Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

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Aerospace Science and Technology

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Performance of a single-cylinder diesel engine using oxygen-enriched intake air at

simulated high-altitude conditions
Peter L. Perez, Andre L. Boehman ,1
The Pennsylvania State University, United States

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 15 January 2008
Received in revised form 25 May 2009
Accepted 11 August 2009
Available online 20 August 2009
Keywords:
Oxygen enrichment
High altitude
UAVs
Diesel engine
Brake-specic fuel consumption
Response surface methodology

A single-cylinder, naturally aspirated, air-cooled, direct-injected diesel engine was used to study the
effects of oxygen enrichment of intake air on engine performance at simulated high altitude conditions.
Altitudes up to 5200 m (17,000 ft) were simulated by using a throttle valve to restrict the mass air ow to
the engine and reduce intake pressure to represent the atmospheric pressures observed at high altitudes.
This altitude ceiling is relevant to current technology UAVs used by the military, such as the RQ-7A/B
Shadow 200 and the MQ-1 Predator. The oxygen volume fraction in the combustion air was increased by
mixing pure oxygen from gas bottles into the intake air. The response surface methodology (RSM) was
used to determine the relationships between fuel injection timing (FIT), engine load, simulated altitude,
and oxygen volume fraction to parameters of engine performance, such as power output, brake-specic
fuel consumption and fuel conversion eciency. It was found that power output depended mainly on
engine load and was not improved by the use of oxygen-enriched air, but it did not decrease signicantly
for altitudes up to 2600 m (8500 ft). The use of oxygen-enriched air was also effective to prevent the
deterioration in brake-specic fuel consumption when increasing simulated altitude, an effect that was
observed on fuel conversion eciency, peak cylinder pressures and maximum rates of heat release. Peak
combustion temperatures were signicantly affected by simulated altitude and oxygen volume fraction,
but the effect of simulated altitude was of larger magnitude than the effect of oxygen volume fraction.
2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has become an important area of research in the elds of aeronautics and
astronautics due to the numerous potential applications in which
they can be used: meteorological studies, crop dusting, military
intelligence operations, homeland security support, police surveillance, rescue operations, etc. [2,20]. UAVs can be used for long
periods of time because they are not restricted to the physiological
limitations of humans. Despite the potential advantages and applications, current UAV technologies exhibit higher life-cycle costs
than their manned counterparts [20]. The higher operating costs of
UAVs are related to replacement of engine and maintenance costs
due to prolonged operation (attrition), high power consumption of
specialized on-board equipment, and costs related to the infrastructure and personnel to keep them running [2].
The ideal UAV engine should be reliable, light-weight, fuelecient, low cooling/form drag, and multi-fuel capable. Although
the spark-ignited engines, which require high-octane fuels such as

Corresponding author at: 411 Academic Activities Building, University Park, PA

16802-2308, United States. Tel.: +1 814 865 7839; fax: +1 814 863 8892.
E-mail address: boehman@ems.psu.edu (A.L. Boehman).
1
Professor of Fuel Science and Materials Science and Engineering.
1270-9638/$ see front matter
doi:10.1016/j.ast.2009.08.001

2009 Elsevier Masson

SAS. All rights reserved.

aviation gasoline (Avgas) and methanol, have been the predominant choice among light aircraft, there is a growing trend to incorporate diesel engines in UAVs [19]. This movement has mainly
been forced by the reduced availability of Avgas, but is also related
to the search of higher reliability, better fuel eciency and lower
maintenance costs that can be obtained with diesel engines [19].
The implementation of heavy fuel requirements and standardization of fuel utilization among military vehicles have also accelerated the introduction of diesel fuel engines among UAVs [8,19].
Some diesel engines for aircraft applications have been certied for
operation and are already available in the market. Among these engines are the Wilksch WAM-12, the SMA SR-305, and the Thielert
TAE-125, but others, like the Delta Hawk, the Zoche ZO-01A and
the Airship A-Tech 100, are already in demonstration stage [19].
Even hybrid dieselelectric systems, like the Sci-Zone JT-2XL, are
being considered, which are promising to reduce fuel consumption
and increase engine durability [20].
Diesel engines also have the advantage that, unlike their gasoline counterparts, turbocharging is not knock-limited [8]. This
means that the power output can be kept constant at high altitudes by using much higher turbocharging boost pressures [8].
The turbochargers compensate for the decreased air density at
high altitudes, but have the disadvantage that the power output
is reduced at lower altitudes [19]. The use of turbochargers also

