International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 10, December- 2012

Experimental Investigation on Effect of Injection Timing on Performance,

Combustion and Emission Characteristics Compression Ignition Engine Fuelled
With Vegetable Oil Ethanol Blend

Nandkishore D. Rao
Dept. of Auto. Engg.
G.N.D.E.C. Bidar, India

Dr. K. Vijay Kumar

Reddy
Dept. of Mech. Engg.
JNTU, Hyderabad,
India

Abstract

Dr. E. Ramjee
Dept. of Mech. Engg.
JNTU, Hyderabad,
India

of vegetable oil. Among those the trans-esterification

produces the fuel with viscosity and calorific value very
close to diesel. But it requires additional logistical support
and skilled work force, which adds the cost to the fuel.
Blending of vegetable oil with diesel reduces the viscosity,
but this negates the concept of complete replacement of
petro-diesel. Hence, a blend of vegetable oil and ethanol is
prepared for investigation.
For diesel engine, the injection timing determines the state
of air in which the fuel is injected. At advanced injection
timing, the air temperature and pressure at the time of fuel
injection will be lower which increases the ignition delay.
But advancing the injection ensures the sufficient time for
evaporation larger droplets of highly viscous fuel thereby
improves pre-mixed combustion process. If the fuel
injection is advanced beyond certain limit, it may causes too
long delay periods especially at lower loads which results in
unacceptable rate of pressure rise with the knock. This is
due to the fact that too much fuel will be ready to take part
in pre-mixed combustion. Also the peak pressure occurs
well before the TDC. If the injection starts later (retarded
timing) the air pressure and temperature will be higher, a
decrease in ignition delay results in lower peak pressures,
lower combustion temperature and lower combustion noise.
Due to lower temperatures at retarded injection timing
results in NOx emissions and higher smoke emission.

IIJJEE
RRTT

Experimental investigations were made on stationery,

single cylinder, water cooled constant speed diesel engine
to study the effect of variation in injection timing on its
performance, combustion and emission characteristics.
During investigation, engine was fuelled with vegetable
oil-ethanol blend having 70% vegetable oil (Honge oil)
and 30% ethanol. The tests were performed at different
injection timing by changing the number of shims between
the injection pump and engine body. The experimental
results show at advanced injection timing (27CA bTDC)
engine performance improved with significant reduction in
carbon monoxide and unburnt hydrocarbon emissions as
compared to standard injection timing (23CA bTDC).
Retarded injection timing (21CAbTDC), showed reduction
in brake thermal efficiency and higher Carbon monoxide,
Hydrocarbon emissions and lower oxides of Nitrogen
emissions.

Dr. B. Sudheer Prem

kumar
Dept. of Mech. Engg.
JNTU, Hyderabad,
India

Keywords: Injection timings; blend; Brake power;

Oxides of Nitrogen; Smoke

1. Introduction:
Limited amount of petroleum products and growing
environmental concerns caused great interest in developing
the alternative fuels for internal combustion engines. As an
alternative fuels, the vegetable oils and alcohols have
received great attention because these are biodegradable and
renewable. Use of edible oils creates conflict between food
and fuel. Hence the non-edible oils can be used for internal
combustion engine.
In India, variety of non-edible oils obtained from
plant species like honge, linseed, jatropha, karanji, Jaropha
are available in abundance and can be grown on a land
which is not suitable for agricultural purpose. Use of
straight vegetable oil as an alternative fuel for compression
ignition engine is limited due to their very high viscosity.
Numbers of methods are available for lowering the viscosity

