Determination of vibration characteristics of a compression ignition engine operated by hydrogen enriched diesel and biodiesel fuels

Abstract

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel that is produced from vegetable oils and animal fats. The main advantage of biodiesel is its cleaner characteristic after the combustion. Due to its promising effect on the environment, the use of biodiesel is increasing day by day. Therefore, other effects of biodiesel fuels on internal combustion engine must be investigated by researchers. Mechanical vibration of a machine is a highly important phenomenon for safety. Moreover, in some applications, it directly influences human comfort. The vibration of a vehicle through its internal combustion engine has gained great importance due to the effect on vehicle structure parts and passenger comfort as well as driving safety. In this study, a diesel engine was fuelled with alternative fuel and conventional diesel fuels. Pure conventional diesel fuel was selected as reference fuel to compare vibration characteristics of the engine with respect to various biodiesel fuels. In the study, biodiesel was produced from waste cooking oil. Hydrogen was also added through intake air through experiments. The results indicated that addition of biodiesel in conventional diesel fuel lowered the engine block vibration. Moreover, the addition of hydrogen gas further decreased the engine vibration both with conventional diesel engine and biodiesel blend.