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Evaluating Engine Combustion Parameters from Cylinder Pressure

Measurement

Conference Paper · January 2015

DOI: 10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-1365

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 23rd ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
December 6-11, 2015, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

EVALUATING ENGINE COMBUSTION PARAMETERS FROM

CYLINDER PRESSURE MEASUREMENT

Alex de Oliveira
Márcio José da Silva
Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Av. Dom José Gaspar 500, 30535-901,
Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
alexoem@gmail.com
marcio@pucminas.br

André Marcelino de Morais

Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Av. Dom José Gaspar 500, 30535-901,
Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
andre.mmor@gmail.com

José Ricardo Sodré

Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Av. Dom José Gaspar 500, 30535-901,
Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
ricardo@pucminas.br

Abstract. In this study the parameters from cylinder pressure measurement were evaluated from a four cylinder, naturally
aspirated diesel power generator engine fuelled by blends of 93% diesel oil + 7 % biodiesel (B5). Cylinder pressure
data was recorded using a data acquisition system at every 0.1º and was done at constant speed (1800rpm). The measures
includes the acquisition of instantaneous cylinder pressure, determination of the top dead center and the measure of
instantaneous crank angle from a magnetic speed sensor mounted opposite to a phonic wheel installed in the engine
crankshaft. The pressure data was measured at different loads and used to calculate the heat release rate using the first
law of thermodynamic, determine the maximum pressure, the ignition delay, the indicated mean effective pressure and
the power generator mechanical efficiency.

Keywords: in-cylinder pressure, diesel engine, combustion

1. INTRODUCTION

The combustion process in diesel engines is complex because it depends on details as the fuel characteristics, the
combustion chamber geometry, the fuel injection system and operation conditions (Heywood, 1988). During the
conversion of chemical energy into mechanical work process, for producing reciprocating motion of the piston during
compression and expansion of in-cylinder gas, the pressure in the combustion chamber affects directly the power and
engine performance (Zhao and Ladommatos, 2001). Thus, the study of in-cylinder pressure in synchronous to the piston
position or to the crank angle is important. The objective of this work is to obtain performance parameters of a diesel
engine from the gas pressure curve inside of one of the engine cylinders.
The record of the pressure curve is an important source of information for the analysis of chemical, physical and
mechanical processes occurring inside the combustion chamber of internal combustion engines. It provides information
such as, the engine indicated mechanical power, peak pressure, heat release rate, ignition time, combustion duration,
compression parameters, combustion problems, exhaust gases recirculation, emissions evaluation of particulate matter
(PM) and NOx, among others (Antonopoulos and Hountalas, 2012; Chung et al., 2013). For this, the in-cylinder pressure
diagram should be recorded and processed by pressure sensors and transducers with high strength, accuracy, reliability
and acquisition frequency. Pressure sensors are extremely useful in research that changes the engine structure or operation
condition.
Maurya, Pal and Agarwal (2013) performed the diagnosis of combustion in a direct injection, naturally aspirated,
water-cooled, four-cylinder diesel engine powered with gasoline. One cylinder was modified to operate in homogeneous
charge compression ignition (HCCI) mode, while the other cylinders operated in the standard mode. During the
experimental investigation, the engine operated in different conditions of speed, load and air-fuel ratio. The in-cylinder
pressure signals were captured using a piezoelectric pressure transducer (Kistler model 6013C) mounted on the cylinder
head adapted for HCCI operation. The pressure signals data were filtered and used to calculate, cycle to cycle, the average
of the pressure variations, the pressure standard deviations, the pressure growth rate and the heat release rate.
 Alex de Oliveira, Márcio José da Silva, André Marcelino de Morais and José Ricardo Sodré.
Evaluating Engine Combustion Parameters from Cylinder Pressure Measurement.

