An experimental study on the performance and emission characteristics of a CI engine fuelled with Jatropha biodiesel and its blends with diesel

The performance and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine using mixture of jatropha biodiesel and mineral diesel have been experimentally investigated. It is observed that brake specific fuel consumption increases with higher percentage of biodiesel in the blends. Brake thermal efficiency decreases with the increased percentage of biodiesel in the blends. The maximum efficiency is found to be 29.6% with pure diesel and 21.2% with pure biodiesel. Carbon mono-oxide and hydrocarbon emissions are improved with the addition of biodiesel to diesel. NO_x emission is found to be increased with pure biodiesel by 24% compared to mineral diesel.     

Thermodynamic model for prediction of performance and emission characteristics of SI engine fuelled by gasoline and natural gas with experimental verification

In this study, a thermodynamic cycle simulation of a conventional four-stroke SI engine has been carried out to predict the engine performance and emissions. The first law of thermodynamics has been applied to determine in-cylinder temperature and pressure as a function of crank angle. The Newton-Raphson method was used for the numerical solution of the equations. The non-differential form of equations resulted in the simplicity and ease of the solution to predict the engine performance. Two-zone model for the combustion process simulation has been used and the mass burning rate was predicted by simulating spherical propagation of the flame front. Also, temperature dependence of specific heat capacity has been considered. The performance characteristics including power, indicated specific fuel consumption, and emissions concentration of SI engine using gasoline and CNG fuels have been determined by the model. The results of the present work have been evaluated using corresponding available experimental data of an existing SI engine running on both gasoline and CNG. It has been found that the simulated results show reasonable agreement with the experimental data. Finally, parametric studies have been carried out to evaluate the effects of equivalence ratio, compression ratio and spark timing on the engine performance characteristics in order to show the capability of the model to predict of engine operation.     

Performance and emission characteristics of conventional engine running on jatropha oil

A number of studies have recently been conducted to determine a suitable alternative fuel for conventional engine. The use of renewable fuels such as bio-ethanol, biogas, and biodiesel is thus investigated for this purpose. Performance tests were conducted on an indirect injection compression ignition engine by using diesel, unheated jatropha oil (JO), and preheated JO as fuels. The effects of fuel injection pressure and fuel inlet temperature on engine performance and emission for the different fuels were analyzed. Test results showed that the brake thermal efficiency of the engine with heated JO oil is superior to that with unheated JO, increasing from 28.4% with neat unheated JO to a maximum of 30.8%. The brake specific fuel consumption was reduced from 0.301 kg/kWh to 0.266 kg/kWh. Smoke opacity was also reduced relative to the neat unheated JO operation.     

Vaporization characteristics of the alcohol-fueled spark ignition engine

Alcohol fuels have been considered for use as automotive fuel since two energy crises in the 1970's, but they have a defect of high latent heat of vaporization. Therefore, in order to improve vaporization of methanol, the authors have made the fuel vaporizing device with which to heat the mixture and eliminate the fuel film flow. This paper is a study on the characteristics of vaporization and engine performance acoording to the change of heating water temperature by means of the fuel vaporizing device. The study shows that as the vaporization of mixture improves, the mixture of methanol becomes homogenized and the fuel film flow decreases, which results in the increase of vaporization rate. And the increase of the vaporization rate improves the engine performance of the alcohol-fueled spark ignition engine.     

Effect of spark plug protrusion on the performance and emission characteristics of an engine fueled by hydrogen-natural gas blends

Mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas are promising for improving efficiency and reducing harmful emissions in spark ignition engines, since limits of flammability can be extended while stable combustion is secured. In this research, the combustion characteristics of long electrode spark plugs were evaluated in a hydrogen blended with natural gas (HCNG) engine. Decreases in the flame propagation distance through the use of spark plugs can lead to increased burning rates and further improvement of fuel economy in HCNG engines. An 11-liter heavy duty lean burn engine was employed and performance characteristics including emissions were assessed according to the spark timing of the minimum advance for best torque (MBT) for each operating condition. Retarded MBT spark advance timing with long electrode spark plugs due to increased burning speed supported increases in engine efficiency and reductions of nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emissions. The lower positions of initial flame kernels due to the use of long electrode spark plugs were preferable to improvements of cyclic variability due to reduced flame front quenching, and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions at the flammability limit were also improved.     