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P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

decreases engine durability due to the increased boost pressures,

especially if they are operating at very high altitudes [18]. Small
turbochargers suitable for small aircraft and UAVs must be built
with light materials, which is a feature that increases the cost and
reduces the operating life of the turbocharger. Increased aerodynamic and friction losses are inherent to these small turbochargers,
thus, they have relatively low performance eciency [8].
Even with ecient intercooling, the achievement of high pressure ratios requires several stages, increasing the weight, volume
and cost of the unit. One alternative to turbocharging is the
use of oxygen enrichment of the combustion air as a mean to
boost power and performance of diesel engines at high altitudes.
Oxygen-assisted diesel combustion is by no means a new idea.
Many researchers have been actively investigating the effects of
oxygenates on diesel combustion, and reviews of many relevant
papers have been published by Litzinger [13] and Natarajan [15].
Boehman and co-workers have considered oxygenation of diesel
through additives and alternative fuels and oxygen enrichment of
intake air [3,13,2123].
Most of the literature on oxygen-enriched combustion in diesel
engines reports signicant reductions in smoke emissions, higher
peak cylinder pressure, increased power output and signicantly
shortened ignition delay with oxygen enrichment in the intake air
[7,9,11]. The reduction of particulate matter (PM) has been consistently observed across a range of engine platforms, but additional
measures need to be taken in order to keep NOx emissions in
control [17,23]. Manipulation of fuel injection timing, the use of
water-fuel emulsions or low-grade fuels, and water addition to the
intake have been combined with oxygen enrichment to avoid the
increase in NOx emissions [1,16]. The best results have been obtained under conditions of retarded fuel injection timing, since this
compensates for the shorter ignition delay of diesel fuel when the
combustion occurs with oxygen-enriched air [1,16].
It is hypothesized that oxygen enrichment causes a shifting in
the explosion limits for the reactant mixture to lower temperature
and lower pressure [23]. It is desirable to reproduce these characteristics at the conditions of high altitude, where pressures and
air temperatures are lower compared to atmospheric conditions at
sea level. The characteristics of oxygen-enriched combustion would
also be of advantage to reduce the requirements of compression
and intercooling in turbochargers for small aircraft, which would
translate into lower manufacturing costs, increased fuel conversion
eciency and improved durability.
2. Materials and methods
The test engine was a single-cylinder, naturally aspirated, aircooled, direct-injected industrial diesel engine (Yanmar L70EE-DE)
with a continuous maximum power output of 4.3 kW at 3600 rpm.
Detailed specications of the test engine are shown in Table 1. The
engine was instrumented with a piezoelectric pressure transducer
(Kistler 6052B) to measure cylinder pressure and a Hall Effect
proximity sensor to measure needle-lift in the fuel injector and determine fuel injection timing. A shaft encoder (AVL 364) installed
on the engine crankshaft, along with a high-speed data acquisition
board (Keithley DAS 1800) are used to record cylinder pressure and
needle-lift signals with a crank angle resolution of 0.1 degrees.
The operation at high altitude was simulated by placing a throttle valve in the air intake to restrict the air mass ow inducted into
the engine, which created a vacuum pressure in the air intake due
to engine starvation. The intake manifold vacuum is correlated to
the reduced pressure experimented at high altitude by using the
U.S. Standard Atmosphere [24]. By using this system, atmospheric
pressures equivalent to altitudes up to 5200 m were simulated.
The high limit in simulated altitude was set at the maximum intake vacuum at which the Yanmar engine could sustain 75% load

Table 1
Specications of diesel engine.
Parameters

Unit L70EE-DE

Type
Cooling system
Combustion system
Starting system
Bore stroke
Displacement
Output
Continuous
Maximum
Rated engine speed
Compression ratio
Fuel
Fuel injection
system
Fuel injection
Fuel injection
Fuel injection
Governor

mm
L
kW
kW
rpm

pump

timing deg
nozzle
pressure MPa

Single-cylinder, 4-stroke diesel

Forced air cooling by ywheel fan
Direct injection system
Starting motor with recoil starter
78 64
0.306
4.3
4.8
3600
20.2
Bosch type Yanmar PFE-M type
15.0 0.5 bTDC
VCO nozzle Bosch made
19.6
All speed type mechanical

