2019

Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

CHAPTER 2

APPLICATIONS OF BIO-FUEL FOR INTERNAL

COMBUSTION ENGINES
1 ,2
Mahendran Kumaran , Amir Khalid
Muhammad 1
Akasha Hashim
1
Centre for Energy and Industrial Environment Studies (CEIES),
Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat,
86400 Johor, Malaysia.
2
Advanced Technology Centre (ATC),
Faculty of Engineering Technology,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja,
Batu Pahat 86400 Johor, Malaysia.

4.0 INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, the automotive industry is seeking new solutions to meet

future emissions regulation targeting improvements to air quality
while significantly reducing fuel consumption and CO, CO2, NOX,
PN and HC emissions, which are all global issues. Furthermore,
European legislators are expected to pass regulations regarding NOX
emissions in the near future for spark ignition (SI) engine. Therefore,
developing methods for reducing emissions is very important.

For gasoline SI engines, gasoline direct injection (GDI) combustion

strategies hold substantial potential benefits in terms of fuel economy
when compared to port fuel injection (PFI) gasoline engines, and are
part of modern gasoline engine technologies [1-4]. Nevertheless, there
are three key challenges for GDI engine. This paper focuses on spray
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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

evaporation, flame development and emissions. Emissions will likely

increase when GDI is utilized because of wall wetting effects and
characteristics inherent to gasoline. Thus, there is a conflict
between the reduction of emissions and the improvement of fuel
economy when GDI is used. To solve this conflict, many researchers
have investigated the particle characteristics, including the size,
number, surface area and composition [1], which show that the particle
of GDI engine has two broad categories:

“Nucleation” mode particles, which are comprised primarily of

condensed volatile material, mainly sulphate and heavy hydrocarbons,
“Accumulation” mode particles, which are mainly carbonaceous in
nature.

Furthermore, PN reduction methods of GDI engine have been

investigated by many researchers [2] including optimized combustion
chamber, piston bowl shape, intake flow motion as well as the fuel
injection control strategy to avoid wall wetting and to enhance
mixture preparation. However, the emissions reduction approaches
above have challenges to meet the more and more stringent emissions
legislations.

4.1 FUEL

Alternative fuels with oxygenated content and dual-injection which

combine both the advantages of PFI and GDI could be an effective
method to reduce PN emissions while improving fuel economy.
Methanol is a promising and representative alternative fuel for internal
combustion engines. The physical and chemical properties of gasoline
and methanol are listed in Table 2 - 1. Briefly, the oxygen content
of methanol will promote the complete combustion of mixtures
and reduce emissions. The octane number of methanol is also much
higher than that of gasoline, which may allow engines with increased
compression ratios for improved fuel economy. The laminar flame
propagation speed of methanol is about twice of that of gasoline [3],
which will increase combustion speed and allow advanced combustion
phasing to get higher extraction efficiencies. Methanol can be used as
a pure or blended fuel in spark ignition engines. Gong et al.
investigated fuel economy and emissions in a direct-injection spark-

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

ignition engine using methanol as their fuel [3]. The results indicate
that the methanol engine is characterized by smokeless combustion.
Kowalewicz gave a system introduction of methanol as a fuel for
Spark Ignition Engines [4].

Table 2-1: Properties of methanol and gasoline [5]

4.2 COMBUSTION IN SPARK IGNITION (SI) ENGINE

The combustion process can be divide into three region which is

ignition and flame development, flame propagation and flame
termination. For the first phase which the consumption of air-fuel
mixture is only 5%. Next, the second phase which consumes about
80- 90% of the air-fuel mixture. In this phase, there is a significant
pressure rise, which provides the force that produces the work in the
expansion stroke. The final phase which the consumptions of air-fuel
mixture only 5%. During the final phase, the pressure quickly drops
and combustion ends [8]. Figure 2-1 shows the pressure as a
function of the crank angle. The force necessary in the expansion
stroke is supply from the maximum pressure after reach top dead centre
(TDC) [9].

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Figure 2-1: Pressure versus crank angle [9].

4.3 MEASUREMENT OF HIGH VOLTAGE DIRECT

CURRENT

High current may have been important in the power system, such as
testing circuit breaker, cable light arrester, and others. Thus during
lighting discharge, switching transients and shunt faults, the high
current will be directly connected to them. However, special techniques
are required for this current to calculate, including the use of high direct
current, hall generators and high-frequency currents.

