Ijmet 10 02_036

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 10, Issue 02, February 2019, pp. 351-360, Article ID: IJMET_10_02_036
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=2
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359
© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON
PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF FOUR
STROKE SINGLE CYLINDER PETROL ENGINE
USING A PRE-HEATING SET-UP FOR
METHANOL BLENDS
M. VykuntaRao*
and K. Simhadri
Department of Mechanical Engineering, GMR Institute of Technology, GMR Nagar, Rajam-
532127, Andhra Pradesh State, India
* Corresponding author
ABSTRACT
With ever increasing concern on energy security, future oil supplies, high
performance of automobiles, the global community has been seeking for non-
petroleum alternative fuels. it leads to research in modifying the mechanical design
and analysing its performance characteristics with vary in fuel used, applied load on
engine, torque, lubrication etc. preheating is a method to increase the thermal
efficiency of engine, decrease the humidity in inlet air supplied, reduce the undesired
effects of cold start and in turn helps for complete combustion. The present research
work was to analysis the performance characteristics of a four stroke DTS-I, single
cylinder, air cooled, spark injection petrol fuelled with methanol blends in different
concentrations. The results are compared with the modified engine in which the inlet
air gets preheated. The engine test results showed improvement in all performance
characteristics in modified engine. It results an increase in brake thermal efficiency by
4-6%, indicated thermal efficiency by 3-5% and improvement in Brake specific fuel
consumption by 5.4% with comparison with normal engine.
Keywords: Methanol, Brake thermal Efficiency, Pre-heating, Brake Specific Fuel
Consumption.
Cite this Article: M. VykuntaRao and K. Simhadri, Experimental Investigation on
Performance Characteristics of Four Stroke Single Cylinder Petrol Engine using a Pre-
Heating Set-Up for Methanol Blends, International Journal of Mechanical
Engineering and Technology, 10(2), 2019, pp. 351-360.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=2

Experimental Investigation on Performance Characteristics of Four Stroke Single Cylinder Petrol
Engine using a Pre-Heating Set-Up for Methanol Blends
1. INTRODUCTION
The spark ignition engine is generally called as petrol engine which takes in a flammable
mixture of air and petrol which is ignited by a timed spark plug during the compression
stroke.it is classified into 2 strokes and 4 strokes. Diesel engines has high thermal efficiency
than gasoline engines but the engine power output for gasoline engines are high [1]. Due to
the diminishing of fossil fuels, search of alternative fuels came into existence [2]. SI engine
can also run on auto gas, methanol, ethanol, CNG, hydrogen etc... with change in performance
and emission characteristics from one to another [3]. But their exist various drawback in order
to get higher performance and efficiency. The thermal efficiency of the internal combustion
engine is lower at cold start condition than when the vehicle reaches steady state temperatures
[4]. Due to improper injection timing, the level of exhaust emissions (NOx, HC and CO) are
abnormal and affects globally [5].
One of the methods to achieve curtailment of IC engines is dual fuel mode.it generally
uses combination of different fuels before ignition and injection into IC engines. Using
natural gas as a supplement to normal diesel fuel in compression ignition engine, it suffers
from low brake thermal efficiency and high CO emissions but no problem to engine
operational lifetime [6]. A. paykani et al., has experimentally investigated by using dual fuel (
diesel-natural gas) to examine the engine performance and emission characteristics, it
concluded that CO and HC emissions are reduced by 24% and 31% respectively[7].
The objective of this paper is to analyze the influence of methanol-gasoline blend in the
fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency and find out the optimum fuel blend of different
concentration which produced better results with preheating setup. methanol-gasoline blends
works under high compression ratio [8]. the combustion of fuel gives higher brake mean
effective pressure which compensate the effect of low heating value or even rise of pressure
cause higher thermal efficiency [9]. M.Abu-Zaid et al., studied the effect of methanol addition
to gasoline in the performance of four stroke, single cylinder SI engine.it was found that best
engine performance for maximum power and minimum BSFC occurs when a mixture of M15
is used [10].
1.1. Methanol as Alternative Fuel
Methanol is derived from any material that can be decomposed into CO (or CO2) and
hydrogen. The primary feedstock for methanol production is natural gas, lignite coal and
renewable resources such as wood, agricultural biomass materials, waste biomass and
municipal wastes [5]. The physical and chemical properties of methanol and gasoline blends
are shown in table (1). With the usage of methanol as blend, the following benefits and
drawback are resulted.
1.1.1. Benefits
a) It has greater octane number, high heat of evaporation, oxygen content by weight %
higher than other fuels [3].
b) It is high efficient and have better engine performance through their lean operating
ability [11]
c) In compare to pure petrol with methanol blend, the CO & NOx emissions are reduced
by about 25% & 80% [12].