Garhard Vellguth et al. [1] conducted performance test on

direct injection single cylinder engine with peanut oil and
soybean oil. They found that the engine performance with
straight vegetable oil was slightly inferior. They concluded
that the straight vegetable oils can be used for diesel engine
for short term operation. In long term, the engine developed
problem like carbon deposit, piston ring sticking and change
in engine oil properties, etc.
Samaga B. S. et al. [2] conducted performance test on
single cylinder diesel engine with sunflower oil and
groundnut oil as an alternative fuel. It was observed that the
engine performance with vegetable oil was lower as
compared to petro-diesel on account of its higher viscosity.
The problem of filter clogging was also observed when the

www.ijert.org

International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 10, December- 2012

effect of injection timing on performance and emissions

characteristics of a single cylinder direct injection diesel
engine performance with pongamia pinnata methyl ester and
its blend with diesel from 0% to 30% with increment of 5%
ester in diesel at varying loads. The tests were conducted at
three different injection timings (19, 23 andb27CA
bTDC). The experimental works revealed that at advanced
timing of 27 CA bTDC, the engine performance was better
than standard timing of 23CA bTDC and significant
reduction in emissions of HC and CO at all loading
conditions. Retarded injection timings showed improvement
over NOx and CO2 emissions. O.M.I Nwafor [9] carried out
at test on duel fuel engine running on Natural gas under
various engine load and speed; it was found that advanced
timing tended to incur slight increase in fuel consumption as
compared to standard injection timing of 30CA bTDC.
3.5CA advance resulted in significant reduction in carbon
monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions as compared to
standard timing. Cenk Sayin [10] carried out at test on
ethanol-diesel blend engine running under various engine
load and speed. Increase in amount of ethanol in blend of
ethanol and diesel decreased the CO and HC emissions
while increased the NOx and CO2 emissions. Advancement
of injection timing resulted in significant reduction in carbon
monoxide and Hydrocarbon emissions and increased the
NOx and CO2 emissions as compared to standard timing.
Retarded timings resulted in increased HC and CO
emissions and lower NOx and CO2 emissions. O.M.I.
Nwafor et al. [11] used rapeseed oil for running diesel
engine at different injection timing. They observed that
standard injection timing, plant oils exhibited longer ignition
delay with slower burning rate. The engine ran smoothly
with advance of 3.5 degree as compared to standard
injection timing. With advanced injection timing there was
significant reduction in carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide
emissions.

IIJJEE
RRTT

engine was stopped over a day with vegetable oil in the line.
Tripathi R.K. and P.K.Sahoo [3] conducted experimental
investigation on single cylinder lower speed IDI diesel
engine to investigate the effect of jatropha straight vegetable
oil fuelling on engine performance and emission
characteristics. The engine performance was inferior with
jatropha oil due to higher viscosity, high surface tension,
low cetane number and low calorific value of jatropha oil.
They concluded that the engine under investigation could
not run on jatropha oil because of low BTE, high BSFC and
even bad emission characteristics. To improve the fuel
properties they suggested some minor modifications in fuel
injection system of engine like advancing the fuel injection
and changing the injector opening pressure, etc. N.S. Bari et
al. [4] examined the effect of injection timing on
performance, combustion and emissions of single cylinder
diesel engine fuelled with waste cooking oil. The engine
used in this research had standard injection timing of 15
before top dead centre. With injection timing advanced by
4, the engine performance improved by about 1.6 percent
and reduced the Carbon monoxide emissions significantly.
But the NOx emissions increased by 76.6 percent. M.
Pandian et al. [5] conducted experiment on Twin Cylinder
CIDI engine with bio-diesel blend as fuel. They altered the
injection timing from 18 bTDC to 30 bTDC in an interval
of 3 crank angle. It was observed that by retarding the
injection timing to 18 CA bTDC from 24CA bTDC, the
NOx emissions reduced by 35 %. While advancing the
injection timing to 30CA bTDC, the NOx emissions
increased by 25% and emissions of unburnt hydrocarbon
and carbon monoxide decreased by about 14.4 and 32%
respectively. The brake thermal efficiency was reduced with
retarded timings whereas it was improved by advancing the
injection timing. GVNSR Ratnakara Rao et al. [6] used a
four stroke single cylinder diesel engine fuelled with diesel
to investigate optimum injection pressure and timing. The
highest brake thermal efficiency was obtained at 200 bar
injector opening pressure and 11bTDC.However there was
slight increase in frictional power at this condition.
V.S.Hariharan [7] conducted performance and emission
tests on single cylinder diesel engine fuelled with diesel, sea
lemon oil, methyl esters of sea lemon oil and its blends with
diesel. He reported that the brake thermal efficiency with sea
lemon oil was lower than diesel due to lower calorific value
and high viscosity. The brake thermal efficiency of engine
improved by advancing the injection timing to 27CA bTDC
as compared to 23CA bTDC. This was due to the fact that
by advancing the injection timing, the fuel finds sufficient
time for vaporization and mixing with air, which leads to
better pre-mixed combustion. advanced timings resulted in
lower CO and HC emissions and increased NOx emissions.
K Muralidharan and P Govindrajan [8] investigated the

