March 12, 2015

Thermal Lab

Batch 3 - Roll Nos:52 to 58

MULTI CYLINDER FOUR STROKE DIESEL ENGINE TEST RIG
Arundev S, Tejoshmoy Saha, Vipin Raj K, Vishwas B.C.,
Sushilkumar Kerimani, Mahendra Meena, Purnachander
B.Tech, Fourth semester
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology

Va Air intake in m3 /s
Vs Swept volume
IP Indicated power in kW
BP Brake power in kW
FP Frictional power
T FC Total fuel consumption
BSFC Brake specific fuel consumption
vol Volumetric efficiency
b,th Brake thermal efficiency
mech Mechanical efficiency
I,th Indicated thermal efficiency
H f Heat supplied by fuel in kJ/min
Hb Heat equivalent to useful work in kJ/min
Hc Heat carried by engine cooling jacket in kJ/min
Hg Heat carried by exhaust gas in kJ/min
Hu Heat unaccounted in kJ/min
m1 Engine cooling water flow in kg/min
m2 Calorimeter water flow in kg/min
C pw Specific heat of water in kJ/kg K
C pg Specific heat of exhaust gas in kJ/kg K
T1 Exhaust gas temperature at inlet of calorimeter in K
T2 Exhaust gas temperature at exit of calorimeter in K
T3 Inlet water temperature in K
T4 Engine cooling water outlet temperature in K
T5 Calorimeter water outlet temperature in K
T6 Ambient Temperature in K

ABSTRACT
The purpose of the experiment is to study constructional details and working principles involved in a four stroke diesel engine.The performance test is conducted on the diesel engine and
the Volumetric efficiency, Brake thermal efficiency,mechanical
efficiency, Thermal efficiency,total fuel consumption and specific fuel consumption values are found. The efficiency values
calculated are plotted against the brake power and the graphs are
analysed.

NOMENCLATURE
C Dynamometer constant = 2000
Cd Coefficient of discharge orifice(0.62)
CV Caloric value of fuel (45208.9 kJ/kg for diesel)
N Engine speed in RPM
W Load on dynamometer in kg
P Atmospheric pressure in kg/m2
R Gas constant
T Ambient temperature in K
N Speed of engine in rpm
D Cylinder bore diameter
L Stroke length
h Differential head across orifice in m of water
g Gravitational acceleration (9.81 m/s2 )
d Diameter of orifice in m
a0 Area of orifice
n No. of revolutions for one cycle = 2 (for 4 stroke)
t
Time taken for 10cc of fuel consumption in seconds
Density of fuel in gm/cc ( = 0.82 gm/cc for diesel)
w Density of water in kg/m3
p
a Density of air in kg/m3 = RT
ma Mass flow of air intake in kg/s
m f Fuel flow

INTRODUCTION
The gasoline engine and the diesel engine are the two most
widely used internal combustion engines in the world. Credit for
their invention is historically given to two men,Nikolaus Otto for
the gasoline engine and Rudolf Diesel for the engine that bears
his name. However, the triumphs of Otto and Diesel would not
1

have been possible without the theories and experiments of earlier inventors and scholars. In an internal combustion engine,
fuel burns inside the engine itself, rather than in a separate furnace or firebox.
By the 1950s, diesel engines had also become dominant in heavy
duty trucks and construction equipment. The development of
the compact Roosa Master fuel distributor paved the way for
diesel-powered farm tractors and agricultural equipment. Buses
and other public transportation vehicles were converted to fuelefficient, durable diesel engines. Electric power generation, mining, and irrigation are all areas that came to rely heavily on diesel
power. High-pressure common rail diesel injection systems have
made high performance, fuel-efficient passenger cars a reality.
With the introduction of tighter emission standards and ultra-low
sulfur diesel fuel, lightweight, responsive diesel-powered cars
and light trucks will become more common on highways.

compression ratio used in diesel engines, the method of igniting

the fuel in the combustion chamber, The grade and type of fuel
used, and due to the greater integral strength of diesel engine
components.

