Diagnosis of hydrous ethanol combustion in a spark-ignition engine

Abstract

By evaluating combustion duration and flame development, it is possible to evaluate the effects of utilizing a new type of fuel. This allows for optimization of the operational parameters such as the ignition timing, air–fuel ratio, and throttle opening with respect to efficiency, knock, emissions, and performance. In this work, the combustion of a Brazilian hydrous ethanol fuel was evaluated in a commercial flexfuel engine. Investigations were conducted by performing a heat release analysis of the experimental data and providing combustion characteristics. The experimental design comprised of variations in engine speed, load, ignition timing, and air–fuel ratio under lean condition. The results indicated the relationship between the engine parameters and combustion characteristics under a wide range of operational conditions, and identified the relationship between the physical characteristics of the fuels and their combustion in the commercial engine. For high engine speed, lean combustion presented a similar duration to the stoichiometric combustion duration. When comparing the combustion characteristics obtained for the hydrous ethanol with gasoline combustion, the main differences noted were reduced sensitivity to detonation and a shorter duration of combustion, although the temperature at the start of combustion was lower for ethanol. In addition to shorter combustion duration, ethanol presented a lower value for the Wiebe exponent. The results obtained from the combustion duration values and Wiebe function parameters enable the composition of a set of data required for a simplified combustion simulation.