Development of a gravimetric fuel measurement system for the evaluation of engine performance physical parameters

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the implementation and design features of a gravimetric-based fuel consumption system. The proposed system comprises a gravimetric balance with serial output, a fuel pump, and a control valve that are integrated into a complete engine test bench via Arduino UNO®. The study implements an instrumentation methodology to minimize measurement disturbance and error propagation, which represents a major concern in engine experimental testing. Moreover, an interactive virtual environment is developed to reinforce user interaction via LabView™. Results demonstrated that the proposed measurement system features robust and reliable operation while maintaining negligible disturbance and overall uncertainty ranging from 0.010-0.23 g/s. Additionally, it was evidenced that the measurement system allows the analysis of key parameters to evaluate engine performance. The study of the fuels blends shows that the ethanol content causes a 6.8% increase in brake specific fuel consumption and a 4% decrease in the brake thermal efficiency. Due to the low cost of the developed measurement system can be easily adapted to test bench laboratories to promote a better learning process and in industrial sectors for better energy management.