In present study, a blend BSVO-70 (70% of

vegetable oil and 30%) is used as test fuel and the injection
timing is varied between 21 CA bTDC to 27 CA bTDC to
investigate effect of change in injection timing on engine
performance, emission and combustion characteristics.
2. Materials:
The test fuel under consideration is a blend of 70% nonedible vegetable oil (honge oil) and 30% ethanol (BSVO70). Various physical and chemical properties of diesel and
BSVO-70 are determined using standard testing procedure
and are shown in table 1. The viscosity is measured using
redwood viscometer, the calorific value is estimated using
bomb calorimeter, the flash and fire point are determined
Martine pensky apparatus.

www.ijert.org

International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 10, December- 2012

Table 1: Properties of diesel, ethanol, Honge oil and blend

3.

Experimental setup

The experiments are conducted on a single cylinder, four

stroke, direct injection and naturally aspirated compression
ignition engine. The technical details of the engine are given
1
0

1
1

Blend
(BSVO-70)

10.08

Diesel

Ethanol

Viscosity in cSt

4.25

1.2

Neat
Honge
oil
40.25

Flash point (C)

79

21

190

37

Fire point (C)

85

25

210

42

Calorific value
(kJ/kg)
Specific gravity

42700

27569

37258

34105

0.833

0.78

0.925

0.86

Properties

12

Fig.1: Schematic diagram of experimental setup.

1-Test engine, 2-Eddy current dynamometer, 3-fuel burette, 4Fuel filter, 5-Fuel injection pump, 6- air box with U tube water
Manometer, 7-TDC marker and speed sensor, 8- Data acquisition
system and loading device , 9-Exhaust gas calorimeter, 10-Smoke
meter, 11-four gas analyzer, 12-computer, 13 & 14 Fuel tanks.

IIJJEE
RRTT

in Table 2. A computerized diesel engine test rig supplied

by Apex Innovations is used for investigations. The test
setup consists of electrical dynamometer for loading the
engine. Load on the dynamometer is measured using strain
gauge load sensor. An air cooled, piezo-quartz pressure
sensors supplied by piezotronics Ltd, USA are mounted in
cylinder head and between injection pump and injector to
measure cylinder pressure and fuel injection timings
respectively. The pressure sensor signals are obtained at
every 1 crank angle and data acquisition is done for 80
cycles. Signals from these sensors are passed to charge
amplifier for amplification. Crank shaft position is measured
by using Kublar-Germany encoder. The Coolant
temperature, exhaust temperature and air temperature are
measured using thermocouples. The fuel flow rate is
measured on volumetric method using burette. Figure 1
shows the schematic diagram of experimental setup. A gas
analyser is used to measure the carbon monoxide, unburnt
hydrocarbon emissions and oxides of nitrogen emissions
and a smoke meter is used for measurement of smoke
opacity. The details of exhaust gas analyser and smoke
meter are given in table no. 3

