Carroll E. Goering

Engine durability screening test of a diesel oil/soy oil/alcohol microemulsion fuel

A hybrid fuel and No. 2 diesel fuel were burned in direct-injection diesel engines to compare the effects of the fuels on engine durability. The hybrid fuel was a microemulsion of soybean oil, diesel fuel, 190-proof ethanol and 1-butanol. The engines were run for 200 hr on each fuel with loads and speeds controlled by computer according to a cycle suggested by the EMA (Engine Manufacturer’s Association). Engines were disassembled before and after the runs to determine the difference in wear and carbon deposits. The engine running on the hybrid fuel completed the 200-hr EMA test without difficulty. The hybrid produced less engine wear than diesel fuel, but produced greater deposits of carbon and lacquer on the injector tips, intake valves and tops of the cylinder liners. Also, engine performance was degraded ca. 5% at the end of the 200-hr test.

Quantifying Diesel Injector Coking with Computer Vision

ABSTRACT Vegetable oil fuels and highly viscous petroleum fuels cause injector nozzle coking when burned in diesel engines. A technique was developed to use computer vision to quantify the amount of carbon accumulated on injectors by measuring the net carbon profile around each orifice. Various fuel formulations produced carbon shadows that differed by more than 4600 pixel counts, while the vision system could measure carbon shadows to within 50 pixel counts.

Methyl Soyate as a Fuel in a Diesel Tractor

ABSTRACT SOYOIL Methyl Ester, a fuel produced from soybean oil and methanol, was evaluated as a fuel for a diesel agricultural tractor during a 578-h engine durability test. The engine produced the same brake power as with diesel fuel but had a greater specific fuel consumption. Crankcase oil dilution caused decreases in the oil viscosity to unsafe levels for light engine loading only. Carbon accumulation inside the engine was normal, except heavy accumulations were observed on the intake valves. Engine wear as measured by bearing metal loss was very low.

Simulation of a Fuel-Efficient Augmented Engine

ABSTRACT Farm tractors frequently operate at part load due to variable field conditions and imperfectly matched implements, and fuel economy is poor. A new engine-transmission control strategy is proposed in which a diesel engine coupled to a Continuously-Variable Transmission (CVT) is computer controlled to operate at minimum Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) while the CVT output shaft is held at constant speed. The engine-CVT-computer combination is viewed as an augmented engine in which a conventional power train can be added to provide desired travel speeds. The pto (power take off) shaft would be driven from the CVT output shaft to provide a constant-speed pto. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed system is effective with fuel savings exceeding 20% at half load or less.