Table 2
Air properties according to the international standard atmosphere [24].
Altitude (m)

Temperature (K)

Pressure (MPa)

Water vapor (ppmw)

0
2600
5200

288.15
271.26
254.38

0.101
0.074
0.050

4686
2274*
975*

Linear interpolation from closest tabulated value.

without stalling. Yet, this ceiling in simulated altitude is relevant

to most of the current technology UAVs used by the U.S. Army
and the U.S. Air Force, such as the RQ-7A/B Shadow 200 and the
MQ-1 Predator, among others [4]. A high-capacity vacuum pump
(NASH MHF120) was installed to control the exhaust back pressure
according to the vacuum pressure in the intake. The intake temperature was not controlled to simulate the temperature-altitude
proles of the standard atmosphere, since the required instrumentation was not available. However, the effect of pressure reduction
is expected to be more signicant than the effect of temperature
reduction at high altitudes. The equation for power correction presented by Heywood can be used to estimate the effects of pressure
and temperature reduction on power output [10]:

CF =

P std
Pm P v

Tm

1/2

T std

(1)

where P std and T std are the pressure and temperature at the chosen standard conditions, P m and T m are the measured pressure
and temperature at which the tests were performed and P v is the
measured water vapor partial pressure at the test conditions [10].
Table 2 shows the values for the temperature, pressure and air
density as a function of altitude for the International Standard Atmosphere [24]. If one neglects the correction due to water vapor
(which is low compared to the total pressure), it can be seen that
the power output decreases by 50% (0.05/0.10) at 5200 m, while
the gain in power due to the temperature reduction (increase in
density) is only about 6% [(288.15/254.38)0.5 ]. Thus, the effect of
pressure outweighs the effect of temperature.
The oxygen concentration was increased by injecting pure oxygen from gas bottles to the air intake system of the engine. The
effects of oxygen enrichment on engine performance were studied
using a Central Composite Design (CCD) with a total of 30 runs
(including replicates) with fuel injection timing, engine load, simulated altitude and oxygen volume fraction as variable factors. The
levels considered for each variable factor are shown in Table 3.
3. Results and discussions
The parameters to evaluate engine performance were: power
output, brake-specic fuel consumption, fuel conversion eciency

P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

85

Table 3
Levels for the central composite experimental design to study oxygen enrichment
at simulated altitude.

Table 4
Response surface regression for power output vs. fuel injection timing, load, altitude
and oxygen volume fraction.

Operational factors

Levels

Term

Coecients

Standard error

p-value

Fuel injection timing (FIT)

10.7 bTDC
8.4 bTDC
7.6 bTDC
0.11 MPa (25% max. load)
0.22 MPa (50% max. load)
0.33 MPa (75% max. load)
0.098 MPa (ground)
0.074 MPa (2600 m)
0.050 MPa (5200 m)
21.0% vol
22.0% vol
23.0% vol

Constant
FIT
MEP
ALT
O2
FITxFIT
O2xO2
FITxMEP
FITxALT
FITxO2
MEPxALT
MEPxO2
ALTxO2

1.17797
0.00104
0.61824
0.03861
0.00064
0.00203
0.01211
0.00058
0.00134
0.00070
0.03956
0.00110
0.00009

0.006924
0.001749
0.007805
0.00777
0.001702
0.008827
0.006269
0.001777
0.001858
0.001513
0.007805
0.001766
0.001848

0.000
0.559
0.000
0.000
0.712
0.821
0.068
0.749
0.481
0.647
0.000
0.540
0.961

Brake-mean effective pressure (load)

Intake pressure (equiv. simulated altitude)

Oxygen content (% vol)

Note: Engine speed was kept constant at 2100 RPM for all the experiments.