Bodisco and Brown (2013) investigated the inter-cycle variability of in-cylinder pressure in an ethanol fumigated
common rail diesel engine. Specifically, the authors investigated the effects of ethanol concentration on the maximum
pressure rise rate, peak pressure magnitude and moment, the ignition delay and the inter-cycle variability. A piezoelectric
pressure transducer (Kistler model 6053CC60) was mounted, to measure the in-cylinder pressure, with a simultaneous
four channels data acquisition module, to eliminate the phase shift between channels and to perform measurements in the
same time reference. The authors varied the ethanol concentrations and torque conditions. The study allowed to observe
significant changes in ignition delay with the use of high ethanol concentrations.
Tutak (2014) evaluated the effects of E85 (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) atomization in the intake manifold of a
compression ignition direct injection diesel engine. The in-cylinder pressure analysis showed reduction in the pressure
during the intake stroke, with the use of E85, due to the cooling effect caused by the fuel. The increase in E85 injection
caused an increase in ignition delay and in the peak of heat release rate. The author also showed that with 20% of E85,
the heat release curve trend was similar to the obtained using pure diesel oil.

2. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS

The indicate work per cycle is defined as the work done by the gas on the piston (Heywood, 1988). The engine p-V
diagram can be obtained from the in-cylinder pressure and volume data during the cycles. The indicated work is calculated
by integrating the curve, as shown by Eq. (1):

𝑊𝑖 = ∮ 𝑝. 𝑑𝑉 (1)

Where 𝑊𝑖 is the indicated work per cycle (kJ); p is the in-cylinder pressure (kPa); and V is the cylinder volume (m³).
The indicated power per cycle is resultant from the work done by the gas on the piston, and corresponds to the sum of
the effective power, the friction power and the power used to the engine intake and exhaust strokes. It can be calculated
by:

𝑊𝑖 . 𝜔
𝑃𝑖 = (2)
𝑛𝑟

Where 𝑃𝑖 is the indicated power per cycle (kW) and 𝑛𝑟 is the number of revolutions of the crankshaft for a cylinder
working cycle. For a four stroke engine, 𝑛𝑟 = 2.
The indicated mean effective pressure is given by the ratio between the indicated work per cycle and the volume
displaced per cycle, given by:

𝑊𝑖
𝐼𝑀𝐸𝑃 = (3)
𝑉𝑑

Where IMEP is the indicated mean effective pressure (kPa) and 𝑉𝑑 is the volume displaced by the piston per cycle
(m³).
From the indicated power per cycle, it is possible to determine the engine mechanical efficiency (Heywood, 1988):

𝑃𝑏
𝜂𝑚 = 100%. (4)
𝑃𝑖

Where 𝜂𝑚 is the engine mechanical efficiency (%) and 𝑃𝑏 is the engine output power(kW).
Heywood (1988) defines the heat release rate as the rate at which the chemical energy of the fuel is released by the
combustion process. This parameter can be determined from the engine in-cylinder pressure in function of the crank
angle, calculating the energy required to obtain the pressure measured experimentally. The diesel engine combustion is a
complex process and it complicates the establishment of a universal mathematical model to calculate the heat release rate.
Simplified model are used to compare the engine performance at different operation conditions. Heywood (1988) presents
a zero dimensional model applying the first law of thermodynamics for an open system. The equation that determines the
apparent net heat release rate is given by:

𝑑𝑄𝑙 𝛾 𝑑𝑉 1 𝑑𝑃
= ( ) . 𝑝. + . 𝑉. (5)
𝑑𝜃 𝛾−1 𝑑𝜃 𝛾−1 𝑑𝜃

Where 𝑑𝑄𝑙 /𝑑𝜃 is the apparent net heat release rate (kJ/ºCA); γ is the ratio of specific heats (cp/cv); p.dV/dθ is the
work rate developed by the gas on the piston (kJ/ºCA).
 23rd ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
December 6-11, 2015, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

