Single-cylinder 125 cc stepped piston engine for mobility and portable power generation applications

Two-stroke engines are far simpler than four-stroke engines from a physical perspective. For a given brake output, two-stroke engines are lighter, easier to work on, and provide higher power-to-weight ratio than four-stroke engines, making them suitable for small platform applications. However, conventional two-stroke engines have a reputation for generating smoke and unburned fuel, meaning they may not meet many emissions regulations, now enforced around the world. Thus, for many decades two-stroke engines have not been not favored, giving way to four-stroke engines for dominant applications, especially for mobile power-generation purposes. In the quest to improve the potential of such an engine, a group of researchers from the Automotive Development Centre (ADC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), has developed a 125 cc, air-cooled stepped-piston engine to demonstrate the higher power-to-weight ratio feature, apart from overcoming emission reduction. The engine is designed to mitigate the problem of mixture short circuiting, which is the major hindrance to combustion efficiency. To this end, they have incorporated a three-port stratification strategy into the engine. This paper provides an overview related to the earlier work done to integrate the necessary features and highlights some of the performance features of this unique engine design

Development and evaluation of an automotive air-conditioning test rig

To evaluate an air-conditioning system performance on board of a car is quite cumbersome and tedious process due to the limitation of space in the engine compartment. This paper presents the process of designing and the result from the automotive refrigeration system simulation that have been integrated into the test rig. To perform the test on automotive refrigeration simulator the location for the temperature measurement selected and thermocouples were installed. The locations of the temperature probes are at the inlet and outlet of compressor, condenser outlet and the inlet of the evaporator. The gas pressure was measured at low and high pressure sides located at evaporator outlet and receiver-drier respectively. The test results were analyzed using the properties table of the refrigerant used. The coefficient of performance (COP), cooling load of the system and compressor power consumption were determined. The variable parameters used are the evaporator blower speed and the air velocity passes through the condenser. The experimental results obtained show that increasing the blower speed will reduce the COP of the refrigeration system. The maximum COP of the system is 4.3 at the lowest evaporator blower speed. The power consumption will be reduced when the air flow velocity through the condenser is varied from 0 to 70 km/hr respectively

The effect of decontaminants on vehicle cooling system

This study analyzed the performance of the water pump and radiator under process of as-it-is condition, contamination, and decontamination among three types of radiator, namely used, new, and new coated radiators. Contamination process is completed by spraying the mixture of fine clay and water onto the radiator’s surface for 30 layers Decontamination process is done by AirestecSdnBhd, a local company. Internal analysis covers replacing the cooling fluid with used radiator water, tap water and tap water with additive to run experiments. As result, water pump displays similar trends for each set of experiment and air flow velocity, and its highest efficiency is 8.20 %. For external treatment, the effectiveness after decontamination process for new coated radiator, new radiator and used radiator are 43.60%, 31.42% and 30.16% respectively. While for internal treatment, tap water with additive, tap water and used radiator water exhibits 31.79%, 31.42% and 28.98% of effectiveness. As a conclusion, decontaminants towards radiator are effective to increase the performance of the radiator, but no impact on the efficiency of the water pump.For internal treatment, cooling fluid with additive help enhance the radiator performance in cooling system

The effect of bio-based additives on engine performance and emissions of petrol and diesel engine

Fuel additives are additives that are added to fuel in small quantities to give improvement in terms of engine performance and emissions. Aftermarket fuel additives can be divided into two, chemical-based and bio-based. In this project, the effect of bio-based fuel additives on engine performance and exhaust emissions of a petrol and diesel engine is studied. The blending ratio is developed based on the instruction given on the bottle of the additives. The ratio of the fuel additives used for Vivo Racing (VR) is between 0.21% and 0.25%, Vivo Flawless (VF) is between 0.10% and 0.14% and Diesel Energy is between 0.14% and 0.18%. Constant throttle test had been done on both petrol and diesel engine. The results show that the fuel additives reduce brake power and brake specific fuel consumption while increasing brake thermal efficiency and reducing exhaust emissions. For brake power, VR0.24 is the best. For brake specific fuel consumption, the best are VR0.23 and VF0.11 for petrol and diesel engine respectively. For brake thermal efficiency, the best are VR0.24 and DE0.17. For HC composition, the lowest are VR0.25 and DE0.17. For CO composition, VR0.22 and DE0.14 are the lowest. As for NOx, the lowest are VR0.25 and DE0.17

Efficient and ‘Green’ Vehicle Air Conditioning System Using Electric Compressor

AbstractReducing energy consumption and ensuring thermal comfort are two important considerations in designing vehicle air conditioning system. Alternative approach to reduce energy consumption proposed in this study is to use an electrically-driven compressor (EDC) powered by a 12-volt lead-acid vehicle battery which is charged by the alternator. This system makes the speed of compressor to be independent of the engine crankshaft speed. Typical belt-driven compressor of automotive air conditioning system (AAC) caused cooling capacity to vary with engine speed. The current research activity focuses on the experimental investigation on cabin temperature and fuel consumption of a 1.3 liter 5 seater hatchback vehicle on roller dynamometer at variable speed of 1800, 2000, 2200, 2400 and 2500rpm with internal heat load of 1000W at temperature set-point of 21°C. The overall experimental results show that the performance of EDC is better than the conventional belt-driven system with the opportunity for a better energy control