Figure 1.

piston strokes

Diesel engines are always fuel injected. Unlike gasoline engines, however, the liquid diesel fuel is not mixed with air before it enters the combustion chamber. Instead, air is drawn into
the diesel engine cylinder through the intake manifold and compressed by the piston. As the air is compressed, its temperature
increases. An atomized mist of liquid fuel is then sprayed into
the cylinder at the top of the pistons compression stroke. The
fuel instantly ignites and burns with the high temperature air in
the cylinder, forcing the piston down on its power stroke. In a
carbureted or fuel injected gasoline engine, speed is controlled
by regulating the amount of air-fuel mixture that is delivered to
the cylinders. However, a diesel engine has no throttling valve in
its intake manifold. Air pressure in a diesel engines intake manifold remains constant at all loads. This results in high efficiency
at light loads and idle speeds because there is always an excess
of combustion air delivered to the cylinders. Because diesel engines do not have a throttling valve, another method must be used
to control engine speed. Diesel engine speed is controlled by
varying the amount of fuel injected into each cylinder. Common
ways of controlling the amount of fuel include varying the time
solenoid-controlled injection valves stay open, changing the fuel
injection pump stroke length, or varying the fuel pressure to the
injectors. A governor is a device that senses engine speed and
load and changes fuel delivery accordingly. Prior to electronic
engine controls, all diesel engines used governors that were mechanically, servo-mechanically, hydraulically, or pneumatically
controlled. While these designs are still in use in many applications, virtually all on-highway engine manufacturers now incorporate the fuel governing function into the engines electronic
control system.

THEORY
The diesel engine (also known as a compression-ignition engine) is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the
fuel that has been injected into the combustion chamber is initiated by the high temperature which a gas achieves when greatly
compressed (adiabatic compression). This contrasts with sparkignition engines such as a petrol engine (gasoline engine) or gas
engine (using a gaseous fuel as opposed to gasoline), which use
a spark plug to ignite an air-fuel mixture.The diesel engine has
the highest thermal efficiency of any standard internal or external combustion engine due to its very high compression ratio and
inherent lean burn which enables heat dissipation by the excess
air.
Diesel and gasoline engines can be designed to operate on a fourstroke cycle or a two-stroke cycle. Each stroke in the cycle corresponds to the up or down movement of the piston within the
cylinder. Four-cycle gasoline and diesel engines use four piston strokes to complete one operating cycleone stroke each for
intake, compression, power, and exhaust. Two-stroke cycle engines accomplish intake, compression, power, and exhaust using
only two piston strokes, one upward and one downward.
Virtually all high horsepower gasoline engines are four-cycle engines. Two-cycle gasoline engines are used primarily for power
tools, lawn and garden equipment, chain saws, outboard boat motors, and other relatively light-duty applications. In contrast, both
two- and four-cycle diesel engines can be used in high horsepower applications. All modern on-highway diesel engines are
now four-cycle engines. Two-cycle diesel engines are popular in
marine, power generation, and industrial applications. In a twocycle diesel engine, intake and compression occur on the upward
piston stroke, while power and exhaust occur during the downward piston stroke. Diesel engines are also more efficient than
gasoline engines. This is due to several factors, including: the
method of supplying fuel to the combustion chamber, the high

Diesel Cycle
The Diesel cycle is a combustion process of a reciprocating
internal combustion engine. In it, fuel is ignited by heat gener2

Equations
Brake Power:

ated during the compression of air in the combustion chamber,

into which fuel is then injected.

BP =

WN
2NT
kW =
kW
600 1000
C

Total fuel consumption (TFC) =

10 3600
kg/hr
t 1000

Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) =

2gh

w
a

Mass of air intake, (ma ) = a Va

Figure 2.

