Combustion, vibration, and noise characteristics of direct injection VCR diesel engine fuelled with Mesua ferrea oil methyl ester blends

ABSTRACT

The present study deals with the assessment of combustion, vibration, and noise characteristics of single-cylinder water-cooled VCR diesel engine running with Mesua ferrea oil methyl ester (MFOME) blends. Four test fuels were used in this analysis namely diesel, B10, B20, and B40. The testing was performed at three fuel injection pressures (IPs) of 180, 200, and 220 bar, respectively. The combustion characteristics like CP, NHRR, CHRR, and RoPR were improved with MFOME (Mesua ferrea oil methyl ester) blends and B20 has attained higher than leftover test fuel blends. Further, RMS velocity and RMS noise were found to be decreased with MFOME blends as compared to conventional diesel fuel. At higher injection pressure (220 bar), the CP, NHRR, CHRR, and RoPR were improved by 4.98%, 9.23%, 5.4%, and 11.58%, respectively, while the RMS velocity and RMS noise were reduced by 14.76% and 3.54%, respectively, for B20.

Abbreviations: MFOME: Mesua ferrea oil methyl ester; B10: MFOME 10% in diesel; B20: MFOME 20% in diesel; B40: MFOME 40% in diesel; K₃PO₄: Tripotasium phosphate; CI: Compression ignition; ASTM: American standards for testing materials; LDV: Laser Doppler Vibrometer; DAQ: Data acquisition system; RMS: Root mean square; dB (A): Decibel units; CR/CRs: Compression ratio/Compression ratios; IP/IPs: Injection pressure/Injection pressures; CP: Cylinder pressure (bar); NHRR: Net heat release rate (J/^o); CHRR: Net heat release rate (J/^o); RoPR: Rate of pressure rise (bar/^o); FFT: Fast Fourier transforms; PDV: Polytec Doppler vibrometer; VCR: Variable compression ratio; V_rms: RMS velocity; $\frac{\delta q}{\delta \theta }$: Net heat release rate (J/ ^o); $\frac{\delta q_{\text{Heat}}}{\delta \theta }$: Heat transfer rate to the wall of combustion chamber (J/ ^o); $\frac{\delta V}{\delta \theta }$: Volume change rate with crank angle (m³/ ^o); $\frac{\delta P}{\delta \theta }$: Pressure change rate with crank angle (bar/ ^o); $\gamma$: Specific heats ratio; $V$: Cylinder volume (Instantaneous); $\theta$: Crank angle (Degree); $P$: Cylinder pressure (Instantaneous); $c_p$: Specific heat at constant pressure (J/Kg-K); $c_v$: Specific heat at constant volume (J/Kg-K); t or t_i: Time (sec); $\mathrm{\Delta }W$: Uncertainty in load sensor; $\mathrm{\Delta }N$: Uncertainty in speed sensor; $\mathrm{\Delta }P$: Uncertainty in piezo sensor; $\mathrm{\Delta }CA$: Uncertainty in crank angle sensor

KEYWORDS:

• Mesua ferrea
• combustion
• noise
• transesterification
• vibration
• cetane number

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge GITAM Deemed to be University and HPCL Visakhapatnam for their support towards conducting experiments and tests in their laboratories.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.