INCREASE IN THE FUEL EFFICIENCY OF A DIESEL ENGINE BY DISCONNECTING SOME OF ITS CYLINDERS

Abstract

In fuel economy, a rising level of interest in heavy duty diesel engines that industry has witnessed over the last few years continues to go up and this is not likely to change. Lowering the fuel consumption of all internal combustion engines remains a priority for years to come, driven by economic, legislative, and environmental reasons. According to statistics, the share of operating expenses to ensure transport operations in industrial production is 15-20%, wherein 16-30% of the total volume of transport operations concerns a car, tractor, and trailer. During transport operations, the engine load by the torque, in most cases, does not exceed 40-50%. The paper investigates the increase in fuel efficiency of cars and tractors by disconnecting some of the engine cylinders operated in low-load and idling modes. The research has led to the establishment of the theoretical dependencies between the effective power, engine efficiency, mass of the transported cargo, speed of the car (tractor) and the number of disconnected engine cylinders. Results of experiments suggest the interdependencies of the performance parameters of the car (tractor) when disconnecting some of the engine cylinders. It has also been established that the maximum reduction in the hourly fuel consumption occurs in the idling mode while it decreases along with an increase in the load.