Experimental Investigation on

VCR Engine
Introduction:-

The compression ignition engines are widely

used due to reliable operation and economy. A diesel engine is an
internal combustion engine which operated using the diesel cycle.
The distinguishing feature of diesel engine is that the combustion
takes place when diesel is mixed with the compressed air. This
compressed air helps in auto ignition and also plays a vital role in
complete combustion as the atomized fuel needs oxygen to
combustion. This necessary oxygen is supplied by the air. Along
with compression ratios the performance of an engine is affected
by the load. Therefore analyzing various parameters of engine at
different loads is also crucial to optimize the engine for better
performance.

VCR Engine:-

Because of cylinder-bore diameter, piston-stroke

length and combustion-chamber volume are almost always
constant, the compression ratio for a given engine is almost
always constant, until engine wear takes its toll.
One exception is the experimental Variable
Compression engine. This engine uses a technique that
dynamically alters the volume of the combustion chamber (V c),
which, via above equation, changes the compression ratio (CR).
The VCR engine used for the experiment in this case uses a
special type of mechanical technique to vary the compression
ratio of the engine. Cylinder block is attached to an adjuster nut
arrangement with help of which it can be tilted to specified angle
to vary the clearance volume and hence the compression ratio
changes accordingly.
Compression ratio is the key parameter in
reciprocating engines. The concept of variable compression ratio

promises improved engine performance, efficiency and reduced

emissions. The higher cylinder pressures and temperatures during
the early part of combustion results in shorter ignition delay
period. As a result at low loads the greater the compression ratio,
the shorter is the combustion time. Time loss is subsequently
reduced. Therefore it seems reasonable that fuel consumption
rate is lower with high compression ratio at part load. The main
feature of the VCR engine is to operate at different compression
ratios, depending on the vehicle performance needs .

Literature Review:-

Many researchers and authors have

investigated the performance, combustion and emission of
ethanol-gasoline fuel by changing the different parameters such
as spark timing, blending ratio, compression ratio etc. some of
them are reviewed.
Dhanapal Balaji, Periyasamy Govindrajan, Jayaraj Venkatesan
2010, Investigated the effect of using unleaded gasoline and
additives blend on SI engine combustion and exhaust emission.
He found that, using ethanol-unleaded gasoline blend leads to a
significant reduction in exhaust emissions. On the other hand
blending of all ethanol fuels the CO2 concentration increases. The
addition of ethanol to unleaded gasoline the maximum pressure
will be reduced for ethanol blends, the flame speed will increase,
so that the spark timing of ethanol blends has to be optimized. By
adding the ethanol with pure gasoline with various percentages
the octane numbers of ethanol blends are increased. This leads to
increase the compression ratio and power output. So, brake
thermal efficiency of ethanol blends increased.
Huseyin Serdar Yucesu, Tolga Topgul, Can Cinar, Melih Okur 2006,
Studied the effect of ethanol-gasoline blends on engine
performance and exhaust emission in different compression ratio
in SI engine. He found that, with increasing compression ratio up

to 11:1, engine torque increased with E0 fuel, at 2000 rpm engine

speed. At the higher compression ratios the torque output did not
change noticeably. At 13:1 compression ratio compared with 8:1
compression ratio, the highest increment was obtained for both
fuels E40 and E60. At 11:1 compression ratio compared with 8:1,
the BSFC of E0 fuel reached minimum value and decreased about
10%, after this compression ratio the BSFC increased. The fuels
containing high ratios of ethanol; E40 and E60 have important
effects on the reduction exhaust emissions. The maximum
decrease in HC emission was obtained using E60.
Ibrahim Thamer Nazzal 2011, Studied the effect of gasolinealcohol blend on the performance of SI engine. The results are
presented in terms of speed and their effects are indicated that
when ethanolgasoline and methanolgasoline blended fuel is
used, the brake power of the engine slightly increase. While the
brake thermal efficiency increases compared with gasoline fuel. At
the same time, it can be found that B.S.F.C. Also enhance
compared with gasoline fuel. The exhaust gas temperature
decrease compared with gasoline fuel. The addition of methanol
to gasoline increases the octane number. Hence, it enables the
gasoline engine to operate at higher compression ratios.
C. Ananda Srinivasan and C.G. Saravanan 2010, Studied the
effects of ethanol-blended gasoline with oxygenated additives on
multi-cylinder SI engine. He found that the blend increased brake
thermal efficiency more than gasoline. The emission tests found
that the CO slightly decreased, while HC and O 2 increased
moderately and CO2 and NOx appreciably decreased. In addition,
combustion analyses were made with the help of combustion
analyser, in which cylinder pressure and heat release rate were
analysed.
Rong Horng Chen, Li-Bin Chiang, Chung-Nan Chen 2011,
Investigated the effect of ethanol-gasoline blended fuel on coldstart emission of an SI engine. More ethanol content in the
blended fuel makes the air-fuel mixture leaner and also affects

