Performance analysis of a four-stroke compressed air engine

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate working performance for a four-stroke compressed air engine via numerical studies. A mathematical model is developed to study the influence of several operative parameters on working performance. The mathematical model consists of thermodynamic model, each stroke model and dynamic model. In addition, a working principle and an experimental system of the compressed air engine are set up. The aims are: to introduce the novel four-stroke engine and to quantify the influence of rotational speed, supply pressure and supply temperature on working characteristics. The simulation and analysis show several meaningful results. The compressed air engine has higher cylinder pressure and work efficiency in lower speed stage, and the increase of the supply pressure can effectively improve indicated work and work efficiency. However, supply temperature has little effect on the performance of the compressed air engine. Therefore, the study of this work will provide a certain guidance function for further study on optimizing design of the compressed air engine.