The ignition delay, in diesel engines, is the interval between the start of fuel injection and the start of combustion,
usually measured by the crank angle. It was considered the start of combustion as the maximum value of the second
derivative of the pressure curve in relation to the crank angle, based on the energy release rate in the form of heat is
directly proportional to the rate of pressure change in the combustion (Zhu et al., 2001). In the engine used in this work,
the fuel injection angle is 23ºCA BTDC (before top dead center). The difference between this angle and the angle
determined as start of combustion was considered as the ignition delay. The duration of combustion was determined from
the interval between the start of combustion and the angle that occurs 95% of the total cumulative heat released (Zhu et
al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2013).

3. EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY

The experiments were carried out in a production, naturally-aspirated, four-stroke, four-cylinder diesel engine. Table
1 presents the engine main characteristics.

Table 1. Diesel Power Generator Specification

Equipment PARAMETER VALUE
Engine Number of cylinders 4
Bore  Stroke 0.102 m  0.120 m
Total displacement 3.922  10-3 m3
Compression ratio 17.0:1
Rated power @ 1800 rev/min 44 kW
Electric Number of poles 4
generator Voltage 220 V
Number of phases 3
Nominal power 55 kW
Frequency 60 Hz

The pressure inside the first engine cylinder was measured by a quartz piezoelectric sensor, model 6061B,
manufactured by Kistler Instrument Corporation, with measuring range between 0 and 250 bar and sensitivity of -25.6
pC/bar. This sensor has a dynamic nature, providing an output signal only if stimulated, i.e., when there is a pressure
variation. This feature affects how the sensor is calibrated, as its output signal is processed. The measurement apparatus
must include a water cooling system. The cooling system confers stability to the sensor, enabling its use at high
temperatures ambient, such as inside the engine cylinder. For the conversion of the sensor electric charge variation to
voltage linear variation, it was used a charge amplifier, model 5037B. Figure 1 shows the Kistler pressure sensor and the
charge amplifier.

Figure 1. Kistler pressure sensor model 6061B and charge amplifier model 5037B

As mentioned, these sensors measure the dynamic pressure of the cylinder, i.e., the pressure variation inside the
cylinder. To determine the various parameters from these data is necessary to determine the absolute pressure of the
cylinder; therefore, the curve should be adjusted to represent this pressure (Rogers, 2010). There are several techniques
to perform this adjustment, varying in complexity, processing time and accuracy. In this work it was used the technique
of fixing a point as reference value. This technique consists of moving the curve obtained by adding a known pressure
value at a certain angle of the crankshaft, and is suitable for engines without throttle valve in the intake manifold and
naturally aspirated. Generally, it is used as reference the intake manifold air pressure, which can be obtained by an absolute
pressure transducer, which was made in this work.
 Alex de Oliveira, Márcio José da Silva, André Marcelino de Morais and José Ricardo Sodré.
Evaluating Engine Combustion Parameters from Cylinder Pressure Measurement.

The data acquisition rate was set at 100,000 Hz, equivalent to an angular resolution of 0,108º CA. Data from the
pressure transducer are stored in worksheets for each load test. A trigger wheel with a magnetic sensor was used to
synchronize the pressure data with the engine cycle and was acquired simultaneously with the pressure sensor. The
pressure curves were positioned in function of the crank angle and was calculated the pressure average using 30 cycles.
Figure 2 shows the pressure sensor position in the engine head.

Figure 2. Position of the pressure sensor in the engine head

The control of the tests was carried out from a supervisory developed in LabVIEW platform. Electrical and electronic
circuits make the interface between the sensors and the electrical load bank and a computer. In addition to the in-cylinder
pressure data, other several parameters were monitored during the tests as: temperature at different points, the mass flow
of air and fuel, atmospheric conditions, exhaust gases composition and electrical characteristics of the generated energy.
Two data acquisition modules provided by National Instruments were used, USB-NI-DAQ-6229 and USB-NI-DAQ-
6211. Figure 3 shows the experimental apparatus diagram.

