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Study of cold start airfuel mixture parameters for spark ignition engines fueled with
gasolineisobutanol blends
Adrian Irimescu
Politehnica University of Timisoara, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Thermal Machines and Transportation, Bld Mihai Viteazul no 1, 300222 Timisoara, Romania
a r t i c l e
i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Biofuels are set to play an important role in the future strategy of automotive fuel suppliers, and therefore
the study of using alcohols in spark ignition engines has become a necessity. A simple thermodynamic model
was developed for calculating airfuel mixture parameters for port injection engines fueled with gasoline
isobutanol blends, and theoretical results were compared to experimental values. For simulating the
evaporation process, gasoline was considered a mixture of four components, with isobutanol added in
different proportions. As all engine components are at ambient temperature during cold starts, mixture
formation was considered an adiabatic process, with the fuel breaking up into droplets and evaporating, thus
resulting in a temperature drop. A port injection engine tted to a passenger car was used to validate the
model for calculating airfuel mixture parameters.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Airfuel mixture formation in port injection engines is a complex
process of heat and mass transfer. Intake air is mixed with pulverized
gasoline that follows a multi-stage process in which the liquid is
broken into small size droplets and then evaporates. How much fuel
actually evaporates depends on various conditions such as manifold
pressure, air temperature and relative humidity, as well as airfuel
ratio.
Given the efforts of reducing emissions from passenger cars, any
improvement in spark ignition (SI) engines operation is carefully
studied at present [15], as well as the use of alternative fuels [69].
During engine warm-up, unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon
monoxide (CO) emissions are much higher than normal operation. For
this reason, the study of airfuel mixture formation is an important
issue that can result in valuable solutions to specic problems such as
fueling SI engines with bioalcohols.
One major issue when using alcohols to fuel SI engines is that cold
start during winter proves very difcult, if not even impossible.
Bioethanol has been used as a fuel for many years, in regions where
ambient temperatures rarely drop below 15 C. Vehicles equipped to
run on pure ethanol (95.6% volumetric concentration or anhydrous)
generally feature an additional gasoline tank used for cold starts when
ambient temperatures are low [10].The so called ex fuel vehicles are
capable of using gasolineethanol mixtures with up to 85% volumetric
concentration of alcohol (fuel blend commercially known as E85).
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After the fuel evaporates, all three components, air, fuel and water
reach the same temperature Tmix. Airfuel mixture temperature after
fuel evaporation (Tmix) was calculated from the energy balance
equation (hamb = hmix, as practically no heat is transferred to and from
engine components like the intake manifold, cylinder head and intake
valve).
Gasoline was considered a mixture of hexane, heptane, octane and
decane, with proportions determined based upon the distillation
curve [12]. Isobutanol was considered as the fth component of the
blend. Fuel enthalpy was calculated using Eq. (3), with xvi = mvi / ma
and xli = mli / ma.
Nomenclature
cf
cp
h
m
M
p
r
T
t
x
y
i=1
i=1
xv =
i=1
5
pv
1
y M
pman pv Ma i = 1 vi i
yvi =
and Amagat's laws can be used in calculations. As the liquid phase is
far denser than gas, the volume of liquid fuel, as well as water or ice
that may form in the intake port were considered insignicant. Air,
water vapor and liquid fuel before the evaporation process, as well as
all engine components can be considered to have the same
temperature, namely ambient temperature (Tamb), as the engine is
cold. The enthalpy before and after the fuel evaporates fully or
partially can be calculated with Eqs. (1) and (2), where xf = mf / ma.
1
psi yli
pv
yli = 1
yv + yl = 1
i=1
+ xvi ri
Dry air and water enthalpy values were calculated with similar
equations, the energy balance resulting in an equation where Tmix is
unknown. Evaporated fuel ratio (xv) was calculated using Eq. (4), with
yvi = vi / v as the molar participation of component i in vapor fuel. It
depends on the fuel vapor pressure (pv), as the sum of partial
pressures for every fuel component.
Subscripts
amb
ambient, before fuel evaporation
a
air
f
fuel
i
fuel component number
l
liquid fuel
man
manifold
mix
after complete or partial fuel evaporation
s
saturation
v
fuel vapor
w
water
Fig. 1. Thermocouples, pressure and air ow sensors inside the engine bay.