and volumetric eciency. The performance data were collected for

10 minutes after stabilization of engine conditions. Cylinder pressure traces were also collected during the experiments. Pressure
traces were used to perform the combustion analysis to determine
peak combustion temperature and maximum rate of heat release,
which also are inuenced by oxygen enrichment and simulated altitude. The data were analyzed with a statistical software package
to t the response surfaces for each performance parameter.
3.1. Performance
3.1.1. Power output
One of the hypotheses from this study was to demonstrate the
ability of oxygen-enriched diesel combustion to increase the power
output in a diesel engine, due to the potential to burn more fuel
at a given stoichiometry (oxygen-to-fuel ratio) [1]. Assanis and coworkers reported an increase in brake power by up to 90% when
the oxygen volume fraction in the intake air was increased from
21% to 35% [1]. In that case, the oxygen-to-fuel ratio was maintained constant by increasing the fuel ow proportionally to the
increase in oxygen concentration [1,16].
Since the Yanmar L70EE-DE was not instrumented to control
fuel ow, but instead fuel ow was determined by the throttle
position at a particular load, oxygen-to-fuel ow ratio was not
kept constant in the experiments. This oxygen enrichment strategy, referred to as rich oxygen-to-fuel ratio [16], has been the most
used in the oxygen-enrichment studies reported in the literature,

and it has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing smoke

and particulate matter from diesel engines [16]. Unfortunately, this
strategy also increases NOx emissions due to the higher combustion temperatures. Simultaneous reductions in both NOx and PM
are also possible to obtain, but this requires signicant optimization of the fuel injection timing [16,25].
According to the literature, brake power output is not affected
by oxygen enrichment, unless the fuel quantity injected is also increased, keeping a constant oxygen-to-fuel ratio [1,16] or by using
high fuel ow rates [17]. The studies in the Yanmar L70EE-DE,
where fuel ow rate remained constant, conrmed this observation. Table 4 shows the coecients, standard error and p-value
(signicance) that result from the regression analysis performed to
t the response surface for power output data. The p-value indicates the probability that rejecting the null hypothesis (coecients
are equal to zero) is a mistake [14]. At the 95% condence level,
this implies that any coecient with a p-value lower than 0.05 is
statistically different from zero and therefore is not signicant to
the model [14].
According to these results, the statistically signicant parameters are brake-mean effective pressure (MEP) and altitude (ALT),
which is evidenced by the p-value lower than 0.05. The interaction term MEPxALT was also signicant, which indicates a strong
synergistic effect between engine load and simulated altitude. The
average response of the variable factors was rst analyzed in terms
of the main effect plots, which are presented in Fig. 1. From these
plots, the relative high importance of engine load on the power

Fig. 1. Main effects plots for power output (2100 RPM).

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P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

Fig. 2. Response surface plots for power output (2100 RPM).

output as compared to the rest of the factors can be readily seen.

The deterioration in power output for simulated altitude up to
2600 m was not signicant, but it dropped by more than 50%
when simulated altitude was increased to 5200 m. The implication of this observation is that the requirements for turbocharging
could be minimal (or none) for UAVs ying at 2500 m or less.
The interaction among the factors is better appreciated in the
response surface plots that were constructed by graphic representation of the tted models. Fig. 2 shows the response surface plots
for all the pairs of variable factors, in which the non-variable factors were kept at the center point levels. It is clear from these
plots that the effect of BMEP was the most important, even when
compared with the statistically signicant effect of simulated altitude. In terms of the proposed hypothesis of this study, the use of
oxygen enrichment did not affect the power output of the engine
when high altitudes were simulated.
3.1.2. Brake-specic fuel consumption
Brake-specic fuel consumption is affected by oxygen enrichment due to the change in the equivalence ratio as oxygen concentration in the intake air changes. The relationship below was used
to compute the stoichiometric airfuel ratio [10], where it is readily seen that, for a xed hydrogen to carbon molar ratio (H /C ), the
stoichiometric airfuel ratio (AFRstoich ) decreases when the oxygen
concentration in air increases. This means that less air is required
for complete combustion of diesel fuel. When air mass ow is constant, as in these experiments, the additional oxygen could be used
to burn additional fuel to improve fuel consumption.