(2)

TFC
kg/kW hr (3)
BP

r
Air intake (Va ) = Cd a0

(1)

(4)

(5)

Ideal diesel cycle PV diagram

Frictional Power, FP
(i) From p-v diagram
FP = IP BP

The image shown above is the p-V diagram for the ideal
Diesel cycle; where p is pressure and V the volume or v the specific volume if the process is placed on a unit mass basis. The
ideal Diesel cycle follows the following four distinct processes:

FP =

Process 1 to 2 is isentropic compression of the fluid Process

2 to 3 is reversible constant pressure heating Process 3 to 4 is
isentropic expansion Process 4 to 1 is reversible constant volume
cooling The Diesel engine is a heat engine converts heat into
work. During the bottom isentropic processes , energy is transferred into the system in the form of work Win , but by definition
(isentropic) no energy is transferred into or out of the system in
the form of heat. During the constant pressure (isobaric) process,
energy enters the system as heatQin . During the top isentropic
processes, energy is transferred out of the system in the form
ofWout , but by definition (isentropic) no energy is transferred into
or out of the system in the form of heat. During the constant volume (isochoric) process, some of energy flows out of the system
as heat through the right depressurizing process Qout . The work
that leaves the system is equal to the work that enters the system
plus the difference between the heat added to the system and the
heat that leaves the system; in other words, net gain of work is
equal to the difference between the heat added to the system and
the heat that leaves the system.

(6)

Work done/cycle

Nn

number of cylindera
60 1000

(7)

Work done
= p-v curve area X scale factor Y scale factor
cycle
(8)
(ii) By Willians line method:
Frictional power of engine can be found from TFC Vs BP
graph. Extend the straight portion of the TFC Vs BP curve backward to intercept the X-axis in the negative direction.
Air Fuel ratio =

mf =
3

Air flow
ma
=
Fuel flow m f

T FC
kg/s
3600

(9)

(10)

Actual air flow Va

=
Swept volume
Vs

(11)

2
N
1
D L
No. of cylinders m3 /s
4
n 60

(12)

Volumetric efficiencyvol =

Vs =

APPARATUS AND SETUP

The experimental setup consisted of a four cylinder, four
stroke diesel engine. The engine was connected to an eddy current dynamometer which was used for providing load. The setup
also used a turbo charger.
The setup also had an air box and a fuel tank. A manometer was
also connected and the pressure readings of it was used to measure the inlet flow rate. In addition, a fuel measuring unit, digital speed indicator and digital temperature indicator were also
present. The setup also had rotameters to measure the flow rates
of water used for engine cooling and that flowing through the
caloriemeter.
The setup also consisted of a computer which recorded the data.

Brake Thermal efficiency:

b,th =

BP 3600 100
%
T FC CV

(13)

BP
100%
IP

(14)

Mechanical efficiency:
mech =

PROCEDURE
1. Air was removed from the fuel line, main panel and computer before system was switched on.
2. Water flow was set to 60 ml/sec. and dynamometer load
knob was in zero position initially.
3. The engine was started with key switch and speed was maintained to 1500 rpm by controlling the accelerator knob.
4. Then at no load condition the parameters were measured
such as rpm, fuel consumption rate using stopwatch, pressure using the manometer, calorimeter water flow and cooling water flow rate using rotameter, temperatures from T1 to
T6 using the digital thermocouple attached in the computer.
5. Slowly the load was increased to 10 to 20
6. The experiment was repeated for different load up to maximum load of 20 kg.
7. Also for every load the data was exported into excel sheet
which gives reading for pressure and volume data.
8. The load and speed were gradually reduced to minimum and
then engine and mains were turned on.

Indicated Thermal efficiency

Ith =

IP 3600 100
T FC CV

(15)

Heat Balance: Heat supplied by fuel,

Hf =

T FC CV
kJ/min
60

(16)

Heat equivalent to useful work,

Hb = BP 60kJ/min
Hb
100%
%Hb =
Hf

(17)
(18)

Heat carried by engine cooling jacket,

Hc = m1 C pw (T4 T3 ) kJ/min
Hc
%Hc =
100%
Hf

(19)

OBSERVATION AND CALCULATION

(20)
Table 1.

