Measurements for Evaluating

Performance of I C Engines

DR ALKA BANI AGRAWAL

PROFESSOR,DEPT OF MECH ENGG
UIT-RGPV
 BASIC MEASUREMENTS

The basic measurements to be undertaken to evaluate the

performance of an engine on almost all tests are the following :
(a) Speed
(b) Fuel consumption
(c) Air consumption
(d) Smoke density and Exhaust Emissions
(e) Brake horse-power
(f) Indicated horse power and friction horse power
(g) Heat going to cooling water
(h) Heat going to exhaust
(i) Exhaust gas analysis.
 Measurement of Speed

Measurement of Speed - One of the basic measurements

is that of speed. A wide variety of speed measuring
devices are available in the market.
They range from a mechanical tachometer to digital and
triggered electrical tachometers.
The best method of measuring speed is to count the
number of revolutions in a given time. This gives an
accurate measurement of speed.
Many engines are fitted with such revolution counters. A
mechanical tachometer or an electrical tachometer can
also be used for measuring the speed.
 Measurement of Speed

The electrical tachometer has a three-phase permanent-

magnet alternator to which a voltmeter is attached. The
output of the alternator is a linear function of the speed and
is directly indicated on the voltmeter dial.
Both electrical and mechanical types of tachometers are
affected by the temperature variations and are not very
accurate.
For accurate and continuous measurement of speed a
magnetic pick-up placed near a toothed wheel coupled to the
engine shaft can be used. The magnetic pick-up will produce
a pulse for every revolution and a pulse counter will
accurately measure the speed.
 Fuel Consumption Measurement

Accurate measurement of fuel consumption is very

important in engine testing work. IC Engine Testing
 The two basic types of fuel measurement methods
are :
 • Volumetric type
• Gravimetric type.
.
 Fuel Consumption Measurement

Fuel consumption is measured in two ways :

(a) The fuel consumption of an engine is measured
by determining the volume flow in a given time
interval and multiplying it by the specific gravity of
the fuel which should be measured occasionally to
get an accurate value.
 (b) Another method is to measure the time required
for consumption of a given mass of fuel.
 Volumetric Fuel Consumption Measurement Method

Volumetric type flowmeter includes

Burette method,
 Automatic Burrette flowmeter
Turbine flowmeter
 Gravimetric Fuel Flow Measurement

The efficiency of an engine is related to the

kilograms of fuel which are consumed and not the
number of litres.
The method of measuring volume flow and then
correcting it for specific gravity variations is quite
inconvenient and inherently limited in accuracy.
Instead if the weight of the fuel consumed is directly
measured a great improvement in accuracy and cost
can be obtained.
The types of gravimetric type systems which are
commercially available include
Actual weighing of fuel consumed,
 Four Orifice Flowmeter, etc.
 Measurement of Air Consumption

Measurement of Air Consumption -One can say the

mixture of air and fuel is the food for an engine. For
finding out the performance of the engine accurate
measurement of both is essential.
In IC engines, the satisfactory measurement of air
consumption is quite difficult because the flow is
pulsating, due to the cyclic nature of the engine and
because the air a compressible fluid.
Therefore, the simple method of using an orifice in the
induction pipe is not satisfactory since the reading will
be pulsating and unreliable.
All kinetic flow-inferring systems such as nozzles,
orifices and venturies have a square law relationship
between flow rate and differential pressure which
gives rise to severe errors on unsteady flow.
Pulsation produced errors are roughly inversely
proportional to the pressure across the orifice for a
given set of flow conditions. The various methods
and meters used for air flow measurement include
(a) Air box method, and (b) Viscous-flow air meter.
The various methods and meters used for air flow
measurement include
(a) Air box method, and
(b) Viscous-flow air meter
 Measurement of Exhaust Smoke

Measurement of Exhaust Smoke - All the three

widely used smokemeters, namely, Bosch, Hartridge,
and PHS are basically soot density (g/m3 )
measuring devices, that is, the meter readings are a
function of the mass of carbon in a given volume of
exhaust gas.
In some smokemeter which can give a continuous
reading a filter tape is continuously moved at a
uniform rate to which the exhaust from the engine is
fed.
The smoke stains developed on the filter paper are
sensed by a recording head. The signal obtained
from the recording head is calibrated to give smoke
density.
The basic principles of the Bosch smokemeter is one
in which a fixed quantity of exhaust gas is passed
through a fixed filter paper and the density of the
smoke stains on the paper are evaluated optically.
 In a recent modification of this type of smokemeter
units are used for the measurement of the intensity
of smoke stain on filter paper.
The laser smoke meter is a new type of
innovative smoke meter which is able
to measure mass soot concentration continuously
in real-time in exhaust gas from IC engines
MEASUREMENT OF EXHAUST EMISSION

Substances which are emitted to the atmosphere

from the exhaust port of the engine are termed as
exhaust emissions.
 If combustion is complete and the mixture is
stoichiometric the products of combustion would
consist of carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapours
only.
However, there is no complete combustion of fuel and
hence the exhaust gas consists of variety of components, the
most important of them are carbon monoxide (CO),
unburned hydrocarbons (UBHC) and oxides of nitrogen
(NOx).
 Some oxygen and other inert gases would also be present in
the exhaust gas. Over the decade numerous devices have
been developed for measuring these various exhaust
components.
 A brief discussion of one of the commonly used
instruments Flame Ionization Detector (FID is given below.
 Flame Ionization Detector (FID

.
Flame Ionization Detector (FID)
The working principle of this burner is as follows: A hydrogen-air
flame contains a negligible amount of ions.
However, if even trace amounts of an organic compound such as HC
are introduced into the flame, a large number of ions are produced.
 If a polarized voltage is applied across the burner jet and an
adjacent collector, an ion migration will produce a current
proportional to the number of ions and thus to the HC
concentration present in the flame.
FID analyzer is a rapid, continuous and accurate method of
measuring HC in the exhaust gas. Concentration as low as 1 ppb can
be measured.
 Spectroscopic Analyzers

Spectroscopic Analyzers •
A spectrum shows the light absorbed as a function of
wavelength (or frequency).
Each compound shows a different spectrum for the
light absorbed. •
 All the spectroscopic analyzers work on the principle
that the quantity of energy absorbed by a compound
in a sample cell is proportional to the concentration
of the compound in the cell. There are two types of
spectroscopic analyzers.
 Gas Chromatograph

Gas chromatography is first a method of separating the individual

constituents of a mixture and then a method of assured their
concentration.
After separation, each compound can be separately analyzed for
concentration.
This is the only method by which each component existing in an
exhaust sample can be identified and analyzed.
However, it is very time consuming and the samples can be taken
only in batches.
 Gas chromatograph is primarily a laboratory tool.
In addition to the above methods such as mass spectroscopy,
chemiluminescent analyzers, and electrochemical analyzer are also
used for measuring exhaust emissions.