Figure 3. Diagram of the experimental apparatus

The experimental procedure follow the definitions and procedures from the standard ABNT NBR 6396: 1976. The
tests were carried out with variation of the applied load power of 0 kW, 10 kW, 20 kW, 30 kW, and 37.5 kW. The fuel
consists of a mixture of 93% diesel oil and 7% biodiesel (B7).

4. RESULTS

Pressure curves were positioned as a function of crank angle and the means were calculated from the pressure
transducer and inductive sensor data, enabling the calculation of the following presented parameters. Figure 4 shows the
in-cylinder pressure as a function of crank angle and the applied load. In ignition compression engine, the peak pressure
 23rd ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
December 6-11, 2015, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

is dependent on the amount of fuel burned at the beginning of combustion, i.e., the premixed combustion phase (Sinha
and Agarwal, 2007). The in-cylinder pressure increases as the applied load increases, since greater quantity of fuel is
injected and greater amount of heat is released during the combustion. The peak pressure moves away from TDC with
load increasing, behavior also reported by Zhu et al. (2011). The peak pressure was 2645 kPa for 0 kW, 2966 kPa for 10
kW, 3327 kPa for 20 kW, 3556 kPa for 30 kW and 3667 kPa for 37.5 kW.
Figure 5 shows the net heat release rate during combustion (Eq. (5)). The results showed tendency to increase the peak
heat release rate for low to medium loads and to maintain or reduce for high loads, as also shown by Zhu et al. (2011).
The maximum heat release rate values were 23.8 J/ºCA (0 kW), 39.1 J/ºCA (10 kW), 50.7 J/ºCA (20 kW), 51.0 J/ºCA (30
kW) and 49.1 J/ºCA (37,5kW).

Figure 4. In-cylinder pressure

Figure 5. Net apparent heat release rate inside the cylinder

It was observed that, through the pressure curves, with increasing load, there is a tendency to reduction in ignition
delay. The ignition delay was determined from the second derivative of the pressure curves. Figure 6 shows the second
derivative obtained for the load of 37.5 KW. The maximum peak was regarded as the start of combustion.
Figure 9 shows the ignition delay variation in function of the engine load. It was found that there is an increase in
ignition delay until the load of 20 kW, and from this load a reduction of the ignition delay. The ignition delay values were
 Alex de Oliveira, Márcio José da Silva, André Marcelino de Morais and José Ricardo Sodré.
Evaluating Engine Combustion Parameters from Cylinder Pressure Measurement.

23.4ºCA (0 kW), 24.1ºCA (10 kW), 24.3ºCA (20 kW), 22.9ºCA (30 kW) and 21.9ºCA (37.5 kW). The ignition delay
trend can explain the trend of increase the peak heat release rate between the low and medium loads, and reduction or
maintaining for high loads, since larger ignition delays cause a greater amount fuel accumulated before the start of
combustion, inducing more fuel to be burned during the premixed combustion phase (Pidol et al., 2012). Figure 10 shows
the duration of combustion in function of applied load. There is an increase in combustion duration with the load increase,
explained due to the longer duration of fuel injection and formation of the air/fuel mixture to supply the load demand
(Zhang et al., 2013).

Figure 6. Second derivative of pressure in function of crank angle for the load of 37.5 KW

Figure 7. Ignition delay in function of engine load

 23rd ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
December 6-11, 2015, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Figure 8. Duration of combustion in function of the engine load

