Experimental investigation of injection timing on the performance and exhaust emissions of a rubber seed oil blend fuel in constant speed diesel engine

An experimental study is conducted to evaluate the use of rubber seed oil with diesel at a proportion of 20% by volume (RSO20) in a constant speed (1500?rpm) direct injected four-stroke air-cooled single-cylinder compression ignition engine at different injection timings (24°, 27°, 30°, 33° bTDC (before top dead centre)). A series of tests were conducted at various engine load conditions at the rated power of 5.9?kW. The injection pressure was maintained at 200?bar. As a result of investigations, at the full load condition, the brake thermal efficiency of RSO20 at 30° bTDC is high compared with other injection timings and brake energy fuel consumption is increased when advancing injection timing. There is a significant reduction in unburned hydrocarbon emission and carbon monoxide emission, and the oxides of nitrogen emission (NO_x) is increased when advancing the injection timing.     

Influence of injection timing on cerium oxide nanoparticle doped in waste cooking palm oil bio-diesel and diesel blends fuelled in diesel engine

ABSTRACT

Injection timing (IT) is a vital factor among different injection parameters which governs the emissions and performance factors of the engine. This work portrays the effect of IT on cerium oxide nanoparticle doped Waste Cooking Palm Oil biodiesel and diesel blends. The doping is made at 30, 60 and 90?ppm. The modified fuels are introduced in reducing IT of 19°, 21° and 23°bTDC. 1500?rpm engine is made use in this study. Results revealed a significant reduction in emissions (CO, NO_X, HC and Smoke) at IT?=?23°bTDC. Furthermore, performance (BSFC, BTE) is improved for fuel blends at IT?=?23°bTDC.     

Influence of injection timing on the performance,combustion and emission characteristics of diesel engine powered with tamarind seed biodiesel blend

ABSTRACT

The limitations and ramifications of petroleum fuel on the present environmental society raised the necessity of alternative fuel. The physicochemical properties of biodiesel and its ability to reduce emissions have engaged the attention of researchers to prefer biodiesel as a better alternative fuel. A modification in engine parameters is proven to be one of the best techniques to obtain comparable results with diesel. The following study emphasises TSME 20 (20% Tamarind Seed Methyl Ester with 80% diesel) as an alternative fuel and its performance and emission characteristics are deciphered at different injection timings (19°, 23° and 27° bTDC) at different loads. Focusing on the results obtained at full-load condition, considerable improvement in brake thermal efficiency by 3.18% was noticed with the significant reduction in carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, oxides of nitrogen and smoke by 17.3%, 57.3%, 31.34% and 8.1%, respectively, at retarded injection timing compared to standard injection timing.     

Evaluation of the effects of engine parameters on performance and emissions of diesel engine operating with biodiesel blend

Diminishing resources, alarming pollution levels and escalating price associated with the application of diesel in compression ignition engine have forced scientific community throughout the world to conduct several experiments for the evaluation of biodiesel (BD) as a substitute for diesel. Due to difference in the physical and chemical properties of BD and diesel, the engine parameters such as compression ratio (CR), injection pressure (IP) and injection timing (IT) may not be optimum for BD, especially for higher blends. The present study is carried out with the aim to investigate the combined effect of CR, IP and IT on the performance and emission of a diesel engine widely used in agriculture sector in India, fuelled with B40 (40% BD and 60% diesel on a volume basis). Furthermore, this paper also aims to find the optimum engine parameters. A total of 27 sets of experiments were conducted for different combination of engine parameters and 162 sets of performance and emission data were recorded with varying load conditions. Adjustment of operating parameters was helpful to overcome the shortcoming of higher blend of BD (B40). The results demonstrated that higher CR (18:1) and IP (240 bar) along with advance IT (26° bTDC) is the best combination for a constant speed engine with brake power of 3.5 kW.     

Exploration of carbon deposit on spark plug of stratified charged gasoline direct injection engine

ABSTRACT

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines are operating under high temperature and hence fouling of spark plug can cause misfiring followed by carbon deposits in the vicinity of the spark plug. This effect can cause declined engine power output, unburned hydrocarbon emission and also unacceptable high NO _x near the lean flammability limit of gasoline. The objective was to explore carbon deposit on the spark plug and to identify the most suitable operating variable for the stratified charge mode of a GDI. Performance study was conducted on GDI engine on Start of Injection (SOI) angles of 60°, 100° and 140° bTDC with spark advance of MBT of 16°, 18° and 20°, respectively. Carbon deposit on spark plug at each injection angle was studied through scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis at specified fuel air ratio. It was revealed that from performance and SEM analysis SOI 100° was chosen as the most suitable operating variable for the stratified charged GDI engine operation.     

