PERFORMANCE AND EXHAUST EMISSION CHARACTERISTICS OF A SPARK IGNITION ENGINE OPERATED WITH GASOLINE AND CNG BLEND

Using CNG as an additive for gasoline is a proper choice due to higher octane number of CNG enriched gasoline with respect to that of gasoline. As a result, it is possible to use gasoline with lower octane number in the engine. This would also mean the increase of compression ratio in SI engines resulting in higher performance and lower gasoline consumption. Over the years, the use of simulation codes to model the thermodynamic cycle of an internal combustion engine have developed tools for more efficient engine designs and fuel combustion. In this study, a thermodynamic cycle simulation of a conventional four-stroke spark-ignition engine has been developed. The model is used to study the engine performance parameters and emission characteristics of CNG/gasoline blend fuelled engine. A spark ignition engine cycle simulation based on the first law of thermodynamic has been developed by stepwise calculations for compression process, ignition delay time, combustion and expansion processes. The building blocks of the model are mass and energy conservation equations. Newton-Raphson method has been used to solve the equations numerically and there was no need to solve them analytically. In the quasi-dimensional combustion model, the cylinder is divided into two zones separated by a thin flame front. The flame front propagates spherically throughout the combustion chamber to the point that it contacts the cylinder wall and head. The model effectively describes the thermodynamic processes and chemical state of the working fluid via a closed system containing compression, combustion, and expansion processes. The model predicts the trends and tradeoffs the performance characteristics at various engine speeds. The variation of indicated power, ISFC and emissions are predicted by the model. Experimental data are also presented to indicate the validity of the model. The predicted results based on the model have shown reasonable agreement with the corresponding experimental data.