An Experimental Investigation of Crank-Resolved Exhaust Pressure Profiles in a Single Cylinder Research Engine with Emphasis on the Potential of Harvesting Exhaust Energy

Author

Taylor C. Bohach

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Srinivasan, Kalyan K.

Committee Member

Krishnan, Sundar R.

Committee Member

Hodge, Keith

Date of Degree

12-11-2015

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Mechanical Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

The experiments detailed in this thesis give necessary preliminary information for analyzing the theoretical potential of direct exhaust pulse energy harvesting through expander devices. A detailed review of pertinent literature determined that there has been little specific focus on directly converting exhaust pulse energy into useful power. Crank position resolved exhaust pressure was measured as engine load and speed were varied to quantify their influences. Potential theoretical improvements average a 15.6% increase in overall fuel conversion efficiencies while indicated power can potentially be increased by an average of 14.3% for the operating conditions tested. A potential increase of up to 20% in indicated specific fuel consumption was shown. With increasing regulations on combustion engine efficiencies, emissions, and fuel requirements, the ability to reduce waste energy through improving existing waste energy recovery (WER) technologies and proposing novel WER strategies that maximize WER have the potential to be extremely valuable.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18912

Recommended Citation

Bohach, Taylor C., "An Experimental Investigation of Crank-Resolved Exhaust Pressure Profiles in a Single Cylinder Research Engine with Emphasis on the Potential of Harvesting Exhaust Energy" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 550.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/550