Experimental Investigation of Diesel Engine Characteristics under Various Loads

Abstract

Internal combustion engines (ICEs) are widely used in the road, sea, air and railway vehicles and stationary such as generators, pumps elevators or agricultural and construction machinery. The features expected from the ICEs differ according to the usage areas. For example; a vehicle engine should operate at a certain lower and upper engine speeds according to the engine load in constant gas condition and the features of the engine should be known in this range. On the other hand, a power plant engine must work at a constant speed under various loads for the electricity produced to be at a desired frequency. Diesel engines are widely used as stationary engines due to the higher fuel economy, especially in places where high power is required. Therefore, it is important to be known of the characteristics of the stationary engine under various operating conditions. In the presented study, it is aimed to determine experimentally the characteristics of a diesel engine under variable loads and at constant speed. In the experimental study, the characteristics of the engine such as air excess coefficient, torque, brake power, various efficiencies and fuel consumption were determined under variable loads by using a single–cylinder, four–stroke and water–cooled direct injection experimental diesel engine. Experimental results show that the variation of engine load affected considerably the investigated engine characteristics.