An Experimental Study on the Performance of a Multifuel Engine : Part4, The Effect of the Intake Air Heating

Abstract

An attempt was made to produce multifuel capability in a standard diesel engine by preheating intake air. A remarkable rise in gas temperature at compression end (T2) is obtained with the relation T2=T1em-1 (T1 : the temperature at the beginning of compression, e : compression ratio). Thus, it may be said that preheating of intake air is more effective to improve multifuel capability than increasing the compression ratio which hitherto has been the method to improve multifuel capability. In this study, the combustibility comparable to gas oil was obtained using low cetane fuel such as the automotive premium gasoline and increasing the intake air temperature up to approximately 80°C. This method has some drawbacks such as higher fuel consumption at a heavier load range and lower maximum output. However, the authors are of the opinion that these drawbacks are not so important because the conventional standard diesel engine runs smoothly even on low cetane fuel at a lesser extent of preheating in a heavier load range.