M. VykuntaRao and K. Simhadri
1.1.2. Drawbacks
a) Methanol vehicles requires larger fuel tanks and expensive than petrol engines [3] .
b) Methanol has higher flash point (45c). it requires a special ignition system for proper
working.
c) Using pure methanol produces more CO and HC emissions in Methanol mode. [13]
1.1.3. Pre-Heating
In IC engines, the inlet air temperature plays an important role in achieving better efficiency
[14]. IC engine efficiency depends on multiple complex parameters like heat losses during
cooling of engine, heat losses in exhaust gases, friction loss, transmission efficiency losses etc
[15,16]. 60-70% of fuel energy is still lost as waste heat through coolant or the exhaust.in
considering the view, waste heat recovery with convection methods is used like pre-heaters
[17]. Air Intake Heaters are installed in the intake manifold and pre-heat the combustion air to
the required temperature for ignition of fuel.it reduces white smoke, engine wear, battery
consumption and fuel consumption during start up and reduce the effect of cold start. [4,18].
using pre-heating for methanol gasoline blends, the humidity in the atmospheric air affects the
petrol vaporization in the carburetor. Therefore, the inlet to the carburetor for a considerable
amount, the vaporization can be ease and in turn proper combustion and ignition is achieved
[19-21]. Brake specific fuel consumption is improved under high-load operating conditions
[22].
2. EXPERIMENTATION
The engine test was performed at constant engine speed. The speed can be measured by
tachometer. For each experiment, five runs were performed to obtain an average value of
experimental data. Experiments were performed at various loads as null load, 2 kg, 4 kg, 6 kg,
8 kg. Methanol-gasoline blends were prepared by volume measure by 10%, 20%, 40%, 60%,
80%, 100%.the specification of engine are tabulated in table 2. It was first tested on a normal
engine and then it was tested on a modified engine with preheater setup.
Table 1 Properties of methanol and gasoline

Table 2 Engine specification
A four-stroke spark ignition engine is mounted on the fabricated frame as shown in fig.1.
The frame has a provision for a rope brake dynamometer to be fitted. The engine used in this
case is a Pulsar 150cc engine. Performance test is conducted on the engine under normal
condition and the observations are used to calculate the efficiencies in this case.
are used to calculate the efficiencies in this case.
Figure 1 Set up of normal engine
Figure 2 Modified engine experimental set up

The above figure shows the modified engine set-up mounted on the main frame. As
shown above we use a copper tube in between the carburettor and the air filter. Now another
copper tube of smaller diameter is wound around this tube. The other end is connecting to the
silencer frame so that the heat of the exhaust gases is transferred to the copper tube. We use
copper as it has high thermal conductivity. Hence using copper reduces the time of initial
heating, before which the experiment is conducted.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Effect on S.F.C before & after pre-heating
Figure 3 Load v/s S.F.C for petrol-methanol blends in normal engine
The variation of the specific fuel consumption with the engine load, for different petrol-
methanol blends before pre-heating are shown in Fig 3. The specific fuel consumption
decreases with the increase in the load. With the increase in amount of methanol (%) in
blends, S.F.C is more in all blends except for M10 & M20 blends compared to pure petrol.
B20+10% DEE has lower specific fuel consumption when compare to other tested samples.
M100 has higher & M20 has lower specific fuel consumption when compare to other tested
samples.
Figure 4 Load v/s B.S.F.C for petrol-methanol blends in modified engine
0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
2
2.4
2.8
0 2 4 6 8
petrol
10%
Methanol
20%
Methanol
40%
Methanol
60%
Methanol
80%
methanol
100%
Methanol
Load (kg's)
S.F.C(Kg/KwH)
0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
2
2.4
2.8
0 2 4 6 8
petrol
10% Methanol
20% methanol
40% methanol
60% methanol
80% methanol
Load (kg's)
BSFC(Kg/KwH)