Effect of engine control parameters on combustion and particle number emission characteristics from a SIDI engine fueled with gasoline-ethanol blends

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - In this study, the impact of engine control parameters on combustion behaviors and particle number emissions was investigated with a spark ignition...     

Effective release energy,residual gas,and engine emission characteristics of a V-twin engine with various exhaust valve closing timings

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - This article presents a study for determining the effective release energy, residual gas, and peak firing pressure rise of a V-twin engine with...     

Effect of engine variables on the turbulent flow of a spark ignition engine

The turbulent flow in a spark ignition engine plays an important role in determining its combustion characteristics and thermal efficiency. In order to analyse the combustion process, the turbulent flow and its turbulence intensity must be studied. To study the turbulent flow as varying various factors in a combustion chamber of a spark ignition engine, the L-head with or without squish area are selected. The turbulent as varying flow on the piston speed, inlet flow velocity, and squish velocity are measured by using hot wire anemometer. To examine the characteristics of turbulent flow, the ensemble averaged mean velocity, turbulence intensity, turbulence intensity decrease ratio, production rate of turbulence intensity, production coefficient of turbulence intensity are analysied.     

Investigation of emission characteristics affected by new cooling system in a diesel engine

In a typical cooling system of automotive engine, a mechanical water pump is used to control the flow rate of coolant. However, this traditional cooling system is not suitable for a high efficiency performance in terms of fuel economy and exhaust emission. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new technology for engine cooling systems. These days, the electronic water pump is spotlighted as the new cooling system of an engine. The new cooling system can provide more flexible control of the coolant flow rate and the engine temperature, which used to be strongly relied on the engine driving conditions such as load and speed. In this study, an engine experiment was carried out on a New European Drive Cycle (NEDC) with a 2.7L diesel engine. The electric water pump operated by BLDC motor and the electronic valve were installed in the cooling system to control the coolant flow rate and temperature. This paper explains that the exhaust emissions were reduced with an increase in the engine temperature and a decrease in the coolant flow. From this experiment, we found that increasing coolant temperature had a significant effect on reducing the emissions (e.g. THC and CO). Decreasing coolant flow also affected the reduction of emissions. In contrast, NOx emission was observed to increase in these conditions. This paper was presented at the 7th JSME-KSME Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference, Sapporo, Japan, October 2008. Kyung-Wook Choi received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Hanyang University, Korea, in 2006. He is now working on a doctoral degree in Hanyang University. Kyung-Wook’s research interests include Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Internal Engine Combustion, and Engine Cooling System. Ki-bum Kim was awarded a bachelor’s degree in naval architecture and ocean engineering from Chung-Nam National University in the Republic of Korea. In August 2001, he began graduate study at the University of Florida. Kibum graduated with a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in August 2003. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, also at the University of Florida, in August 2006. He is working as a research professor at Hanyang University. Ki-Hyung Lee is a Professor at the department of mechanical engineering in Hanyang University. He received his B.S and M.S degree in Hanyang University in 1983 and 1986. Then he graduated with a Ph.D. degree in mechanical Engineering at Kobe University, Japan in 1989. He worked as a research engineer at Nissan motor’s central technical center for 4 years.     

Experimental investigation on the influence of engine operating conditions on combustion and nanoparticle emission characteristics of a small DI diesel engine