The influence of injection parameters on the performance and emission characteristics of a DI diesel engine using biofuel-blended-pure diesel fuel

The transport sector is the most essential driver of growth and economic development, which is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, responsible for almost a quarter of the global carbon dioxide emissions. In this paper, the experiments were conducted for an injection timing of 21° with standard injection pressure of 220?bar at different proportions such as 20%, 40% and 60% of biodiesel blends with pure diesel fuel. Other parameters like injection pressure and mass flow rate are kept constant. The performance parameters for running the engine are 1500?rpm and a rated power of 4.4?kW. The performance test resulted in the increased BTE and reduction in the SFEC for B20 blend as compared to the other proportions. The emission characteristics show that the CO, UHC and NO_x were decreased for B20 when compared with the other proportions.     

Combustion analysis of Jatropha methyl esters and Pongamia methyl esters with the addition of ethanol as fuel in a diesel engine

The aim of our project is to experimentally access the practical applications of ethanol and blending it with some lubricating oils in a direct injection compression ignition engine. This replacement of conventional diesel with ethanol requires some of the properties of ethanol to be altered. In order to increase the lubricating property of ethanol, it is blended with some lubricating oils. Some of the preferred lubricating oils are methyl esters of Jatropha oil, Pongamia oil, etc. Ethanol is blended with these lubricating oils to reduce the corrosive property of ethanol. The different fuel blends [Pongamia–ethanol (50–50) and Jatropha–ethanol (50–50)] are used in the direct injection CI engine, the combustion characteristics are calculated and they are compared with diesel and a perfect blend is analysed. The engine combustion parameters such as peak pressure, heat release rate (HRR) and cumulative heat release rate were computed. The combustion analysis revealed that the early rate of pressure rise causes the cylinder pressure to rise early in the case of alternate fuels with a resulting lower rate of pressure rise and peak pressure. However, HRR and cumulative HRR show a maximum for Pongamia–ethanol (50–50) when compared with the neat diesel fuel.     

Simulation of CI engine flow processes for prediction of performance and emissions with different fuels

Diesel-fuelled direct injection compression ignition engines yield high fuel conversion efficiency due to the use of high compression ratios and thus find their place in varied applications. However, tail pipe emissions of conventional diesel engines are a major source of high levels of oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) and particulate matter. Owing to stringent emission legislation, manufactures and researchers are facing tough competition to make them eco-friendly. The present paper deals with a simulation of extensive numerical experiments carried out on a single-cylinder diesel engine by varying timing of inlet valve closing (25°–55°ABDC) and fuels; rapeseed methyl esters and diesel fuel. For this purpose, a zero-dimensional thermodynamics-based model in C⁺⁺ was developed. The model takes into account the engine speed, fuel injection timing and equivalence ratio, temperature-dependent specific heat ratio and inlet valve close timing. The engine performance is evaluated in terms of thermal efficiency, in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate, and NO and soot emissions. It is observed that a significantly delayed closing of the inlet valve would result in loss of charge, and rapeseed methyl ester could be an attractive and viable alternative to petro-diesel fuel.     

An experimental investigation of performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine with blends of cottonseed oil methyl ester with cold and hot EGR

An experimental investigation of diesel engine using cottonseed oil biodiesel and its blends with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) techniques has been carried out. An optimum nozzle opening pressure of 250 bar and lower static injection timing of 20° before top dead centre (bTDC) are considered because it has been observed that these conditions only give minimum emissions. From the test results, it could be noted that there is an increasing trend of emission characteristics of HC, smoke density and NO_x for both cold and hot EGR for all blends of fuel with respect to brake power. As compared with cold EGR, the hot EGR gives lower emissions at all loads. In hot EGR, among the blends, at no-load and full-load conditions, the B100 gives the highest reduction in NO_x of 14.23% and 7.91%, respectively. However, the use of EGR leads to a rise in soot emission because of soot–NO_x trade-off for both the cases.     

