Design, Construction, and Validation of an In-Cylinder Pressure Recording System for Internal Combustion Engine Analysis

Abstract

Due to an increased global interest in sustainable energy sources, it is imperative that the transportation sector find substitutes for the limited petroleum supply, such as biodiesel. This thesis contains three sections detailing the construction of a biodiesel engine testing system intended for biodiesel and engine technology research. Chapter one details the initial construction of the biodiesel test cell. In addition, the limitations of the system are individually pointed out, with solutions to these limitations discussed. Finally, the focus of this thesis is included to set the scope of the work discussed in chapters two and three. In chapter two, a biodiesel study was completed in order to investigate changes in engine performance because of the differences in fuel properties derived from various feedstock oils. The goal of this investigation was to determine which biodiesel fuel properties impact engine emissions and fuel consumption in comparison to petroleum-based diesel. The findings indicate good agreement with published works and resulted in correlations for fuel properties that were not discussed in literature. In chapter three, the design, construction, and validation of an engine cylinder pressure recording system are covered. In particular, the discussion includes the equipment selection, machining of the engine head and encoder adapter, writing of a LabVIEW program to record pressure and crank angle data, and the validation of this system. Validation was accomplished by testing three different fuels with very different combustion characteristics and directly comparing the results to literature trends and fundamental engine performance characteristics.