The variation of the specific fuel consumption with the engine load, for different petrol-
methanol blends after pre-heating are shown in Fig 4. Due to preheating setup, the S.F.C
values are less than without preheating for all tested fuels. M20 blends has consumed less
S.F.C in both cases compare to all other tested fuel samples.
3.1.1. Effect on Brake thermal efficiency before & after preheating
Figure 5 Load v/s B.T.E for petrol-methanol blends in normal engine
The variation of BTE with engine load, for different blends of petrol-methanol are shown
in Fig 5. with increase in loads, BTE increases. With increase in methanol %, brake thermal
efficiency decreased. methanol blends up to 50% in pure petrol has higher brake thermal
efficiency.M20 has higher B.T.E at all loads compare to all tested fuel samples.
Figure 6 Load v/s B.T.E for petrol-methanol blends in modified engine
The variation of BTE with engine load, for different blends of petrol-methanol are shown
in Fig 5. With the increase in load, B.T.E increases. Due to preheating of inlet air the B.T.E
increased compare to before preheating at all loads. M20 has higher B.T.E at all loads
compare to all tested fuel samples. Compare to petrol, M20 has 12% increased B.T.E.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 2 4 6 8
petrol
10% Methanol
20% Methanol
40% Methanol
60% Methanol
80% methanol
Load (kg's)
Brakethermalefficiency(%)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 2 4 6 8
petrol
10%
Methanol
20%
Methanol
40%
Methanol
60%
Methanol
80%
methanol
Load (kg's)
Brakethermalefficiency(%)

3.2. Effect on Indicated thermal efficiency before & after preheating:
Figure 7 Load v/s I.T.E for petrol-methanol blends in normal engine
Figure 8 Load v/s I.T.E for petrol-methanol blends in modified engine
The variation of ITE with engine load, for different blends of petrol-methanol are shown
in Fig 8. At null load, the variations in I.T.E is less between 2-3% expect for M100. In Fig 8,
the variation in I.T.E after preheating are shown. It showed better results with increased
efficiency by 3-5%. Pure methanol has less I.T.E than pure petrol. M20 has high I.T.E than
other fuels followed by M40 compared to all other tested fuels before and after preheating.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 2 4 6 8
petrol
10%
Methanol
20%
methanol
40%
methanol
60%
methanol
80%
methanol
Load (kg's)
indicatedthermalefficiency(%)

3.3. Effect on Mechanical efficiency before and after preheating
Figure 9 load v/s ɳ(mech) for petrol-methanol blends in normal engine
Figure 10 Load v/s ɳ(mech) for petrol-methanol blends in modified engine
The variation of mechanical efficiency with engine load, for different petrol-methanol
blends before and after preheating are shown in Fig 9 & Fig 10. efficiency’s increases due to
preheating of inlet air, there exists a larger fluctuation in mechanical efficiency for all blends
at different loads.M10 has higher M.E followed by M20 in comparison with all other tested
fuels.
4. CONCLUSIONS
From the experimentation, following are the conclusions,
 The performance characteristics of petrol-methanol blends are improved due to
preheating of inlet air in modified engine
 M20 has 16% lesser specific fuel consumption compared to pure petrol in modified
engine. Pure methanol has more specific fuel consumption than petrol.
 Comparing to petrol B.T.E, M20 has 35% more brake thermal efficiency and a
increase by 4-6% in modified engine.
-10
10
30
50
70
90
0 2 4 6 8
petrol
10%
Methanol
20%
methanol
40%
methanol
60%
methanol
80%
methanol
100%
Methanol
Load (kg's)
mechanicalefficiency(%)
-10
10
30
50
70
90
0 2 4 6 8
petrol
10%
Methanol
20%
methanol
40%
methanol
60%
methanol
80%
methanol
Load (kg's)
mechanicalefficiency(%)

5. FUTURE SCOPE
There are many problems demanding further research & development work are as follows:
 Varying the engine specifications of testing setup such as ignition system,
compression ratio, injection timing and addition of additives has been carried out
in many studies on IC engines to reduce emissions and performance better.
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