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NON CONVENTIONAL I.

C ENGINES

INTRODUCTION:

Engine: An engine is a device which transforms one form of energy in to another form.
Normally most of the engines convert thermal to mechanical work and are

called heat engines. Heat Engines: It is a device which transforms chemical energy of a fuel into is

Thermal energy and utilizes this to perform useful work. Thus, this Thermal energy converted to mechanical energy and are called heat engines. Heat engines are classified in to two types: 1. !. I engines " engines. #hether the engines are I or " the movement or function which takes place is reciprocatory, and rotary. "$ternal com%ustion engines are those in which com%ustion takes place outside the engine where as I engines takes place outside the engine where as I engines com%ustion takes place with in the engine. "g: steam tur%ine heat generated due to com%ustion of fuel is employed to generate high pressure steam which is used as working fluid in a reciprocating engine or tur%ine. In case of diesel engine or gasoline the products of com%ustion generated %u com%ustion of fuel and air with in the cylinder form the working fluid . .I: ompression ignition. &.I: &park ignition. In conventional engines common fuels used are diesel and petrol. These fuels are %ecoming scare and scare and %ecoming costly day %y day. In addition to

this there are limited stores of these fuels and engineers are in constant search to find the fuels which can %e used to replace the conventional fuels are used for starting the engine and the engine is shifted to unconventional fuels which are cheap. &peed of I engine limited to !''' to (''' ).*.+ in case of .I and &.I due to reciprocating parts and pro%lems of %alancing and vi%rations. The pollution is one of the main pro%lem faced %y the designers of I. engines. This can %e partly reduced %y using different non,conventional engines such as sterling engine. The purpose of this non, conventional I. engines is -ust to introduce it and to know a%out their advantages and disadvantages.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF NON-CONVENTIONAL I.C ENGINES:


1. .ual fuel and multi fuel engines !. /ases and dual fuel engines 0. Anken %io gas engine 1. +ulti fuel engines (. &atisfied charge engine 2. Adia%atic engines 3. 4aria%le compression ratio engines 5. 6ree piston engines 7. &terling engine 1'. #rankel,rotary engine.

8ow, I am going to discuss among the one a%ove mentioned engines i.e. the nothing %ut 6ree piston engines.

Free piston engines:


A free piston engine com%ines the feature of high thermal efficiency of reciprocation diesel engine and low weight9power ratio of gas tur%ine.

To get more power from the engine the engine was supercharged as %etter fuels and %etter materials were made availa%le. 6urther improvement in the supercharged engine was Tur%o,charged engine which used the e$haust gas heat to drive the super charger. This idea of using e$haust gas energy has developed and it is used in free piston engine. In this system, free piston engine is highly supercharged and using its e$haust gases, power is developed in a gas tur%ine. The energy developed %y the engine is used to compress the air re:uired for supercharging the engine. 8o e$ternal power is availa%le from the engine and it produces only high pressure, high temperature gas which is further used for developing the power in gas,tur%ine. Therefore, this engine arrangement is known as gasifier and the whole arrangement is known as free piston engine. In this arrangement, the connecting rod, cam shaft and crank shaft are avoided and the valves are operated %y pressure differences only. The pistons are connected %y a synchronizing mechanism.

CONSTR CTION FEAT RES OF FREE PISTON ENGINE:


6ig;1< shows the %asic components of free piston engine having inward compression in the engine. It consists of a gasifier and a gas tur%ine. The gasifier is like an opposed piston uniflow scavenged two stroke cycles diesel engine with compressor of air is directly achieved %y compressing the air through piston rod of the engine which is directly connected to the compressor piston as shown in fig. The motion of the piston is dictated %y the gas pressure, and compressor space and main diesel com%ustion cham%er space and not %y mechanical linkages. This freedom of motion from mechanical linkage provides varia%le stroke according to the load so it is called as

Free piston engine.

The stoke of the piston is in the gasifier is varia%le and depends upon the amount of fuel in-ected. The gasifier is provided with a safety device in case of over stroking.

!OR"ING OF FREE PISTON ENGINE:


)eferring to the 6ig;1<, the inside is the opposed piston uniflow engine. The I.* is the inlet air port and "* is the e$haust port. "ach small piston of the engine is connected %y a piston rod to the compressor piston. The engine pistons *1 reciprocates in cylinder c1 and compressor pistons *! reciprocates in cylinder c!.