4.3.1 High Direct Currents

Low resistance shunts can be used for calculation of high direct

currents. In addition, the millivolt meter will be used to calculate the
voltage drop through the shunt resistance. Thus the resistance range is
usually set between 10mΩ and 13mΩ. However, all of this will depend
on the heating effect and the load permitted in the circuit. In addition,
the voltage drop must be less than 1V and will also be limited to a few
millivolts. Therefore in order to obtain a good accuracy in the
measurement of the voltage, a separate terminal must be built. As a
result, the resistance will be an oil immersed and will consist of three or
four terminal resistors for voltage calculation.

4.3.2 Hall Generators

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Lorenz force is capable of deflecting the electron from the metal surface
in the opposite direction between the direction of the magnetic field and
the current flow. Thus this situation will happen when the electrical
current flows through the metal plated when it is put in a magnetic field
in the opposite direction. In addition, the EMF is generated when the
charge moves in a perpendicular direction or is known as Hall voltage.
In addition, the Hall coefficient is known as R and depends on the
material and the temperature of the plate. In comparison, the Hall
coefficient for metal would be much lower than that for semiconductor
material, which is higher than that. Next, as shown in Figure 4-3, the
current conductor will be managed to pass through the Iron Cored
Magnetic Circuit in order to test high DC current. Thus, between the air
gap and the small fixed DC current, the Hall element needs to be
positioned between it and moved through the element. Finally, the
value of the current I can be obtained by using the expression of the
Hall voltage and by completing the measurement of the flux density B
when the voltage is calculated across the Hall component.

Figure 4-3: Hall generator

4.3.3 High Power Frequency Currents

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

The current transformer is normally used to measure the high power

frequency current that causes low-resistance shunts to cause
unnecessary power loss. In addition, isolation can be achieved by using
high voltage circuit current transformers, making the safe environment
area work on the HV circuit. Next it is shown in Figure 4-4 that the
current conceptual measurement model uses the current transformer and
the electro-optical technique for current measurement purposes. In
addition, the electro-optical device is capable of generating and
transmitting a voltage signal that is proportional to the current to be
measured on the ground. In addition, the light pulse proportional to the
voltage signal can be transferred to the photodetector using the glass
optical fiber bundle and converted back to the analogue voltage signal.
Adequate current and voltage transformers are therefore required to
obtain the required power for both the signal converter and the optical
device.

Figure 4-4: Diagram for high AC current calculation of current

transformers and electro-optical device

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

4.4 MEASUREMENT OF HIGH VOLTAGE TRANSIENT

IMPULSES

In the application of the power system, the current amplitude will be

between a few amperes and a few hundred kilos of amperes, and the
highest rate of increase of current can be as low as 1010A/sec, and will
be in the range of micro seconds to a few macro seconds in the increase
of time. In addition, in order to measure this current, the equipment
used will need to have a better frequency response over a large scale of
the frequency band. Some of the methods generally used are therefore
the use of resistive shunts, induction elements, Faraday and Hall Effect
equipment. Finally, using all of this method, the accuracy of
measurements can vary from 1 to 10 per cent.

4.4.1 Resistive Shunts

First the impulse current i(t) will cause the voltage to pass through the
shunt resistance R and to be fed to the oscilloscope by means of the
delay cable D. In addition, in order to obtain a precise measurement of
the voltage and also to avoid the reflection of the voltage that is to be
measured, the delay cable will be completely terminated by using an
impedance of Z equal to the surge impedance. In addition, the
inductance L and the stray capacitance C will be residual due to the
larger dimension of the resistive element. Besides in low frequency the
inductance will be neglected, but in high frequency it will be
comparable to the shunt resistance. Normally the value is then greater
than 1 MHz for the effect of inductance and capacitance. Not only that,
the resistance and the voltage drop value will be between 10m and a
few m and the voltage drop in a few volts. In addition, the measurement
of pulse current over a long period of time using resistive shunts will
only be at a significant amount of expense for thermal reasons. In
addition, the increase time can be created in a few Nano seconds of
magnitude in a short period of time using a resistive shunt. In addition,

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

a parallel carbon film resistor or a low inductance wire resistor can be

made for the resistance element of some parallel resistance wires or
foil. Figure 4-5 shows some of the circuits of the general circuit
diagram method used for measurement of high current impulses.