The influence of variations in engine speed, injection pressure, injection timing, and multiple injection strategies on the combustion and nanoparticle characteristics of a small Direct injection (DI) diesel engine was experimentally investigated. To measure the size distribution and number concentration of particle emissions, a rotating disk thermo-diluter (dilution system), a Condensation particle counter (CPC), and a Scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) were used. The injection pressure was changed from 60 MPa to 120 MPa, at an engine speed of 1200 rpm. Injection timing was varied from Before top dead center (BTDC) 40˚ to Top dead center (TDC). To investigate the effect of multiple-injection strategies, the injection strategies consisted of two pulse signals with different dwell time. The experimental results show that the peak combustion pressure and Rate of heat release (ROHR) profile are increased and ignition delay is shortened with the increase of injection pressure from 60 MPa to 120 MPa. The concentration of soot emission for 120 MPa is lower than that of 60 MPa at advanced injection timing from TDC up to BTDC 25°. As the injection timing advances to over BTDC 30°, soot emissions rapidly increase and the high injection pressure case (120 MPa) creates more emissions than the 60 MPa case. The overall trends of total particle number are relatively increased with high injection pressure for single injection conditions. In the advanced injection timings of over BTDC 30°, the trend of total particle number is high for all injection pressures. For multiple injections, the peak combustion pressures and ROHR of multiple-injection strategies are slightly lower compared with those of single-combustion results. Comparing the multiple injection strategies, soot emission is reduced with the retard of second injection timing (-30°+5°). The overall trends of particle size and total number for the 7 mg+3 mg case revealed the lowest level compared with other cases, which is 50% lower than that for the 5 mg+5 mg case. When compared with single injection results, the total particle number and Dp of multiple injection cases were eventually lower.

     

Performance and emission studies on an agriculture engine on neat Jatropha oil

Diesel engines have proven their utility in the transportation, agriculture, and power sectors in India. They are also potential sources of decentralized energy generation for rural electrification. Concerns on the long-term availability of petroleum diesel and the stringent environmental norms have mandated the search for a renewable alternative to diesel fuel to address these problems. Vegetable oils have been considered good alternatives to diesel in the past couple of years. However, there are many issues related to the use of vegetable oils in diesel engine. Jatropha curcas has been promoted in India as a sustainable substitute to diesel fuel. This study aims to develop a dual fuel engine test rig for evaluating the potential suitability of Jatropha oil as diesel fuel and for determining the performance and emission characteristics of an engine with Jatropha oil. The experimental results suggest that engine performance using Jatropha oil is slightly inferior to that of diesel fuel. The thermal efficiency of the engine was lower, while the brake-specific fuel consumption was higher with Jatropha oil compared with diesel fuel. The levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from Jatropha oil during the entire duration of the experiment were lower than those of diesel fuel. The reduction of NOx was found to be an important characteristic of Jatropha oil as NOx emission is the most harmful gaseous emission from engines; as such, its reduction is always the goal of engine researchers and makers. During the entire experiment, carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the case of using Jatropha oil were higher than when diesel fuel was used. The higher density and viscosity of Jatropha oil causes lower thermal efficiency and higher brakespecific fuel consumption. The performance and emission characteristics found in this study are significant for the study of replacing diesel fuel from fossils with Jatropha oil in rural India, where the availability of diesel has always been a problem.     

Performance and combustion characteristics of a diesel engine with titanium oxide coated piston using Pongamia methyl ester

Owing to the increasing cost of petroleum products, fast depletion of fossil fuel, environmental consideration and stringent emission norms, it is necessary to search for alternative fuels for diesel engines. The alternative fuel can be produced from materials available within the country. Though the vegetable oils can be fuelled for diesel engines, their high viscosities and low volatilities have led to the investigation of its various derivatives such as monoesters, known as bio diesel. It is derived from triglycerides (vegetable oil and animal fates) by transesterification process. It is biodegradable and renewable in nature. Biodiesel can be used more efficiently in semi adiabatic engines (Semi LHR), in which the temperature of the combustion chamber is increased by thermal barrier coating on the piston crown. In this study, the piston crown was coated with ceramic material (TiO₂) of about 0.5 mm, by plasma spray method. In this present work, the experiments were carried out with of Pongamia oil methyl (PME) ester and diesel blends (B20 & B100) in a four stroke direct injection diesel engine with and without coated piston at different load conditions. The results revealed 100% bio diesel, an improvement in brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and the brake specific fuel consumption decreased by about 10 % at full load. The exhaust emissions like carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) were decreased and the nitrogen oxide (NO) emission increased by 15% with coated engine compared with the uncoated engine with diesel fuel. The peak pressure and heat release rate were increased for the coated engine compared with the standard engine.     