AFRstoich =

X O2
MW N2 )]
(1 + b4 ) [MW O2 + ( 1X O2

(12.011 + b)

(2)

where b = H /C molar ratio, MW O2 and MW N2 are molecular

weight of oxygen and nitrogen respectively, and X O2 is the oxygen molar fraction (or volume fraction) in the combustion air.
The regression analysis shown in Table 5 indicates that engine
load, simulated altitude and oxygen volume fraction, as well as the
two-way interactions between these factors, are statistically significant to the BSFC response. The most important factors in term of

Table 5
Response surface regression for brake-specic fuel consumption vs. fuel injection
timing, load, altitude and oxygen volume fraction.
Term

Coecients

Standard error

p-value

Constant
FIT
MEP
ALT
O2
FITxFIT
O2xO2
FITxMEP
FITxALT
FITxO2
MEPxALT
MEPxO2
ALTxO2

168.723
6.993
218.129
63.763
20.343
207.320
2.324
6.869
17.471
9.880
85.505
0.529
31.944

22.229
5.614
25.056
24.945
5.465
28.339
20.125
5.706
5.966
4.857
25.056
5.668
5.932

0.000
0.228
0.000
0.019
0.001
0.000
0.909
0.243
0.009
0.056
0.003
0.927
0.000

the magnitude of their effects were the engine load and the fuel
injection timing. The main effects plots in Fig. 3 indicate a minimum in BSCF at the middle level of the design, which seems to be
driven by a reduction in BSFC of 55% at the middle fuel injection
timing (8.4 bTDC). Response surfaces in Fig. 4 provide more evidence in this respect, where a minimum curvature was observed at
the middle injection timing that was of the same order of magnitude of the effect of engine load (compare coecients in Table 5).
The analysis of BSFC response surfaces also indicated that the
use of oxygen-enriched air (22% O2 ) prevented the deterioration in
BSFC (and actually improved it) when simulated altitude increased,
which did not occur with standard air (21% O2 ). Oxygen-enriched
air also prevented deterioration of BSFC at high altitudes during
operation at low-to-medium loads, typical of cruise ight. Overall,
BSFC was reduced by about 40% when using oxygen-enriched air
(22% O2 ) as compared to standard air (21% O2 ), which was one of
the effects to demonstrate in this study.
The increase in BSFC using standard air is consistent with
results reported in the literature. Laforgia reported a linear increase in BSFC with decreasing atmospheric pressure (as altitude
increased) for a turbocharged diesel engine [12]. He reported an

P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

87

Fig. 3. Main effects plots for brake-specic fuel consumption (2100 RPM).

Fig. 4. Response surface plots for brake-specic fuel consumption (2100 RPM).

increase in BSFC of almost 10% when altitude increased from sea

level to 1200 m, which was due to the decrease in the airfuel
ratio (AFR) at the higher altitude and the inability of the fuel injection pump to correct for the mass fuel injected in order to keep
a constant AFR [12].
3.1.3. Fuel conversion eciency
Fuel conversion eciency was an important parameter to calculate as it relates power output from the engine to energy input from the diesel fuel. The results from the regression analysis
shown in Table 6 reveal that the statistically signicant factors in
the model were engine load, simulated altitude and oxygen volume fraction, as well as the interaction term between simulated
altitude and oxygen volume fraction.
The main effects plots in Fig. 5 show that the trends in fuel
conversion eciency followed the trends observed in power output. Fuel conversion eciency was dependent on engine load and
simulated altitude, but it was not severely deteriorated for simulated altitudes up to 2600 m. This means that the air at high

Table 6
Response surface regression for fuel conversion eciency vs. fuel injection timing,
load, altitude and oxygen volume fraction.
Term

Coecients

Standard error

p-value

Constant
FIT
MEP
ALT
O2
FITxFIT
O2xO2
FITxMEP
FITxALT
FITxO2
MEPxALT
MEPxO2
ALTxO2

0.228163
0.000380
0.087187
0.020071
0.002592
0.002920
0.004241
0.001189
0.003556
0.001676
0.024472
0.001402
0.007004

0.005720
0.001445
0.006448
0.006419
0.001406
0.007292
0.005179
0.001468
0.001535
0.001250
0.006448
0.001459
0.001527

0.000
0.795
0.000
0.006
0.081
0.693
0.423
0.428
0.032
0.196
0.001
0.349
0.000

altitudes does not need to be compressed to the pressures at sea

level to retain the same fuel conversion eciency.

