, combustion, piston slap). Aimed at monitoring the engine running condition, the information carried by the vibration signal has to be broken down into its various contributions and then they have to be related to their respective excitation sources. Concerning combustion-induced vibration, experimental measures has been at first devoted to the selection of the best location where to place the piezoelectric accelerometer.

During the internal combustion engine operation some faults in the combustion process can occur, affecting the overall engine performance. Nowadays, aimed at detecting such faults, different techniques are adopted, which are mainly based on the identification of key parameters characterizing both regular and fault engine running. The engine vibration and the engine instantaneous angular velocity are generally used as monitoring signal. In this paper an experimental methodology based on the processing of the exhaust pressure signal is considered. The results obtained in a test cell on a SI four cylinder engine are presented.