DEPENDENCY OF THE AUTOIGNITION DELAY, COMBUSTION AND EXHAUST EMISSIONS OF A DIESEL ENGINE ON THE CETANE NUMBER OF AVIATION-TURBINE JP-8 FUEL

Abstract

The article presents the bench test results of a fully instrumented, four cylinder, naturally aspirated, (60 kW) DI diesel engine running on the normal (class C) diesel fuel (DF) and aviation-turbine (JP-8) fuel. Analysis of changes in the autoignition delay, maximum in-cylinder pressure, performance efficiency of an engine and exhaust emissions caused by the variation of the cetane number of JP-8 fuel was provided. The series of engine tests were conducted running on the normal JP-8 fuel and JP-8 treated with 0.04vol%, 0.08vol%, 0.12vol%, 0.16vol%, and 0.24vol% of 2-ethylhexyl nitrate. Studies on operating characteristics of an engine were carried out for the fully loaded (100%) engine and the two ranges of speed, - 1400 rpm at which maximum torque occurs and rated 2200 rpm speed.Adding of 2-ethylhexyl nitrate to aviation-turbine fuel in the above proportions the cetane number (CN) of JP-8 fuel improved from 42.3 to 46.1, 47.6, 48.5, 49.4, and 49.8, respectively, enhancing ignition properties of the fuel to adapt it for using in ground-based military transport. The increase of CN from the reference value of 42.3 to optimum value of 48.5 suggested the brake specific fuel consumption lower 1.4%, both total unburned hydrocarbons (THCs) 7.5% and exhaust smoke 5.7% higher with almost unchangeable the NOx emissions behaviour and 11.9% lower CO emissions when running under a fully (100%) opened throttle at rated 2200 rpm speed. The brake thermal efficiency increased to maximum value of 0.309 (1.3%) for given operating conditions. Analysis of the results revealed that the improved cetane number can be considered as an effective but not the only measure to be applied for an intended use of JP-8 fuel in ground-based diesel engines.