Figure 11 shows the p-V diagram for the engine loads. The diagram have typical format of four-stroke internal
combustion engines and, from Eq. (1), the indicated work per cycle was determined, as well as the indicated power (Eq.
(2)) and IMEP (Eq. (3)). With increase in engine load, pressure levels increased; consequently there was an increase in
the area of the diagrams, i.e., increase in the work done during the cycle. The calculated IMEP values indicate an increase
of this parameter with increase in engine applied load.
The indicated power was determined to obtain the power generator mechanical efficiency for each applied load (Eq.
(4)). Figure 12 shows the results, indicating an increase in mechanical efficiency with increase in the engine load. The
no-load engine operation (0 kW), resulted in null mechanical efficiency and with the operation in maximum load, 37.5
kW, resulted in a mechanical efficiency of 88%. Part of the power produced by the engine is dissipated due to friction of
the moving parts of the engine, as pistons and bearings (Heywood, 1988). This power is considered constant in great
engine speed range. Thereby, the engine mechanical efficiency is greater as the power demand increases, within the engine
design power range.

Figure 9. p-V diagram and IMEP

 Alex de Oliveira, Márcio José da Silva, André Marcelino de Morais and José Ricardo Sodré.
Evaluating Engine Combustion Parameters from Cylinder Pressure Measurement.

Figure 10. Mechanical efficiency of the power generator engine

5. CONCLUSIONS

This study investigated parameters of combustion and engine performance, from the experimental in-cylinder pressure
curve. The main results showed:

- Peak pressure increase inside the cylinder with increase of the engine load;
- The high loads presented lower ignition delay in relation to low and medium loads, attributed to higher pressures
and temperatures reached with increased fuel demand;
- The higher fuel consumption with the increase in engine load caused increase in combustion duration and the amount
of heat released;
- The p-V diagrams allowed the determination of the IMEP and the power generator mechanical efficiency, showing
increase in efficiency with the increase in engine load.

6. REFERENCES

Antonopoulos, A.K. and D.T. Hountalas, 2012. “Effect of instantaneous rotational speed on the analysis of measured
diesel engine cylinder pressure data”, Energy Conv. Manage, Vol. 60, p. 87-95.
Bodisco, T. and Brown, R., 2013. "Inter-cycle variability of in-cylinder pressure in an ethanol fumigated common rail
diesel engine", Energy, Vol. 52, p. 55-65.
Chung, J., Oh, S., Min, K. and Sunwoo, M., 2013. “Real-time combustion parameter estimation algorithm for light-duty
diesel engines using in-cylinder pressure measurement”, Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 60, p. 33-43.
Heywood, J. B, 1988. Internal combustion engine fundamentals. McGraw-Hill, 2nd edition.
Maurya, R. K., Pal, D. D. and Agarwal, A. K., 2013. “Digital Signal Processing of Cylinder Pressure Data for
Combustion Diagnostics of HCCI Engine”, Mechanical Systems Signal Processing, Vol. 36, p. 95-109.
Pidol, L., Lecointe, B., Starck, L. and Jeuland, N., 2012. “Ethanol–biodiesel–Diesel fuel blends: Performances and
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Rogers, D. R., 2010. Engine Combustion: Pressure Measurement and Analysis. SAE International.
Sinha, S. and Agarwal, A K., 2007. “Experimental investigation of the combustion characteristics of a biodiesel (rice-
bran oil methyl-ester)-fuelled direct-injection transportation diesel engine”, Journal of Automobile
Engineering, Vol. 221, p. 921-932.
Tutak, W., 2014. “Bioethanol E85 as a fuel for dual fuel diesel engine”. Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 86,
p. 39-48.
Zhang, Z. H., Cheung, C. S., Yao, C. D., 2013. “Influence of fumigation methanol on the combustion and particulate
emissions of a diesel engine”. Fuel, Vol. 111, p. 442-8.
Zhao, H. and Ladommatos, N., 2001. “Engine Combustion Instrumentation and Diagnostics”, Warrendale, PA, SAE
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engine fueled with ethanol-biodiesel blends”, Fuel, Vol. 90, p. 1743-1750.
 23rd ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
December 6-11, 2015, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

7. RESPONSIBILITY NOTICE

The authors are the only responsible for the printed material included in this paper.

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