Impact of oxygenated cottonseed biodiesel on combustion,performance and emission parameters in a direct injection CI engine

In the present study, biodiesel production from the crude cotton-seed oil (CSO) and its feasibility to be used as fuel in compression ignition engine was analysed. Single-stage transesterification at molar ratio of 8:1 on crude CSO yielded 94% of cottonseed biodiesel (CBD). Gas chromatogram/mass spectrometry analysis revealed the presence of 19.5% unsaturated and 80.5% saturated esters in cotton seed biodiesel. Taguchi approach identified the stable fuel blend with oxygenate concentration. Increased oxygen concentration up to 20% were also analysed to understand the variation. Higher peak in-cylinder pressure was observed in D80CBD20 fuel blend. Diesel–biodiesel blend with oxygenate significantly affected the ignition delay and also resulted in varied exhaust gas temperature. D80CBD20nB10 showed an increase in brake thermal efficiency, whereas D80CBD20 exhibited higher brake specific energy consumption at full load. Carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and smoke emission was found to be high in diesel with higher oxides of nitrogen in D80CBD20nB10. This experimental investigation finally revealed that, D80CBD20nB10 improved the combustion and performance characteristics with minimal emissions.

Abbreviations ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials; BP: brake power; BSEC: brake specific energy consumption; BTE: brake thermal efficiency; CBD: cottonseed biodiesel; CI: compression ignition; CO: carbon monoxide; CO₂: carbon dioxide; CSO: cottonseed oil; DEE: diethyl ether; DOE: design of experiments; EGT: exhaust gas temperature; FTIR: Fourier transform infrared spectrometry; GC/MS: gas chromatogram/mass spectrometry; HC: hydrocarbon; HRR: heat release rate; HSDI: high speed direct injection; IDI: indirect injection; KOH: potassium hydroxide; MFB: mass fraction burned; NaOH: sodium hydroxide; NMR: nuclear magnetic resonance; N₂O: nitrous oxide; NO: nitric oxide; NO₂: nitrogen dioxide; NO _x : oxides of nitrogen; ROHR: rate of heat release; ROPR: rate of pressure rise; SOC: start of combustion; aTDC: after top dead centre; bTDC: before top dead centre     

The influence of bio additive on the compression ignition engine with diesel and Jatropha methyl ester biodiesel

The present experimental investigation evaluates the effects of using blends of diesel fuel with 20% concentration of Methyl Ester of Jatropha biodiesel blended with bio additive. Both the diesel and biodiesel fuel blend was injected at 23° Before Top Dead Centre to the combustion chamber. The experiment was carried out with three different ratios of bio additive. Biodiesel was extracted from Jatropha oil; 20% (B20) concentration is found to be best blend ratio from the earlier experimental study. The bio additive was added to B20MEOJ at various concentrations of 1?ml, 2?ml and 3?ml, respectively. The main objective is to obtain minimum specific fuel consumption, better efficiency and lesser Emission using bio additive blends. The results concluded that full load shows an increase in efficiency when compared with diesel, and highest efficiency is obtained with B20MEOJBA 3?ml bio additive blend. It is noted that there is an increase in thermal efficiency as the blend ratio increases. Biodiesel blend has a performance closer to that of diesel, but emission is reduced in all blends of B20MEOJBA 3?ml compared to that in diesel. Thus the work marks for the suitability of biodiesel blends as an alternate fuel in diesel engines.     

Combustion characteristics of a DI diesel engine fuelled with blends of methyl ester of cotton seed oil

The combustion characteristics of a single-cylinder, four-stroke, air-cooled and direct injection (DI) diesel engine fuelled with methyl ester of cotton seed oil (MECSO) and its blends with neat diesel fuel were examined. The experiments were conducted at a constant speed under steady-state condition with a Kirloskar TAF 1 engine. Combustion characteristics such as cylinder pressure, heat release rate (HRR), cumulative heat release rate (CHRR), maximum cylinder pressure, rate of pressure rise, ignition delay, duration of injection and combustion duration of MECSO and its blends with diesel were evaluated and compared with those of diesel fuel. From the analysis, it was found that the peak cylinder pressure and HRR of diesel were higher when compared with those of MECSO blends. The ignition delay, duration of injection and combustion duration decreased for MECSO blends compared to those of diesel. However, the CHRR of MECSO and its blends were higher than that of diesel. Finally, the study showed that B25 (25% of MECSO and 75% of diesel) gave optimum combustion characteristics for all loads and could be used as a viable alternative fuel in a DI diesel engine without any engine modifications.     