S.No

Parameter

Specification

Type

Software used

Four stroke direct

injection single
cylinder diesel engine
Engine soft 8.5

Nozzle opening pressure

200 bar

Rated power

3.5KW @1500 rpm

Cylinder diameter

87.5 mm

Stroke

110 mm

Compression ratio

17.5:1

Injection pressure/timing

200 bar/23 bTDC

Table No 2: Specification of Engine

www.ijert.org

International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 10, December- 2012

Machine

Gas
Analyser

Smoke
meter

Measurement
Parameter

Range

Resolution

Carbon
monoxides(CO)

0-15%

0.01%

Carbon Dioxide
(CO2)

0-19.9%

0.1%

NOx(Oxides of
Nitrogen)

0-5000ppm

1ppm

HC(Hydrocarbon)

0-20000ppm

1ppm

Smoke Opacity

0-99.9%

5.1.1 Brake thermal efficiency:

The fig.2 shows the variation in brake thermal efficiency at
different load conditions and at different injection timing.
The brake thermal efficiency is increased with advancement
in injection timing. This increase in brake thermal efficiency
at advanced injection timing may be attributed to improved
combustion due to sufficient time availability for
evaporation and better mixing of blend and air, which
resulted in higher pre-mixed combustion. Retarded injection
timing resulted in lower brake thermal efficiency due to less
time for evaporation and better mixing of fuel and air
resulting late combustion in operating cycle.

0.1%

Table No. 3. Specifications of Gas Analyser and Smoke

meter
4.

Experimental Procedure:

IIJJEE
RRTT

Initially, the engine with standard injector opening

pressure of 200 bar and static injection timing 23 CA
bTDC is allowed to run on petro- diesel and BSVO-70 at
constant speed of 1500 rpm at no load, 25, 50, 75 and 100
percent load condition to obtain base line data. At each load
condition, the engine is allowed to run for at least 3 minutes
so that the operating conditions can stabilize. The
experiment with BSVO-70 is repeated at different injection
timings to study the effect of injection timing on engine
performance, emission and combustion parameters.
Injection timing is varied by adding or removing the shims
between the fuel injector pump and the engine body. It is
found that by adding or removing each shim of 0.25 mm
thickness, the static injection timing is varied by 2 degree.
Addition of shims retarded the injection timing, while
removing the shims advanced the injection timing. Study is
done with normal, 2, 4 degree advance and 2 degree
retarded injection timings. Variation in injection timing is
monitored by fuel line pressure-crank angle graph. The
engine
performance,
emission
and
combustion
characteristics at different injection timing are evaluated in
terms of brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake specific fuel
consumption (BSFC), exhaust gas temperature (EGT),
Cylinder pressure (Pc), Net rate of heat release (NRHR) and
emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), un-burnt hydrocarbon
(UBHC),oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and smoke opacity.
5. Results and discussion:
5.1 Performance parameters: The engine performance,
emissions and combustion characteristics with vegetable oil
blend at different injection timing are discussed in following
paragraphs.

Fig.2: Variation in Brake Thermal efficiency at different

injection Timings
5.1.2. Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC):

From fig. 3 it is observed that the Brake Specific Fuel

consumption is decreased by advancing the injection
timings. This reduction in BSFC may be due to sufficient
time availability for evaporation and mixing of fuel with air
with increased pre-mixed combustion and lower diffusion
combustion. On other hand, retarding the injection timing
resulted in increased the specific fuel consumption due to
late combustion.
5.1.3. Exhaust gas temperature.
Exhaust gas temperature indicates the amount of heat lost to
atmosphere with exhaust gases. Better combustion results in
lower exhaust gas temperature as the most of the heat will
be released during pre-mixed combustion. With highly
viscous fuels, injection of larger droplets leads to slow
evaporation with poor pre-mixed combustion and more heat
release during diffused combustion phase. By advancing the
injection timing, sufficient time can be made available for
evaporation and mixture preparation during delay period
which results in better combustion. It is observed that
exhaust temperature decreased with increase in advance
injection timing. Retarded injection timing resulted in
higher exhaust gas temperature due to late combustion of
fuel. (Fig. 4)

www.ijert.org

International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 10, December- 2012

phase. On other hand advanced injection timing indicate more

heat is released during premixed phase

Fig.3: Variation in Brake Specific Fuel Consumption

with different injection Timings

IIJJEE
RRTT

Fig.5: Variation in Cylinder Pressure with different

injection Timings

Fig. 4: Variation in Exhaust Gas Temperature at

different injection Timings
5.2 Combustion parameters:

