Experimental Investigation on Combustion and Emission Characteristics of Modified Piston in an IDI Diesel Engine Fueled with Ethyl Alcohol

Abstract

Compression ignition engines with ethyl alcohol as a fuel are associated with some problems. Because of ethyl alcohol has high self-ignition temperature. It can be used in compression engine by hot surface ignition method which is used to resolve the ignition of the fuel. The modification of the engine is carried out in such a way that a pre combustion chamber is designed in engine head with a provision for heat plug is made on the pre combustion chamber. A piston with squish plate is designed and thermally analyzed. The squish piston helps for attaining better homogeneous mixture than conventional piston. Thus the better combustion is obtained with the squish piston resulting with higher adiabatic flame temperature than the conventional piston. When air is inducted into the combustion chamber it is exposed to high temperature. Modifications for pure ethyl alcohol made significant improvement in thermal efficiency, torque and reduction in specific fuel consumption of an engine. The results exhibit a path toward ethyl alcohol has an effective alternative to conventional diesel engines.