The effect of hydrogen enrichment on exhaust emissions and thermal efficiency in a LPG fuelled engine

The concept of hydrogen enriched LPG fuelled engine can be essentially characterized as low emissions and reduction of backfire for hydrogen engine. The purpose of study is obtaining low-emission and high-efficiency in LPG engine with hydrogen enrichment. In order to determine the ideal compression ratio, a variable compression ratio single cylinder engine was developed. The objective of this paper is to clarify the effects of hydrogen enriched LPG fuelled engine on exhaust emission, thermal efficiency and performance. The compression ratio of 8 was selected to minimize abnormal combustion. To maintain equal heating value, the amount of LPG was decreased, and hydrogen was gradually added. In a similar manner, the relative air-fuel ratio was increased from 0.8 to 1.3 in increment of 0.1, and the ignition timing was controlled to be at MBT each case.     

Emission characteristics of exhaust gases and nanoparticles from a diesel engine with biodiesel-diesel blended fuel (BD20)

This experimental study sought to investigate the characteristics of the exhaust emissions, and nanoparticle size distribution of particulate matter (PM) emitted from diesel engines fueled with 20% biodiesel-diesel blended fuel (BD20). The study also investigated the conversion efficiency of the warm-up catalytic converter (WCC). The emission characteristics of HC, CO, NOx and nano-sized PM were also observed according to engine operating conditions with and without exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The study revealed that the maximum torque achievable with the biodieseldiesel blended fuel was slightly lower than that achievable with neat diesel fuel at high-load conditions. Smoke was decreased by more than 20% in all 13 modes. While the CO and THC emissions of BD20 slightly decreased, the NOx emission of BD20 increased by 3.7%. Measured using the scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), the total number and total mass of the nanoparticles in the size range between 10.6nm and 385nm were reduced by about 10% and 25%, respectively, when going from D100 to BD20. The particle number and mass for both fuels were reduced by about 43% when going from with EGR to without EGR. When EGR was applied in the engine system, the particle number and mass were reduced by 24%, and 16%, respectively, when going from D100 to BD20.     

Combustion and emission characteristics of low rank-coals utilized in Korea

The use of low-rank coal (physical and combustion characteristics are different from those of high-rank coal) is rapidly expanding both in Korea and globally owing to economic constraints; fully understanding the impact of low-rank coal on combustion and emission processes is thus imperative. Observations from several studies on low-rank coal are reviewed in this paper; these studies were conducted at Pusan clean coal center (PC³) with entrained flow reactors (laminar flow reactor and drop tube furnace). This study provides several contributions to the analysis of the combustion and emission characteristics of low-rank coal. Such contributions include the establishment of a simplified prediction model of burning coal and analysis of the effect of particle size and environmental conditions. A numerical model that incorporates the chemical percolation devolatilization sub-model is also developed, and the effect of volatile matter and in-furnace blending method is investigated. Results obtained from analyzing low rank-coal and the developed models provide insights into the application of low-rank coal in power plants.     

Analysis and modeling of exhaust gas temperature in an ethanol fuelled HCCI engine

Low exhaust temperature in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) significantly limits efficiency of an exhaust aftertreatment system to mitigate high HC and CO emissions in HCCI engines. This article aims to understand the effect of varying input parameters on HCCI exhaust gas temperature (T_exh) for an ethanol fuelled engine. A single cylinder engine is used to collect experimental data at 100 different HCCI conditions. The results indicate that variation in combustion parameters such as start of combustion (SOC), burn duration (BD) and maximum in-cylinder pressure (P_max) are not effectively correlated with variations of Texh, but the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and constant-volume adiabatic flame temperature (T_ad) are strongly related to T_exh. These experimental findings were then used to design an artificial neural network (ANN) model to predict T_exh. The model was validated with the experimental data, indicating an average error less than 4.5°C between predicted and measured T_exh.     