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P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

Fig. 5. Main effects plots for fuel conversion eciency (2100 RPM).

Fig. 6. Response surface plots for fuel conversion eciency (2100 RPM).

The response surface plots in Fig. 6 also corroborate the high

importance of engine load. The use of oxygen-enriched air was
effective to maintain (with a slight improvement) fuel conversion
eciency when simulated altitude increases, which was found to
be the opposite when using standard air.
3.1.4. Volumetric eciency
The restriction of mass air ow to the engine by placing the
throttle valve in the air intake deteriorates volumetric eciency.
A similar situation occurs at high altitudes, where the lower air
density would reduce the mass of air that is moved into and out
of the cylinders. Since air is essentially the working uid, power
output is severely affected when volumetric eciency decreases.
This situation is corrected by the use of turbocharging, by which
air is compressed to increase the mass ow of air.

Table 7
Response surface regression for volumetric eciency vs. fuel injection timing, load,
altitude and oxygen volume fraction.
Term

Coecients

Standard error

p-value

Constant
FIT
MEP
ALT
O2
FITxFIT
O2xO2
FITxMEP
FITxALT
FITxO2
MEPxALT
MEPxO2
ALTxO2

0.717895
0.035901
0.008520
0.315787
0.014619
0.011994
0.019792
0.005202
0.030020
0.001423
0.016798
0.005985
0.011039

0.020830
0.011380
0.021260
0.020680
0.011440
0.029550
0.022250
0.012370
0.012330
0.010240
0.022310
0.012430
0.012430

0.000
0.004
0.692
0.000
0.212
0.688
0.382
0.677
0.022
0.891
0.458
0.634
0.382

P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

89

Fig. 7. Main effects plots for volumetric eciency (2100 RPM).

Fig. 8. Response surface plots for volumetric eciency (2100 RPM).

Although oxygen enrichment was not expected to improve volumetric eciency, it was of interest to determine the magnitude of the deterioration at high altitude. Table 7 indicates that
fuel injection timing and simulated altitude (and their interaction) were the statistically signicant factors in the model, but the
magnitude (coecient) of the effect of simulated altitude was 10
times higher than the effect of fuel injection timing. This is evident in the main effects plots in Fig. 7 and the surface response
plots in Fig. 8, which show that volumetric eciency dropped
from 100% to 35% when simulated altitude increased from 0 m
to 5200 m, which is a direct result of the restriction of the
mass air ow of air to the engine. As expected, oxygen enrichment did not affect the response of volumetric eciency in any
case.

3.2. Combustion analysis

3.2.1. Peak cylinder pressure
Cylinder pressure is an important performance parameter because it determines the work output from the engine (pdV work).
Peak cylinder pressures are expected to decrease at high altitude
due to the lower atmospheric pressures and lower air temperatures, a problem that is conventionally compensated with the use
of a turbocharger. Assanis and co-workers reported that, for a xed
peak cylinder pressure and xed oxygen-to-fuel ratio, the gross
power was higher with oxygen-enriched air than with high-boost
turbocharging [1]. The high compression work required to achieve
high intake manifold pressures was not present in the case of oxygen enrichment.

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P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

Table 8
Response surface regression for peak cylinder pressure vs. fuel injection timing,
load, altitude and oxygen volume fraction.
Term

Coecients

Standard error

p-value

Constant
FIT
MEP
ALT
O2
FITxFIT
O2xO2
FITxMEP
FITxALT
FITxO2
MEPxALT
MEPxO2
ALTxO2

53.8965
1.8464
7.1286
12.0254
2.5885
1.1520
1.2453
0.7300
0.7408
0.1250
3.9147
0.3219
2.5824

0.3208
0.1984
0.3581
0.3639
0.2075
0.3987
0.3408
0.1754
0.2097
0.1752
0.3784
0.1761
0.2219

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.005
0.001
0.000
0.001
0.479
0.000
0.073
0.000

