Numerical study on dissimilar guide vane design with SCC piston for air and emulsified biofuel mixing improvement

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus, Seri Ampangan, 14300 Nibong Tebal Penang, Malaysia
² School of Material and Mineral Resources Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus, Seri Ampangan, 14300 Nibong Tebal Penang, Malaysia
³ Mechanical Engineering Programme, School of Mechatronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Pauh Putra Campus, Arau, 02600 Perlis, Malaysia
⁴ Faculty of computer, Media and Technology Management, TATI University Collage, Jalan Panchor, Teluk kalong, 24000 Kemaman, Terenganu, Malaysia
⁵ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Mara, 13500 Permatang Pauh, Penang, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: meyusof@usm.my

Abstract

Crude palm oil (CPO) is one of the most potential biofuels that can be applied in the conventional diesel engines, where the chemical properties of CPO are comparable to diesel fuel. However, its higher viscosity and heavier molecules can contributes to several engine problems such as low atomization during injection, carbon deposit formation, injector clogging, low mixing with air and lower combustion efficiency. An emulsification of biofuel and modifications of few engine critical components have been identified to mitigate the issues. This paper presents the effects of dissimilar guide vane design (GVD) in terms of height variation of 0.25R, 0.3R and 0.35R at the intake manifold with shallow depth re-entrance combustion chamber (SCC) piston application to the incylinder air flow characteristics improvement. The simulation results show that the intake manifold with GVD improved the performance of the air flow characteristic particularly swirl, tumble and cross tumble ratios from the intake manifold to the engine. The GVD with the height of 0.3R was found to be the optimum design with respect to the overall improvement of the air flow characteristic. The improvement of the air flow characteristic with the application of GVD and SCC piston in the engine was expected to contribute to a better air fuel mixing, fuel atomization and combustion efficiency of the engine using emulsified biofuel as a source of fuel.