Experimental and computational investigation of engine characteristics in a compression ignition engine using mahua oil

Many research works have been carried out worldwide for finding a suitable substitute for diesel which is predominantly used for Heavy Vehicles, and creating a validated numerical model which will be useful for effective performance predictions. A lot of experimental work has been carried out using Pure Mahua oil as an alternative to diesel. But an extensive numerical analysis for the same has not been carried out so far. In this research, combustion and emission characteristics of pure Mahua oil as an alternative to diesel running at 40%, 80% and 100% load has been carried out experimentally and theoretically using Computational Fluid Dynamics software ANSYS Fluent ICE. An extensive CFD simulation analysis was carried out using the dimensions of the Compression Ignition engine used for the experiment by considering a cylindrical domain in which a 60 degrees Sector of combustion chamber taken for analysis. Transient Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis has been carried out by using injection profile and other engine data as input for the combustion simulation. The simulated combustion parameters that were considered for interpretation includes the Pressure-Crank Angle (P-theta), Temperature Crank Angle (T-theta) and Apparent heat release rate. The experimental and simulation results presented in this article justifies Mahua Oil as a potential alternative for Diesel. From this research work we conclude that though the combustion and performance characteristics of Mahua Oil is less compared to that of Diesel, the lesser Nox emissions and cost of the fuel makes it as an attractive alternative for diesel.