Table 8 shows that all the variable factors and most of the
interaction terms were statistically signicant. Fig. 9 shows that
the effects of simulated altitude and load are the most important,
while the effects of fuel injection timing and oxygen concentration
are modest.
The response surface plots presented in Fig. 10 indicate that
the effect of fuel injection timing and its interactions with the
other factors were not of importance, even though they were statistically signicant. The interaction between BMEP and altitude
showed an interesting dependence on oxygen volume fraction,
since oxygen enrichment attenuated the decrease in peak cylinder pressure that occurred at high altitudes. The higher the oxygen
volume fraction, the less the decrease in peak cylinder pressure
at xed load. In fact, by extrapolation of the model, it was estimated that no decrease in peak cylinder pressure with increasing
altitude would occur if oxygen volume fraction was 25% (at high
load). The response surface of peak cylinder pressure versus alti-

Fig. 9. Main effect plots for peak cylinder pressure (2100 RPM).

Fig. 10. Response surface plots for peak cylinder pressure (2100 RPM).

P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

Table 9
Response surface regression for peak combustion temperature vs. fuel injection timing, load, simulated altitude and oxygen volume fraction.
Term

Coecients

Standard error

p-value

Constant
FIT
MEP
ALT
O2
FITxFIT
O2xO2
FITxMEP
FITxALT
FITxO2
MEPxALT
MEPxO2
ALTxO2

1596.91
9.48
89.74
564.35
197.15
81.40
38.92
13.95
16.80
4.87
17.57
38.28
220.79

47.54
29.41
53.07
53.94
30.76
59.10
50.51
26.00
31.09
25.97
56.08
26.10
32.90

0.000
0.748
0.096
0.000
0.000
0.174
0.444
0.594
0.591
0.852
0.755
0.148
0.000

tude and oxygen volume fraction also showed that oxygen enrichment helped to increase peak cylinder pressures, especially at high
altitudes.
3.2.2. Peak combustion temperature
Oxygen-enriched diesel combustion occurs at higher temperatures than combustion with standard air, due to the shortening
of the ignition delay of the fuel-air mixture and the acceleration
of combustion rates [16]. Peak combustion temperatures must be
kept in control in order to avoid an increase in NOx emissions,
which are of concern in diesel engines. Table 9 indicates that peak
combustion temperatures were signicantly affected only by simulated altitude and oxygen volume fraction (and their interaction
term). From the coecients, it was observed that the effect of simulated altitude was of larger magnitude than the effect of oxygen
volume fraction.
Fig. 11 shows the large effect of simulated altitude to increase
combustion temperature, in contrast with the modest increase observed with oxygen enrichment. This is due to the increase of
the equivalence ratio that occurs when the mass air ow is restricted with the throttle valve in the air intake. The response
surface plots (Fig. 12) make clear the inuence of simulated altitude on peak combustion temperature. In reference to the effects
of oxygen enrichment, the response surface versus oxygen volume
fraction and simulated altitude as factors shows that increasing the
oxygen concentration at high altitude further increases combustion
temperatures, an effect that is not observed at ground level intake

91

pressure. As it was already observed from the regression analysis,

engine load and fuel injection timing were not signicant to the
peak combustion temperature in these experiments.
3.2.3. Maximum rate of heat release
Rates of heat release from fuel combustion are closely related
to peak combustion temperatures in the sense that the higher
the heat released, the higher the combustion temperature. In this
study, the cylinder pressure traces were used to compute the rates
of heat release as a function of crank angle degrees (CA). The
equation for computing the apparent heat release rate was derived
from the combination of the rst law of thermodynamics and the
ideal gas law [10]. The maximum value of the rate of heat release
(ROHR) was used as a response to analyze the changes in this parameter as a function of the variable factors under study. Table 10
shows the results from the regression analysis of the maximum
ROHR. It is observed that all the factors are statistically signicant,
as well as the interaction terms FITxMEP, MEPxALT, MEPxO2 and
ALTxO2.
Fig. 13 shows the main effects of the variable factors on the
maximum ROHR. It was observed that in order to extract the
maximum energy from the combustion of the fuel, fuel injection timing should not be retarded by more than 8.4 CA bTDC
and load should be at least 0.22 MPa (50%). The effect of altitude reects that the increase in equivalence ratio was benecial to release the maximum energy from the diesel fuel. When
simulated altitude increased to 5200 m, the maximum ROHR decreased due to the lack of sucient oxygen for complete combustion. Similar experiments in turbine engines demonstrated the
effectiveness of oxygen enrichment to increase the ignition velocities in the vicinities of the combustor, which helped to improve
the performance and the maximum simulated altitude achievable
[5,6].
The response surface plots in Fig. 14 show that engine load
and simulated altitude were the most important factors in the response of the maximum ROHR. The interaction between these two
factors indicated that the effect of the change in equivalence ratio at simulated altitude is more pronounced at high load (where
more fuel mass is injected) than at low load. The slope of the increase in maximum ROHR with increasing altitude is steeper as
the oxygen concentration increases, which is consistent with the
increase in peak cylinder pressure and peak combustion temperature.