T#e $or%ing steps are &es'ri(e& (e)o$:


1. onsider, %oth the pistons *1 are at the centre of the cylinder and volume %etween the two pistons is filled with high pressure air ;similar to two stroke diesel engine charged with high pressure air when the piston is at T. <. At this position of pistons *1, the pressure in the cylinders c! is %elow atmospheric pressure and air is sucked inside the compressor cylinder through valves 41. !. As the fuel is in-ected in the compressed air in the compressed air in the engine cylinder, it starts %urning and pushes the engine pistons outward allowing the gases to e$pand. .uring outward motion of the cylinder pistons, the compressor piston also moves outward pressurizing the air in the compressor cylinders. At a particular position of the engine pistons, the ports which are provided as shown in figure open. The pressure of the cylinder is sufficient to open the valves 4! and high pressuer air through the I.*. ;inlet ports< enters into the engine cylinder. At the same time, the e$haust ports ;"*< open and the e$haust gses enter in to the receiver as shown in 6ig. a part of air entering into the engine cylinder also enters into the receiver with the e$haust gases. 0. =nce the engine cylinder 1 is fully charged as pistons *1 reaches >. , then the

pistons *1 start moving inward compressing the air which is taken in . As the engine pistons *1 move inward, the compressor piston *! also move inward causing vacuum inside the compression of air in the engine cylinder is completed. Then the fuel in-ector in-ects the fuel in the compressed air in the engine cylinder, it %urns and starts e$panding. Thus the cycle is repeated. The e$haust gases from the engine and part of scavenging air enters into the receiver and the mi$ture at high pressure;0 to ( %ar< and high temperature ;(''?c< is passed through the tur%ine to develop the power.

The speed of the engine is controlled %y controlling the amount of fuel supplied as per the load on the tur%ine. As per the amount of fuel supplied, the stroke length of the engine piston changes. A relatively small change in the piston stroke can vary the amount of air supply to the engine up to 1'@ to 1(@.

THER*ODYNA*IC ANALYSIS OF FREE PISTON ENGINE:


6ig ;!< shows the schematic diagram for the flow of gases in the free piston engine and the processes are represented on T,s diagram. )eferring to the T,s diagram, 1,! is adia%atic compression of m kg of air in the compressor. !,0 is adia%atic compression of m1 kg of air in the engine. 0,1 is com%ustion in the engine at at constant pressure. 1,( is adia%atic e$pansion in the engine cylinder. (,2 and !,2 represent the mi$ing of m1 kg gases from the engine and m! kg of air from compressor. 2,3 represents the work output from the tur%ine with mass flow of m kg. /enerally, m!A0m1 The specific fuel consumption of free piston engine at part loads is higher than the conventional diesel engine. This can %e improved %y recirculation part of the

air in air,%o$ case, %ack to the intake of the compressor. This method raises the temperature of the incoming air under part load conditions and makes the com%ustion possi%le even at compression ratio 1'. As the gas,tur%ine develops the powe, the enginehas e$cellent high tor:ue even at low speed weight to power ratio which varies from '.3 to '.1.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF FREE PISTON ENGINES: A&+antages:1. The thermal B is considera%ly higher than simple gas tur%ine unit. !. Higher volumetric efficiency can %e o%tained than conventional diesel engine. 0. The system is highly simplified due to a%sence of connecting rod, crankshaft, valves and valve mechanism re:uired for conventional diesel engine. 1. The engine is perfectly %alanced and gives practically vi%ration less performance. (. #eight 9>.*. is considera%ly less ;'.(< compared with conventional diesel engine ;!.(<. 2. The tur%ine in this system need not supply compressor work, the ma$imum temperature for %etter efficiency is considera%ly lower. The temperature lies %etween 1('?c to (''?c against 3''?c to 5''?c in conventional gas, tur%ine. Therefore, cost of the tur%ine is also low as cheap materials can %e used. 3. The free piston engine ad-usts the ignition re:uirements %y changing the compression ratio ;)c varies from !' to ('<. This property allows the system to use a wider variety of fuels than the conventional diesel fuel in diesel engine. 5. As the system is %etter %alanced, the vi%ration and noise are lower than conventional diesel engines. Therefore, the lu%rication re:uirements are also reduced. 7. The starting of the engine is easy compared with conventional diesel engine as air re:uired for starting is hardly ('@ of the conventional diesel engine of the same capacity. 1'. Acceleration characteristics are much superior sompared to diesel engine as it has little thermal as well as mechanical inertia. ItCs output can %e varied form full load to idling and %ack to full load hardly with in 1( to !' sec only.

Disa&+antages:
1. The specific fuel consumption is higher than conventional diesel engine. *articularly at part load conditions. !. The starting of free piston engine is difficult as there is no fly wheel. 0. The free piston engine re:uires a certain amount of fuel per stroke according to the load on tur%ine to maintain sta%le operation. The fuel supply can %e varied only in a limited range. Any fluctuation in the fuel supply will make the operation unsta%le. 1. As the supercharge is considera%ly high, the com%ustion rate per mD of cylinder volume is 1 to ( times higher than conventional diesel engine. This intensifies lu%rication and cooling pro%lems. (. A gearing is necessary to couple high speed tur%ine with low speed marine propeller. This further increases the capital cost and weight of the plant. The reduction gear of 0' is generally re:uired as speed of 7''' ).*.+ is to %e reduced to 0'' ).*.+

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