Experimental Investigation of Two Stroke Copper Coated Spark Ignition Engine with Gasoline and Gasohol
S. Narasimha Kumar

S. Narasimha Kumar, Mechanical Engineering Department, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Gandipet, Hyderabad, India.
Manuscript received on March 11, 2014. | Revised Manuscript received on March 15, 2014. | Manuscript published on March 25, 2014. | PP:1-7 | Volume-2 Issue-5, March 2014. | Retrieval Number: D0665022414/2014©BEIESP

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© The Authors. Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: The concept of catalytic combustion in spark ignition engines has been tried by various researches which offers improved thermal efficiency and reduced exhaust emissions due to oxidation of fuels with aid of catalyst. The piston top and cylinder head are coated with catalytic materials such as copper, chromium and nickel using flame spray gun. The performance, emission and combustion characteristics of the engine coated with catalytic materials are studied and are compared with the standard engine. In the present paper experimental investigations were conducted to evaluate the performance and control the exhaust emissions from two-stroke, single cylinder, spark ignition (SI) engine, with alcohol blended gasoline (80% gasoline and 20% ethanol by volume) having copper coated combustion chamber [CCCC, copper-(thickness, 300 μ) coated on piston crown, inner side of cylinder head] provided with catalytic converter with sponge iron as catalyst and compared with conventional SI engine (CE) with pure gasoline operation. Performance parameters (brake thermal efficiency, exhaust gas temperature and volumetric efficiency) and exhaust emissions (carbon monoxide (CO) and un-burnt hydro carbons (UBHC)) were determined with different values of brake mean effective pressure of the engine. A microprocessor-based analyzer was used for the measurement of CO/UBHC in the exhaust of the engine. Copper coated combustion chamber with alcohol blended gasoline considerably improved the performance and reduced pollutants in comparison with CE with pure gasoline operation. Catalytic converter with air injection significantly reduced pollutants with test fuels on both configurations of the combustion chamber. The catalyst, sponge reduced the pollutants effectively with both test fuels in both versions of the combustion chamber.
Keywords: S.I. Engine, CE, copper coated combustion chamber, Performance, Exhaust Emissions, CO, UBHC, Catalytic converter, Sponge iron, Air injection.