Numerical and experimental investigation of exergy, performance, emissions, combustion characteristics, and cyclic variations of CI engine fueled Karanja oil blended camphor oil and diesel blended camphor oil.

Abstract

Abstract This article compares the influence of the blending the low-viscous oxygenated camphor oil with hydrocarbon diesel fuel and high viscous oxygenated Karanja oil. The experiment is conducted in a four-stroke 1-cylinder naturally aspirated Kirloskar compression ignition (CI) engine coupled with an eddy current dynamometer. The three types of fuel blends are prepared by blending the camphor oil with Karanja oil on the volume ratio of 30:70 (C30K70), 50:50 (C50K50), and 70:30 (C70K30), and the other three types of fuels are prepared by blending the camphor oil with diesel on the volume ratio of 30:70 (C30D70), 50:50 (C50D50), and 70:30 (C70D30). The results reveal improvement in the engine performance characteristics of the brake thermal efficiency and brake specific energy consumptions due to the blending of camphor oil either with hydrocarbon diesel fuel or Karanja oil. Further, it also reduces the CO, HC, and smoke emissions with an increase in NO and CO2 emissions. The rate of pressure rise, net heat release rate and cyclic irregularities found to increase with increase in proportion of the camphor oil. The P-v diagram also confirms the lower heat addition period for the C70D30 and C70K30 with an increase in brake thermal efficiency. The actual compression ratio and the actual cut-off ratio are found to have a reasonable correlation with the thermal efficiency of the engine. Second-order polynomial equations were obtained for the engine characteristics using the Curve fitting method, and the characteristic equations confirmed the confidence level of 95%.