A study on the characteristics of in-cylinder intake flow in spark ignition engine using the PIV

In this study, to investigate m-cyhnder tumble or swirl intake flow of a gasoline engine, the flow characteristics were examined with opening control valve (OCV) and several swirl control valves (SCV) which intensify intake flow through steady flow experiment, and also turbulent characteristics of m-cyhnder flow field were investigated by 2-frame cross-correlation particle image velocimetry (PIV) method In the investigation of intake turbulent characteristics using PIV method, the different flow characteristics were showed according to OCV or SCV figures The OCV or SCV installed engine had higher vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy than a baseline engine, especially around the wall and lower part of the cylinder Above all, SCV B type was superior to the others About energy dissipation and reynolds shear stress distribution, a baseline engine had larger loss than OCV or SCV installed one because flow impinged on the cylinder wall It should be concluded, from what has been said above, as swirl component was added to existing tumble flow adequately, it was confirmed that turbulent intenstty was enlarged, flow energy was conserved effectively through the experiment In other words, there is a suggestion that flow characteristics as these affected to m-cyhnder combustion positively     

Visualization of liquid fuel behavior in a spark ignition engine during starting and warm-up

The liquid fuel behavior in the intake port and the cylinder during starting and warm-up was visualized through visualization windows using a high speed CCD camera. The videos were taken with the engine firing under cold conditions in the simulated start up process, at 1.000 and 1.200 RPM and intake manifold pressure of 0.5 bar. The variables examined were the injector geometry and injector type (normal and air-assisted). The visualization results show several features of the liquid fuel behavior: 1) backward strip-atomization of the fuel film along the periphery of the intake valves by the valve overlap backflow: 2) forward strip-atomization of the fuel film on the surfaces of the intake system into droplet streams by the intake air flow: 3) film flow which forms significant liquid puddles at the valve surface and at the vicinity of the intake value: and 4) squeezing of the liquid film at the valve lip and seat into large droplets in the valve closing process. Some of the liquid fuel survives combustion into the next cycle. The time evolution of the in-cylinder liquid film is influenced by the injection geometry and port surface temperature. Photographs showing the liquid fuel features and an explanation of the observed phenomena are given in the paper.     

An experiment of the combustion characteristics with laser-induced spark ignition

The combustion characteristics and minimum ignition energies using laser-induced spark ignition were demonstrated for quiescent methane-air mixtures in an optically-accessible, constant volume combustion chamber. Initial pressure and equivalence ratio as well as spark energy were varied in order to explore the flame behavior with laser-induced spark ignition. Shadowgraphs for the early stages of combustion process showed that the flame kernel becomes separated into two, one of which grows back towards the laser source. Eventually after a short period, the two flame kernels developed into two flame fronts propagating individually, which is unique in laser-induced spark ignition. For a given mixture, lower initial mixture pressure and higher spark energy resulted in shorter flame initiation period and faster flame propagation. The results of minimum ignition energies for laser ignition shows higher values than electric discharge results, however, the difference decreases toward lean and rich flammability limits.     

Effects of a turbocharger cut out system on vibration characteristics of a propulsion shafting system and a large low speed marine diesel engine

To cope with the long term recession in the shipping industry due to oversupply of ships and high oil prices and due to reinforcement of environmental regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emission from ships, large container vessels built recently have ultra-long stroke engines with high propulsion efficiency. For these, de-rated engine and tuning technologies are used to reduce fuel oil consumption. However, previously built vessels were optimized for high ship speed. In these case, lowering ship speed to reduce ship operating cost does not provide similar benefits. Therefore, engine manufacturers have developed a turbocharger cut-out system to reduce fuel oil consumption at low speed. This has the advantage of reducing fuel consumption at low speeds, but also has the characteristic of producing higher torsional exciting force than is typical in existing engines for low load ranges. In this paper, the performance and dynamic characteristics of a marine diesel engine were reviewed after applying a turbocharger cut-out system. Then the effects on the engine body vibration and the torsional vibration were examined for a corresponding propulsion shafting system in a Panamax container-vessel equipped with a turbocharger cut-out system optimized for slow steaming. As a result, the torsional vibratory stress in shafts was increased. This had a larger effect on the X-mode shape of the engine body vibration and on the upper structure vibration, when one of three turbochargers was cut out.