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xf =
pv
1 1 5
y M
pman pv Ma yv i = 1 i i
Ratios xvi and xli can be calculated using Eqs. (10) and (11).
xvi =
pv
Mi
y
pman pv Ma vi
10
xli =
pv
Mi yl
y
pman pv Ma yv li
11
3. Experimental
A port injection engine, equipped with an integrated injection and
ignition system, was used for the experimental trials. Near the injector
of cylinder number 2, a K type thermocouple was tted for measuring
airfuel mixture temperature (see Fig. 1). The thermocouple was
connected to a digital thermometer with a resolution of 0.1 C and a
precision of 0.05% for temperatures ranging from 65 to 199.9 C. A
diaphragm micro-mechanical pressure sensor was used for measuring
manifold absolute pressure. Relative airfuel ratio () was calculated
based on measured values for instant fuel consumption and air ow
going into the engine. Ambient air temperature (tamb), pressure (pamb)
and relative humidity () were measured with a digital Hygrometer
BarometerThermometer.
The inuences that different factors exert on the process of airfuel
mixture formation were studied by measurements taken along one
year so that a wide range of ambient conditions were covered.
Temperature, ambient pressure and relative humidity recorded
during measurements were within normal values for a temperate
climate. Atmospheric pressure ranged between 982 and 1032 mbar,
Fig. 2. Evaporated fuel fraction for different ambient temperatures and alcohol content
in the gasolineisobutanol blend.
Table 1
Measureda and calculated airfuel mixture temperatures.
pamb
[mbar]
Gasoline
1026
1007
1016
1004
993
IB10
1006
1016
1006
982
1008
IB50
1001
1016
998
1002
1015
IB70
996
982
982
1002
982
a
[%]
pman
[mbar]
tamb
[C]
tmix
[C]
Error
[C]
Measured
Calculated
82.4
63.1
44.8
46.8
23
316
327
296
234
213
11.3
0.1
16.2
28.6
36.4
19.7
14.9
0.4
7.2
15.8
20.81
12.71
0.92
7.72
14.66
1.11
2.19
1.32
0.52
1.14
67.5
58
29.1
33.8
42.5
266
286
246
242
248
12.3
18.3
21.8
23.8
26.8
2.3
0.8
2.2
3.4
4.2
3.94
0.43
1.94
3.24
5.47
1.64
1.23
0.26
0.16
1.27
34.6
62
52.1
51.2
47.6
321
306
318
292
295
7.2
9.8
13.1
20.4
23.2
3.4
0.8
2.7
5.5
9.2
3.09
1.69
0.45
3.95
5.32
0.31
2.49
2.25
1.55
3.88
88.2
50.6
24
62.1
39
286
272
272
252
322
12.7
15.4
19.4
21.7
23.7
7
7
10.6
13.2
12.2
0.72
1.83
3.76
4.41
6.89
6.28
5.17
6.84
8.79
5.31
Right after cold start, no load, n ~ 3500 rev/min, with ~ 0.750.85 for gasoline and
IB10, ~ 0.850.95 for IB50 and ~ 0.951.05 for IB70.
Fig. 3. (a) Relative errors for measurements with gasoline, calculated as absolute errors
referenced to a temperature interval of 20 to 40 C. (b) Temperature drop of airfuel
mixture after fuel evaporation for gasoline.
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Fig. 4. (a) Relative errors for measurements with IB50, calculated as absolute errors
referenced to a temperature interval of 20 to 40 C. (b) Temperature drop of airfuel
mixture after fuel evaporation for IB50.
Fig. 5. (a) Relative errors for measurements with IB70, calculated as absolute errors
referenced to a temperature interval of 20 to 40 C. (b) Temperature drop of airfuel
mixture after fuel evaporation for IB70.
were performed right after the engine was started. As the content of
isobutanol was increased, the relative airfuel ratio shifted towards
lean mixtures, with = 0.850.95 for 50% volumetric concentration of
alcohol (IB50) and = 0.951.05 for 70% concentration (IB70). The
reason for mixture leaning is that the injection system cannot increase
fuel ow to compensate for the additional oxygen content of
isobutanol when the oxygen sensor is not working within its normal
temperature range. Any mixture enrichment adjusted by the
electronic control unit was done only to ensure stable operation
after the engine started. Another important aspect that was taken into
account is that when the engine is idling, backow phenomena has a
signicant inuence on air ow inside the intake manifold. For this
reason, measurements were recorded at 35004000 rev/min, an
engine speed higher than the normal 720880 rev/min for idling. At
such higher engine speed backow of exhaust gas into the intake
manifold is greatly reduced.
4. Results and discussions
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