Effect of Diesterol blends on the noise vibration and harshness of a Genset engine

Abstract

The present investigations deal with the combined effect of Diesterol blends (B20D75E5, B20D70E10, and B20D65E15) on the performance, combustion, noise, and vibration characteristics of a compression ignition Genset engine. Studies were carried out to make the fuel blend homogeneous and stable as ethanol is immiscible in diesel/biodiesel due to its chemical structure. It is found that the Diesterol blend becomes stable when biodiesel is used as a bonding agent between ethanol and diesel. However, the higher concentration of ethanol has stronger bonding, which resulted in poor stability. The stable blends were used to study the performance characteristics of the Genset engine. The results showed that the brake thermal efficiency increased by 10.4% by adding 5% ethanol in diesel–biodiesel compared to the 15% ethanol in diesel–biodiesel blends. The brake-specific fuel consumption was found to increase by 10% due to the decrease in calorific value with the addition of ethanol. The peak value of the in-cylinder pressure gradually increases up to 10% ethanol share and further addition in the fuel blend decreases the cylinder peak pressure, which may be due to a reduction in the lower calorific value of the blended fuel when compared to conventional diesel. The water content in the blends reduced the combustion activity and caused a slight increase in vibration due to the increased instant heat release rate in 10% and 15% ethanol share. The maximum vibration reduction was observed for the 5% ethanol blend by 1.83%. On the other hand, adding 15% ethanol decreased the engine noise by 2.7% compared to the 5% ethanol blend.