Performance of a water pump in an automotive engine cooling system

A cooling system employed in an automobile is to maintain the desired coolant temperature thus ensuring for optimum engine operation. Forced convection obtained by means of a water pump will enhance the cooling effect. Thus it is necessary to understand the system’s pump operation and be able to provide for the ultimate cooling of the engine. The objective of this laboratory investigation is to study the water pump characteristics of an engine cooling system. The crucial water pump parameters are the head, power, and its efficiency. In order to investigate the water pump characteristic a dedicated automotive cooling simulator test rig was designed and developed. All of the data obtained are important towards designing for a more efficient water pump such as electric pump that is independent of the power from the engine. In addition to this fact, the simulator test rig can also be used to investigate for any other parameters and products such as radiator performance and electric pump before installation in the actual engine cooling system. From the experiment conducted to simulate for the performance of a cooling system of a Proton Wira (4G15), the maximum power equals to 37 W which indicates the efficiency of the pump is relatively too low as compared to the typical power consume by the pump from the engine which are about 1 to 2 kW. Whereas the maximum power and efficiency obtained from the simulator test rig simulator is equals to 42 W and 15% respectively

Review on Typical Ingredients for Ammonium Perchlorate Based Solid Propellant

Ammonium perchlorate (AP) based solid propellant is a modern solid rocket propellant used in various applications. The combustion characteristics of AP based composite propellants were extensively studied by many research scholars to gain higher thrust. The amount of thrust and the thrust profile, which may be obtained from a specific grain design, is mainly determined by the propellant composition and the manufacturing process that produces the solid propellant. This article is intended to review and discuss several aspects of the composition and preparation of the solid rocket propellant. The analysis covers the main ingredients of AP based propellants such as the binder, oxidizer, metal fuel, and plasticizers. The main conclusions are derived from each of its components with specific methods of good manufacturing practices. In conclusion, the AP based solid propellant, like other composite propellants is highly influenced by its composition. However, the quality of the finished grain is mainly due to the manufacturing process

Design a four-stroke Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine

This research is to study the operation of the four-stroke HCCI engine. The design and analysis works have been performed using computer software which is GT-Power and Solidwork to study on the engine performance simulation work and 3-D modelling on the combustion chamber designed respectively. The design is based on 4-cylinder passenger car, 2000 cc and a four-stroke cycle engine. The compression ratio used is 10. The fuel used is ethanol in which the air-fuel ratio (AFR) is 9. The parameters selected have typical range of value based on the previous study and research done. With the use of GT-power, the analysis will consider two parameters which are the cam timing angle and the injection timing angle to get the optimum result for the HCCI engine. The typical angle of cam timing angle is between 260° - 270° since this is the moment of the compression cycle of the engine. For the injection timing angles, the angles that will be studied for this project are 5°, 0°, -5°, -10°,-15° and -20° relative to Top Dead Centre (TDC). The objective is to obtain the maximum torque and brake power when the engine speed is in between 4000 rpm to 5000 rpm and 6000 rpm to 7000 rpm respectively. Finally, the optimum conditions for the engine to perform better are at 264° of cam timing angle for the valve and at -5° before TDC for the injection timing angle. The maximum torque and brake power achieved is 37.60 Nm at 4000 rpm and 23.46 kW at 7000 rpm

Single-cylinder 125 cc Stepped-piston Engine for Mobility and Portable Power Generation Applications

Two-stroke engines are far simpler than four-stroke engines from a physical perspective. For a given brake output, two-stroke engines are lighter, easier to work on, and provide higher power-to-weight ratio than four-stroke engines, making them suitable for small platform applications. However, conventional two-stroke engines have a reputation for generating smoke and unburned fuel, meaning they may not meet many emissions regulations, now enforced around the world. Thus, for many decades two-stroke engines have not been not favored, giving way to four-stroke engines for dominant applications, especially for mobile power-generation purposes. In the quest to improve the potential of such an engine, a group of researchers from the Automotive Development Centre (ADC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), has developed a 125 cc, air-cooled stepped-piston engine to demonstrate the higher power-to-weight ratio feature, apart from overcoming emission reduction. The engine is designed to mitigate the problem of mixture short circuiting, which is the major hindrance to combustion efficiency. To this end, they have incorporated a three-port stratification strategy into the engine. This paper provides an overview related to the earlier work done to integrate the necessary features and highlights some of the performance features of this unique engine desig

Review on typical ingredients for ammonium perchlorate based solid propellant

Ammonium perchlorate (AP) based solid propellant is a modern solid rocket propellant used in various applications. The combustion characteristics of AP based composite propellants were extensively studied by many research scholars to gain higher thrust. The amount of thrust and the thrust profile, which may be obtained from a specific grain design, is mainly determined by the propellant composition and the manufacturing process that produces the solid propellant. This article is intended to review and discuss several aspects of the composition and preparation of the solid rocket propellant. The analysis covers the main ingredients of AP based propellants such as the binder, oxidizer, metal fuel, and plasticizers. The main conclusions are derived from each of its components with specific methods of good manufacturing practices. In conclusion, the AP based solid propellant, like other composite propellants is highly influenced by its composition. However, the quality of the finished grain is mainly due to the manufacturing process