Influence of injection timing on engine performance,emission characteristics of Mimusops Elangi methyl ester

ABSTRACT

The improvement in engine performance and exhaust emissions reduction are the major important issues in developing a more efficient engine. The injection timing is one the major parameters that affect the engine performance and emissions for a diesel engine. The present work focused on characterising the in?uence of injection timing on engine performance and exhaust emissions. This has been critically investigated for B20?+?25?ppm (20% Mimusops Elangi methyl ester-80% diesel fuel?+?25?ppm of TiO₂ nanoparticle) additive as alternative fuel. The B20?+25 ppm TiO₂ nanoparticle additive produces more HC and CO emission, but reduce NO_X emission when injection timing is retarded. Advancement in injection timing for B20?+25?ppm TiO₂ nanoparticle additive results in an increase of brake thermal efficiency, decreases brake specific fuel consumption and giving out less HC, CO, smoke emissions but the marginal increase in the NO_X emission.     

Investigation of the effect of tunnel ventilation on crib fires through small-scale experiments

This paper adopts a series of 1:20 scale tunnel experiments based on a series of large-scale tunnel experiments to study the influence of forced ventilation on fires. The small-scale tunnel has dimensions of 0.365 m (W)×0.26 m (H)×11.9 m (L). Cribs using a wood-based material provide the fuel source and forced ventilation velocities from 0.23 to 1.90 m/s are used. From the study of the measured heat release rate (HRR) and mass loss rate data it is found that the forced air velocity affects the fire spread rate and burning efficiency and further affects peak HRR values at different air velocities. A simple model to describe these influences is proposed. This model is used to reproduce the enhancement of peak HRR for cribs with different porosity factors noted by Ingason [1] and to assess the effects of using different length of cribs on peak HRR. The results from these analyses suggest that different porosity fuels result different involvement of burning surface area and result different changes in peak HRR. However, no significant difference to the enhancement on fire size is found when the burning surface area is similar. It is also found that the trend in the enhancement on fire size by using sufficiently long crib and available ventilation conditions matches the predictions of Carvel and Beard [2] for two-lane tunnel heavy goods vehicle fires.     

Performance characteristics of palm kernel biodiesel and its blend in a CI engine

The full load performance characteristics of a diesel engine fuelled with palm kernel biodiesel and its blend with diesel fuel are presented in this paper. The biodiesel was synthesised from Nigerian palm kernel oil through a direct base catalysed transesterification process using sodium hydroxide and methanol as the catalyst and alcohol, respectively. The produced biodiesel was blended with neat diesel fuel at a ratio of 20% biodiesel to 80% diesel by volume. The engine torque, brake power, brake specific fuel consumption and brake mean effective pressure were determined for each of the fuels at 400 rpm intervals between 1200 and 3600 rpm. In other to establish a baseline for comparison, the engine was first run on neat diesel. The test results interestingly revealed that the fuel blend (B20) produced higher torque at low and medium engine speeds than neat diesel fuel and unblended biodiesel (B100). This suggests that it can be a suitable fuel for heavy duty engines that are required to develop high torque at low engine speeds. It was also observed that diesel fuel developed higher torque and brake power than the unblended biodiesel (B100) at all tested speeds and showed the least brake specific fuel consumption possibly because of its higher heating value. In all, the palm kernel biodiesel and its blend (B20) exhibited performance characteristic trends very similar to that of diesel fuel thus confirming them as suitable alternative fuels for compression ignition engines.     

Experimental investigations on a variable compression ratio (VCR) CIDI engine with a blend of methyl esters palm stearin-diesel for performance and emissions

The present work deals with an experimental evaluation of the existing diesel engine with a blend of methyl esters of palm stearin (PS) oil and petro-diesel under varying injection pressures and compression ratios (CRs). It was observed that the brake thermal efficiency of engine was high with PSME40 at an injection pressure of 210 bar and CR of 16.5 when compared to other fuel injection pressures of 190 and 230 bar. However, the engine performance was superior with CR 19 at the rated injection pressure of 190?bar. Higher peak pressures are observed with higher CR. The engine emissions in terms of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and smoke opacity were lower but the nitrogen oxides were found to be increased due to the better combustion. It is observed that CR and fuel injection pressure simultaneously played a vital role in the reduction of emissions. The study revealed that PS could be explored as a source for producing biodiesel effectively with environmental concerns.     