Fig.6: Variation in Net Rate of Heat Release rate with

different injection Timings

5.2.1 Cylinder pressure and net heat release rate:

5.3 Emissions:
Fig. 5 and fig. 6 presents the effect of injection timing on
cylinder pressure and net heat release rate at full load
conditions. With change in injection timing, the in-cylinder
pressure and net heat release rate changes due to the change in
air temperature and pressure at which the fuel is injected. On
advancing the injection timing, the cylinder pressure reaches
to higher value and on retarding the timing, cylinder pressure
reaches to lower value as compared to original timing. This
may be due to the fact that at advanced injection timings,
earlier injection of fuel causes longer delay, large amount of
fuel available for premixed combustion. At advanced timing,
the peak cylinder pressure occurs very close to TDC due to
early start of combustion. On retarding the timing, the peak
pressure lowers and occurrence of peak pressure shifts away
from TDC in expansion stroke, this may be due to shorter
delay period, less fuel availability for premixed combustion
and late start of combustion. It is also observed that with
retarded injection timings, more heat released during diffusion

5.3.1 Carbon monoxide (CO):

Fig. 7 shows variation of carbon monoxide emissions with
injection timing. It is observed that at advanced injection
timing, the carbon monoxide emissions are decreased. This
reduction in CO emissions may be due to the fact that the
advanced injection timing produces higher combustion
temperature which accelerates the oxidation reaction
between carbon and oxygen molecules. Also by advancing
the timing, sufficient time will be available for chemical
reaction. However, retarding the injection timing increases
the CO emissions. The retarded injection timing causes
lower combustion temperature and reduction in oxidation
reaction.

www.ijert.org

International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 10, December- 2012

Fig.7: Variation in Carbon Monoxide Emissions with

different injection Timings

Fig. 8: Variation in Unburnt Hydrocarbon emissions with

different injection Timings

5.3.2 Un-burnt Hydrocarbon emissions (UBHC):

IIJJEE
RRTT

Fig.8 Shows variation in UBHC emissions at different

injection timings. The concentration of UBHC in exhaust
show the traces of fuel present in the exhaust gases. At low
loads the hydrocarbon emissions are slightly higher as
compared to medium loads due to escaping of fuel from
leaner fuel air mixture pockets because of lower combustion
temperature Advancing the injection timing causes earlier
start of combustion and cylinder charge being compressed
by piston moving towards TDC which causes higher
temperatures and more complete burning of charge in
quench zones leads to lower HC emissions. Retarding the
injection timing increases the UBHC emissions due to slow
combustion during expansion stroke and lower combustion
temperatures.

5.5.3 Oxides of Nitrogen: In CI engines, emission of

oxides of nitrogen depends on in-cylinder temperature, the
oxygen concentration and residual time for reaction. With
retarded injection timing, lower in-cylinder temperature,
shorter residence time for reaction at elevated temperature
and more fuel burning after TDC resulted in lower NOx
emissions. Advancing in injection timing, results in better
combustion, higher combustion temperature and increased
residence time for oxidation of nitrogen with higher NOx
emissions. It is observed that advancing the timing resulted
in increase in NOx emissions. At 27 bTDC NOx emissions
are marginally lower than diesel. However, by retarding the
timing decreased the NOx.