the RVP value. The engine could be started stably with E5, E10,
E20, and E30. The HC and CO emissions decreased significantly
with more ethanol than 20% added. However, for E40 the engine
idling became unstable because the air-fuel mixture was too lean.
Therefore, the ethanol content in gasoline for best cold-start
emissions was determined to be at least 20 per cent but no
greater than 30 percent.
Mustafa Koc,Yakup Sekmen,Tolga Topgil 2009, Studied the effect
of ethanol-unleaded gasoline blends on engine performance and
exhaust emission in SI engine. He found that, the effects of
unleaded gasoline (E0) and unleaded gasolineethanol blends
(E50 and E85) on engine performance and pollutant emissions
were investigated experimentally in a single cylinder four-stroke
spark-ignition engine at two compression ratios (10:1 and 11:1).
The engine speed was changed from 1500 to 5000 rpm at wide
open throttle. The results of the engine test showed that ethanol
addition to unleaded gasoline increase the engine torque, power
and fuel consumption and reduce carbon monoxide, nitrogen
oxides and hydrocarbon emissions. It was also found that ethanol
gasoline blends allow increasing compression ratio without knock
occurrence.

Objective:-

An experimental work was conducted to evaluate

the effect of compression ratio on performance and emission by
using conventional diesel fuel on the single cylinder four stroke
variable compression ratio (VCR) engine with the engine working
at different engine loads at different compression ratios. This
would give a complete idea how an engine behaves both at
various loads and compression ratios. After analyzing an attempt
has been made to suggest the best optimal compression ratio at
which an engine could work with higher thermal efficiency and
lower specific fuel consumption. The performance parameters

evaluated including Brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake specific

fuel consumption (BSFC).
Study of VCR engine performance for brake power, indicated
power, frictional power, BMEP, IMEP, brake thermal
efficiency,
indicated
thermal
efficiency,
Mechanical
efficiency, volumetric efficiency, specific fuel consumption.
Experimental analysis of performance of ethanol-gasoline at
different blending ratio E00, E05, E10, E15 and E20 with
variable compression ratio.

Keywords:-

variable compression ratio, brake thermal

efficiency, volumetric efficiency, specific fuel consumption, air
fuel ratio.

Experimental setup:-

The setup consists of single

cylinder, four stroke, 3.5kw VCR (Variable Compression Ratio)
Diesel engine with variable compression ratio from 12 to 18. The
compression ratio can be changed without stopping the engine
and without altering the combustion chamber geometry by
specially designed tilting cylinder block arrangement.

Loading is applied on the engine by help of eddy current

dynamometer. The experiment is carried out at different
compression ratios and different loads. Setup is provided with
necessary instruments for combustion pressure and crank-angle
measurements.

Engine Details:-

IC Engine set up under test is having

power 3.5 kW @ 1500 rpm which is 1 Cylinder, Four stroke ,
Constant Speed, Water Cooled, Diesel Engine, with Cylinder Bore

87.50(mm), Stroke Length 110.00(mm), Connecting Rod length

234.00(mm), Compression Ratio 12-18, Swept volume 661.45
(cc), Orifice diameter 20 (mm), Dynamometer arm length 185
(mm).

Testing Procedure:-

The VCR engine has to be operated

on the 1-butanol diesel blend at different compression ratios, with
a load range of 0-10kg at each given value of compression ratio.
For this, at a given compression ratio (12-18) the load is increased
from 0-10 kg, 2kg at a time, and the engine is run for the required
test duration for the measurement of values. Then the same
operation is to be performed for next value of compression ratio.

Conclusion:-

In the current study an attempt is made to find

an optimum compression ratio for diesel engine with diesel oil.
With respect to brake power the optimum compression ratio was
found as 17. But with respect to brake thermal efficiency and
specific fuel consumption the optimum compression ratio is found
to be 18. Therefore it is understood that the optimum
compression ratio for the current diesel engine will be around
17.5.