Investigations on the Performance of Various Bio-Fuels Along with Low Thermal Conductivity Piston Crown in a Diesel Engine

摘要

In this work, combustion chamber of the engine is modified with brass piston crown and air gap insulation of 2 mm between the crown and the piston body. After modification, experiments are carried out with bio-fuels like jatropha, karanja and palmolein on a single cylinder diesel engine with constant speed and an injection timing of 29° bTDC. Comparison of performance parameters, heat balance details and exhaust emissions is done in case of all the fuels at various loads. Brake thermal efficiency increased appreciably with karanja than diesel, while fuel consumption is more in bio-fuels. Heat utilized for brake power is more with karanja when compared to all other fuels. Heat carried away by exhaust gases remained same for all the fuels for all the load conditions. Also, heat rejected to the coolant is low for karanja compared to diesel. Furthermore, CO and HC emissions are fewer with karanja. Thus, the present work identifies karanja as a suitable alternate fuel and with more engine modifications the performance of the engine can be further enhanced.