Experimental Investigation of Effect of Preheating of Air and Exhaust Gas Recirculation on Four Stroke Diesel Engine

Abstract

Abstract This paper is concerned with means for heating the inlet air passed to the cylinder by using specifically designed and manufactured heat exchanger and also use of exhaust gas recirculation to investigate its effect on performance, combustion and emission characteristics of four stroke single cylinder diesel engine. A diesel engine having a cylinder, 3.5 KW power, constant speed of 1500 RPM, water cooled, Kirloskar make, diesel engine was selected as base engine and the experiments were conducted at part load and full load conditions. The diesel engine setup was modified with (i) incorporation of heat exchanger which was designed on the basis of availability of waste heat at the engine exhaust for preheating of air and (ii) exhaust gas recirculation for waste heat recovery and reduction in the NOx. The Experiments were conducted for six setups viz. i. Basic diesel engine setup ii. Basic diesel engine setup with 6 % EGR iii. Basic diesel engine setup with 12 % EGR iv. Modified setup with heat exchanger v. Modified setup with heat exchanger and 6% EGR and vi. Modified setup with heat exchanger and 12% EGR. The experimental results obtained with modified engine setup with use of heat exchanger and EGR. The results obtained indicate thermal efficiency is decreased with heat exchanger and 12 % EGR compared to base diesel with 12% EGR. The volumetric efficiency is decreased from base diesel by 16.87 % with heat exchanger and 6% EGR at 75% load. The NOx emission is increased with increase in load for all the configurations.