Fig. 9: Variation in Oxides of Nitrogen Emissions with

different injection Timings

5.3.4 Smoke Opacity (SO) :

Fig 10 shows variation in smoke opacity with injection
timing. It is observed that at advanced timing, the smoke
opacity decreased due to more complete oxidation in rich
regions. The retarded timing resulted in increase in smoke
opacity due to slow and late combustion during expansion
stroke.
6. Conclusions:

In this study, the influence of injection timing on performance,

emission and combustion characteristics of diesel engine is
experimentally investigated using straight vegetable oil-ethanol
blend as fuel. The results indicate that advancement of injection
timing increased the brake thermal efficiency, lowered brake
specific fuel consumption. The exhaust gas temperature also
reduced. With retarded injection timings, the brake thermal
efficiency decreased with higher brake specific fuel
consumption and higher exhaust gas temperature. The longer
delay period, increase in in-cylinder pressure and maximum
heat release rate are observed with advanced injection timings.
However shorter ignition delay, lower peak in-cylinder pressure
and maximum heat release rate are observed with retarded

www.ijert.org

International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 10, December- 2012

injection timings. By advancing the injection timing, emissions

like carbon monoxide, unbrunt hydrocarbon and smoke
emissions are decreased while NOx emissions are increased. On
other hand retarding the injection timing reduced the NOx
emissions with increased unburnt hydrocarbon, carbon
monoxide and smoke emissions.

K. Murlidharan, P. Govindarajan. Influence of

Injection Timing on the Performance and Emission
Characteristics of DI Diesel Engine using Pongamia
Pinnata Methyl Ester European Journal of Scienctific
Research.Vol.59. No. 2(2011), pp 417-431
[9] O.M.I . Nwafor. Effect of advanced injection timing
on emission characteristics of diesel engine running
on natural gas. Renewable Energy 32(2007), pp
2361-2368.
[10] Cenk Sayin, Kadir Uslu, Mustafa Canakci. Influence
of injection timing on the exhaust emissions of a dualfuel C.I. Engine. Renewable Energy 33(2008), pp
1314-1323.
[11] O.M.I. Nwafor ,G.Rice ,A.I. Ogbonna. Effect of
advanced injection timing on the performance of
rapeseed oil in diesel engines. Renewable Energy.
Vol 21(2000), pp 433-444.
[8]

Fig.10: Variation in smoke Opacity at different injection

Timings

References

IIJJEE
RRTT

[1] Gerhard Vellguth. Performance of Vegetable oils and

their monoesters as fuel for Diesel engine .Society of
Automotive Engineers, USA, 1983, paper No. 831358
[2] Samaga B.S. Vegetable oil as Alternative Fuels for I.
C. Engine and combustion. IISC Bangalore, India,
Dec 28- 30,1983.
[3] Tripathi,R.K. and P.K.Sahoo., Performance evaluation
of a low speed IDI engine fueled with diesel and
Jatropha straight vegetable oil. International Journal
of Science, Technology and Mangement, Vol.2, Issue
2, April 2011; pp. 35-47.
[4] D. Bari, C.W. Yu,Y.H.Lim.Effect of Fuel Injection
Timing with Waste Cooking Oil as a Fuel in a Direct
Injection Diesel Engine proceedings of the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of
Automobile Engineering. Volume 218, No. 1, 2004,
pp.
[5] M. Pandian, S.P.Sivaprakasam and M.Udayakuma,
Influence of Injection Timing On Performance and
Emission Characteristics of Naturally Aspirated Twin
Cylinder CIDI Engine Using Bio-Diesel Blend As
Fuel International Journal of Recent Trends In
Engineering ,Vol.1, No.5, May 2009,pp.
[6] GVNSR Rattnakara Rao, Dr.V.Ramachandra
Raju,Dr.M.Muralidhara Rao, Optimization of
Injection Parameters For A Stationery Diesel Engine.
Vol.2,Ver 1.0,June 2010. pp.2-10
[7] V.S. Hariharan. Simultaneous Injection of Diesel
and Vegetable oil for Diesel Engine Fueling. PH.D
thesis ,JNTU, Anantpur 2011.

www.ijert.org