Figure 4-5: Commonly used circuit for measurement of high impulse

current

4.4.2 Elements using Induction Effects

If the current to be measured is flowing through a conductor which is

surrounded by a coil and M is the mutual inductance between the coil
and the conductor, the voltage across the coil terminals will be as
di
V ( t ) =M , Usually the coil is wound on a non-magnetic former in
dt
the form of a toroid and has a large number of turns, to have sufficient
voltage induced which could be recorded. The coil is wound crisscross
to reduce the leakage inductance. If M is the number of turns of the
coil, A the coil area and lm its mean length, the mutual inductance is
μ0 NA
given as M= . Usually an integrating circuit RC is employed as
l
shown in Figure 5 to obtain the output voltage proportional to the
current to be measured. The output voltage is given as
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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

t
1 1 di M M
v 0 ( t )= ∫ v ( t ) dtA= ∫ M dt = ∫ di= i(t ) or
RC 0 RC dt RC RC
RC
v ( t )= v (t).
M 0
Integration of v(t) can be carried out more elegantly by using an
appropriately wired operational amplifier. The frequency response of
the Rogowski coil is flat up to 100 MHz but beyond that it is affected
by the stray electric and magnetic fields and also by the skin effect.
Figure 4-6 show the Rogowski coil for high impulse current
measurements.

Figure 4-6: Rogowski coil for high impulse current measurements

4.4.3 Hall Generators

The high amplitude AC and impulse currents can be measured by Hall

Generator described earlier. For the Hall Generator, though a constant
control current flows which is permeated by the magnetic field of the
current to be measured, the Hall voltage is directly proportional to the
measuring current. This method became popular with the development
of semi-conductor with sufficient high value of Hall constant. The band
width of such devices is found to be about 50 MHz with suitable
compensating devices and feedback.
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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

4.4.4 Faraday Generator or Magneto Optic Method

These methods of current measurement use the rotation of the plane of

polarization in materials by the magnetic field which is proportional to
the current (Faraday Effect). When a linearly polarized light beam
passes through a transparent crystal in the presence of a magnetic field,
the plane of polarization of the light beam undergoes relation.

Crystal C is placed parallel to the magnetic field produced by the

current to be measured. A beam of light from a stabilized light source is
made incident on the crystal C after it is passed through the polarizer
P1. The light beam undergoes rotation of its plane of polarization. After
the beam passes through the analyzer P2, the beam is focused on a
photomultiplier, the output of which is fed to a CRO. The filter F allows
only the monochromatic light to pass through it. Photo luminescent
diodes too, the momentary light emission of which is proportional to
the current flowing through them, can be used for current measurement.
The following are the advantages of the method such as it provides
isolation of the measuring set up from the main current circuit,
insensitive to overloading and as the signal transmission is through an
optical system no insulation problem is faced. However, this device
does not operate for DC current. Figure 4-7 shows a schematic diagram
of Magneto-optic method

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Figure 4-7: Magneto-optical method

2.6 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the measurements of voltage and current in high-voltage

tests are difficult, because the amplitudes are high and they cannot be
measured directly with conventional measuring and recording systems.
Thus, different methods are used to determine high DC and impulse
currents, such as high direct current, hall generators, high frequency
currents, high frequency and impulse currents, high frequency and
impulse currents, high frequency and high frequency currents, and
impulse currents. In this chapter, all of this is explained in order to be
used for testing circuit breakers, lightning arresters and high currents
are found during lightning discharges, transient switching and shunt
faults.

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

REFERENCES

[1] Iason D., Kenneth K., Cheng W. K., (20011). Particulate matter
emissions from a direct injection spark ignition engine under cold
fast idle conditions for ethanol-gasoline blends. No. 2011-01-1305.
SAE Technical Paper.
[2] Philip P., Richard S., Tony C. and Marcus D., (2006). Particulate
matter and hydrocarbon emissions measurements: comparing first
and second generation DISI with PFI in single cylinder optical
engines. No. 2006-01-1263. SAE Technical Paper.
[3] Gong C.M., Huang K., Jia J. L., Yan S., Qing G. and Liu X. J.,
(2011). Improvement of fuel economy of a direct-injection spark-
ignition methanol engine under light loads. Fuel 2011; 90(5):
1826-32.

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