Fig. 11. Main effect plots for peak combustion temperature (2100 RPM).

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P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

Fig. 12. Response surface plots for peak combustion temperature (2100 RPM).

Table 10
Response surface regression for maximum rate of heat release vs. fuel injection timing, load, simulated altitude and oxygen volume fraction.
Term

Coecients

Standard error

p-value

Constant
FIT
MEP
ALT
O2
FITxFIT
O2xO2
FITxMEP
FITxALT
FITxO2
MEPxALT
MEPxO2
ALTxO2

0.040694
0.003401
0.015144
0.007703
0.003745
0.001548
0.001356
0.001617
0.001028
0.000842
0.010626
0.001055
0.004455

0.000895
0.000554
0.000999
0.001016
0.000579
0.001113
0.000951
0.000490
0.000585
0.000489
0.001056
0.000491
0.000619

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.170
0.159
0.002
0.084
0.091
0.000
0.036
0.000

4. Conclusions
The use of oxygen enrichment on a diesel engine under simulated altitude conditions was studied using the response surface
methodology to determine the relationships between the variable
factors (fuel injection timing, engine load, simulated altitude, and
oxygen volume fraction) and parameters of engine performance,
such as power output, brake-specic fuel consumption and fuel
conversion eciency. The effect of the variable factors on peak
cylinder pressure, peak combustion temperature and maximum
rate of heat release was also assessed.
It was found that power output depended mainly on engine
load and was not improved by the use of oxygen-enriched air,
but it did not decrease signicantly for altitudes up to 2600 m,
which means that unmanned aircraft systems with ceiling below
this limit would not need turbocharging. Fuel injection timing was

Fig. 13. Main effect plots for maximum rate of heat release (2100 RPM).

P.L. Perez, A.L. Boehman / Aerospace Science and Technology 14 (2010) 8394

93

Fig. 14. Response surface plots for maximum rate of heat release (2100 RPM).

the most important factor to decrease brake-specic fuel consumption (BSFC) in 55% at the middle injection timing, while a more
modest effect was observed for oxygen enrichment, with a reduction of about 40% for an oxygen volume fraction of 22%. The use of
oxygen-enriched air prevented the deterioration in BSFC when increasing simulated altitude, which did not occur with standard air.
A similar effect was observed on fuel conversion eciency when
using oxygen-enriched air.
Oxygen enrichment was also effective to attenuate the decrease in peak cylinder pressure that occurred at high altitudes.
The higher the oxygen volume fraction, the lesser the decrease
in peak cylinder pressure at xed load. Peak combustion temperatures were signicantly affected only by simulated altitude and
oxygen volume fraction, but the effect of simulated altitude was of
larger magnitude than the effect of oxygen volume fraction. Engine
load and fuel injection timing were not signicant to combustion
temperature in these experiments.
In order to extract the maximum energy from fuel combustion,
fuel injection timing should not be retarded to less than 8.4 CA
bTDC and load should be at least 0.22 MPa (50%). When the simulated altitude increased to 5200 m, the maximum ROHR decreased
due to the lack of enough oxygen for complete combustion. The
slope of the increase in maximum ROHR with increasing altitude
was steeper as the oxygen concentration increased, which was consistent with the increase in peak cylinder pressure and combustion
temperatures.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by eVionyx, Inc. and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through the subcontract
OSP # 109298. The authors also wish to thank Dr. Sadeg Faris of
Reveo/eVionyx and Dr. William Coblentz of DARPA for their input
and technical support during this project.
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