Effect of Alternative Diesel Fuels on Heat Release Curves for Cummins N14-410 Diesel Engine

Abstract

A Cummins N14-410 engine was operated on twelve fuels produced by blending methyl tallowate, methyl soyate and fuel ethanol with No.2 diesel fuel. Engine in-cylinder pressure data were collected and used to evaluate the rate of heat release, mass fraction of fuel burned and charge temperature with respect to crank angle. It was observed that the rate of heat release decreased with increasing engine speed. Peak rates of heat release for a// fuel blends were less than for No.2 diesel fuel. When methyl tallowate was blended with No.2 diesel fuel, the shift in the location of peak heat release was away from top dead center (TDC) whereas the addition of ethanol to the blend shifted the location towards TDC. Ignition delay sltghtly decreased when methyl tallowate was blended with diesel fuel. However, ignition delays were not Acted by the methyl tallowate content of the blend. The addition of ethanol to the fuel blends did not affect ignition delay. The charge temperature decreased with decrease in diesel content of the fuel blends. A reduction in charge temperature can reduce NO, emissions.

Energy Balance for a Diesel Engine Operates on a Pure Biodiesel, Diesel Fuel and Biodiesel-Diesel Blends

“…They found that, when the engine operates on both biodiesel fuels, the heat losses, apart from exhaust loss, were higher than No.2 diesel fuel, due to the better combustion of the biodiesel. Ali et al (1996) studied the influence of different fuels prepared from mixing tallowate and soyate methyl esters and ethanol with diesel fuel on heat release curves for Cummins diesel engine. They found that, the decrease of the diesel fuel amount in the fuel blends, leads to the decrease of the charge temperature.…”