Performance and Cyclic Variability of Natural Gas Fuelled Heavy Duty Engines 892137
Two heavy duty turbocharged and aftercooled diesel engines have been converted to spark ignition (SI) for natural gas fuelling. One engine features two valves per cylinder, high primary swirl and a compact combustion chamber. The other engine has four valves per cylinder and a more open combustion chamber shape. Both engines were characterized on a dynamometer and subsequently put into service where one of the engines has been monitored extensively.
When a diesel engine is converted to SI operation, there is an involved process which must be carried out to insure reliable and efficient operation. Many aspects of the conversion process are limited by the original configuration of the diesel engine. Some of these aspects, such as combustion chamber shape, are shown to be important to the optimization of an SI converted engine and are highlighted in the comparison of these two engines.
The conversion process, dynamometer testing and optimization required to bring these engines into reliable fleet service are presented in this paper.
Citation: Shiells, W., Garcia, P., Chanchaona, S., McFeaters, J. et al., "Performance and Cyclic Variability of Natural Gas Fuelled Heavy Duty Engines," SAE Technical Paper 892137, 1989, https://doi.org/10.4271/892137. Download Citation
Author(s):
W. Shiells, P. Garcia, S. Chanchaona, J. S. McFeaters, R. R. Raine
Affiliated:
Transport Fuels Systems Ltd., Dept. of Mechanical Engrg., University of Auckland
Pages: 16
Event:
1989 SAE International Fall Fuels and Lubricants Meeting and Exhibition
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Also in:
Gaseous Fuels-Technology, Performance and Emissions-SP-0798
Related Topics:
Diesel / compression ignition engines
Combustion chambers
Natural gas
Engine cylinders
Valves
SAE MOBILUS
Subscribers can view annotate, and download all of SAE's content.
Learn More »