In order to measure flow velocity in the swirl and radial directions of a cylinder of an engine in practical use by means of a laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) through a small measuring window on the cylinder head, a back-scattering fringe mode LDA is used. It, however, could not measure the velocity component in the axial direction of the cylinder. The single incidence-beam reference-mode LDA is developed to measure the velocity component along the optical axis of the LDA and applied to measure the fluctuating flow velocity in the axial direction of the cylinder. Ensemble-averaged mean velocity and fluctuation intensity of the velocity as measured by the LDA show good agreement with those measured by the conventional fringe-mode LDA. Based on these results, it can be concluded the reference-mode LDA is applicable to measurements of the flow velocity in the axial direction of the cylinder through the small window on the cylinder head.