Heat carried by exhaust gas,

Hg = (ma + mc )60 C pg (T5 T3 ) kJ/min
Hg
%Hg =
100%
Hf
m2 C pw (T5 T3 )
C pg =
kJ/min
(ma + m f )60 (T1 T2 )

(21)
(22)
(23)

Heat unaccounted,
Hu = H f (Hb + Hc + Hg ) kJ/min

(24)
4

Observation table

W(Load)

h1

h2

m1

m2

T1

T2

T3

1500

42.13

0.3

1.7

64

62

89

34

33

1500

33

0.2

1.8

64

62

111

36

35

1500

25.66

0.2

1.8

64

60

133

37

35

10

1500

21.65

0.3

1.7

62

60

163

38

36

13

1500

18.68

0.3

1.7

62

60

171

39

37

16

1500

16.88

62

60

185

40

38

19

1500

14.57

2.2

62

60

191

41

38

TFC
(kg/hr)
0.700688
0.894545
1.150429
1.36351
1.5803
1.748815
2.026081

Figure 5.
BSFC VS BP

INDICATED THERMAL EFFICIENCY VS BP

5
0.002148
0.002296
0.002296
0.002148
0.002148
0.002567
0.000812

Va

Figure 4.

(m3 /s)
0.002446
0.002615
0.002615
0.002446
0.002446
0.002924
0.000925

ma (kg/s)

0.000195
0.000248
0.00032
0.000379
0.000439
0.000486
0.000563

m f (kg/s)

12.56832
10.52436
8.183487
6.458679
5.572661
6.01879
1.642844

Air fuel ratio

Table 2. Calculation Table

13.76738
14.71795
14.71795
13.76738
13.76738
16.45517
5.203581

volu %

BRAKE THERMAL EFFICIENCY VS BP

0.298182
0.219129
0.181801
0.162082
0.145735
0.142181

BSFC
(kWhr)

Figure 3.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Sl no

BP
(kW)
0
3
5.25
7.5
9.75
12
14.25

0
26.70536
36.33951
43.80083
49.12976
54.64078
56.00639

b,th %

0
48.44611
75.30405
92.75577
99.61929
138.7699
138.4292

mech %

58.37034
55.12384
48.25705
47.22168
49.31752
39.37509
40.45852

I,th %

RESULTS

The frictional power is given by,

FP = IP BP = 3.19KW
The input power is given by,
IP =
Figure 6.

MECHANICAL EFFICIENCY VS BP

workdone/cycle/cycle Nn noo f cylinders

= 6.19KW
60 1000

The volumetric efficiency is given by, vol = VVas = 14.7%

1
noo f cylinders = 15.8
where , Vs = 4 D2 L Nn 60
3
3
10 m /s similarly the thermal efficiency,
brake,thermal =

BP 3600 100
= 26.70%
T FC CV

The mechanical efficiency can also be defined,

mech =

Figure 7.

Hf =

TFC VS BP

BP
100 = 48.44%
IP

TVC CV
= 674.02KJ/min
60

now,
Hb = BP 60 = 180KJ/min

%Hb =

Hb
100 = 26.70%
Hf

Hc = m1 C pw (T4 T3 ) = 347.9KJ/min
Figure 8.

VOLUME EFFICIENCY VS BP

%Hc =
REFERENCES
Appendix A: Sample calculation
For SI no. 2

Hc
100 = 51.6
Hf

Hg = (ms + m f )60 C pg (T5 T3 ) = 124.80KJ/min

2N
bp =
= 3KW
60

now,

Now the total fuel consumption,

C pg =
T FC =

10 3600
= 0.89kg/hr
t 1000
6

m2 C pw (T5 T3 )
= 382.29
(ma + m f )60 (T1 T2 )