Optimisation of intake parameters for diesel engine fuelled with diesel-tamarind seed methyl ester biodiesel blend by Taguchi method

ABSTRACT

The present experimental work is focused on the use of Taguchi method to evaluate the optimum intake parameters to obtain the enhanced engine performance characteristics of diesel engine fuelled with TSME 20 (80% diesel and 20% Tamarind seed methyl ester) biodiesel blend. Injection pressure (IP), injection timing (IT) and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) were considered as input parameters and each parameter at three levels. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), hydrocarbon (HC), oxides of nitrogen (NO_X) and smoke opacity (SO) were chosen as performance parameters. In this study, Taguchi L₂₇ orthogonal array (OA) was considered. Taguchi method is highly effective when dealing with responses influenced by several parameters; it significantly minimises the number of tests needed to model and optimise the responses influenced by various input parameters. In addition, an ANOVA test was conducted for the performance parameters to evaluate individual input parameters and its percentage contribution. It was found that IT has most significant on BTE; NO_X and smoke emission was highly influenced by EGR rate, followed by IT and IP.     

Numerical Simulation of Combustion of Butanol Mixed Hydrogen

In order to study the combustion characteristics of hybrid fuel after butanol has been mixed with different ratio of hydrogen,AVL FIRE software is used to simulate the process of the combustion of hybrid fuel in constant volume combustion bomb.This study uses the software of CATIA to complete the creation of three dimensional model of the constant volume combustion bomb and the software of AVL FIRE to complete grid drawing and numerical simulation of combustion.According to the ratio of 5%,10%,15%and 20%which hydrogen mixed with butanol,then study on the characteristics that mean pressure,rate of heat release and so on of combustion of the four kinds of mixed fuels with different initial conditions.The results shows that the parameters of combustion characteristics of butanol mixed hydrogen:pressure,rate of pressure rise,heat release and rate of heat release are all increased with increasing of ratio of hydrogen-doped;with increasing of ratio of hydrogen-doped,the burning duration is shortened and the peak of combustion parameters is advanced.     

Examination of WFDS in Modeling Spreading Fires in a Furniture Calorimeter

Validation of physics-based models of fire behavior requires comparing systematically and objectively simulated results and experimental observations in different scenarios, conditions and scales. Heat Release Rate (HRR) is a key parameter for understanding combustion processes in vegetation fires and a main output data of physics-based models. This paper addresses the validation of the Wildland-urban interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS) through the comparison of predicted and measured values of HRR from spreading fires in a furniture calorimeter. Experimental fuel beds were made up of Pinus pinaster needles and three different fuel loadings (i.e. 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 kg/m²) were tested under no-slope and up-slope conditions (20°). An Arrhenius type model for solid-phase degradation including char oxidation was implemented in WFDS. To ensure the same experimental and numerical conditions, sensitivity analyses were carried out in order to determine the grid resolution to capture the flow dynamics within the hood of the experimental device and to assess the grid resolution’s influence on the outputs of the model. The comparison of experimental and predicted HRR values showed that WFDS calculates accurately the mean HRR values during the steady-state of fire propagation. It also reproduces correctly the duration of the flaming combustion phase, which is directly tied to the fire rate of spread.     

Effects of blends on the physical properties of bioethanol produced from selected Nigerian crops

Bioethanol fuel was synthesised from various Nigerian crops (palm (Elaeis Guineensis) wine, raffia (Raphia vinifera) trunk and sugar cane (Saccharum L.)) to serve as alternative fuels for internal combustion engines. Bioethanol was obtained through fermentation and distillation from these selected Nigerian crops and was then purified. Physical properties of the bioethanol and various petrol–bioethanol blends such as vapour pressure, octane number, flash point, heating values, auto ignition temperature and density were evaluated using the American Society for Testing and Materials methods. The calorific value of petrol decreased from 44.40 to 44.22 MJ/kg with a blend of 10% of alcohol (E₁₀). The calorific value of the produced ethanol (E₁₀₀) is 29.78 MJ/kg. The research octane number (RON) of petrol increased from 91 to 94 with a blend of 10% of alcohol (E₁₀). The RON of the produced ethanol (E₁₀₀) is 114. The flash point increased from -40°C at E₁₀ to 12.6°C at E₁₀₀. The results showed that the addition of bioethanol to petrol increases the octane number, flash point and auto ignition temperature, but on the other hand reduces the calorific value of the produced blend. The optimal petrol–bioethanol blends of E₂₀ and below were recommended for vehicles running on spark ignition engines.