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Abstract: The term spark-ignition engine refers to internal combustion engines, generally petrol engines, where the
combustion process of the air-fuel mixture is ignited by a spark from a spark plug. A spark plug is a device for
delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the
compressed fuel/air mixture by an electric spark, while containing combustion pressure within the engine. This
experiment will investigate the effect of cutting off the spark plug of a 4-cylinder SI engine set-up in the Mechanical
Engineering Laboratory of the University of San Carlos. The objective of the experiment is to determine the efficiency
of the said SI engine using the Morse test.
Author keywords: Morse test, Spark ignition, SI engine; Thermal efficiency, Ignition timing
During the piston's suction stroke, a mixture of air and Weight of the engines: In CI engines, the compression
fuel is injected from cylinder head portion of the ratio is higher, which produces high pressures inside the
cylinder. The air-fuel mixture is injected via the engine. Hence CI engines are heavier than SI engines.
carburetor that controls the quantity and the quality of
the injected mixture. In the case of CI engines, fuel is Speed achieved by the engine: Petrol or SI engines are
injected into the combustion chamber towards the end of lightweight, and the fuel is homogeneously burned,
the compression stroke. The fuel starts burning instantly hence achieving very high speeds. CI engines are heavier
due to the high pressure. To inject diesel in SI engines, a and the fuel is burned heterogeneously, hence producing
fuel pump and injector are required. In CI engines, the lower speeds.
quantity of fuel to be injected is controlled but the
quantity of air to be injected is not controlled. An SI engine starts the combustion process in each
cycle by use of a spark plug. The spark plug gives a high-
voltage electrical discharge between two electrodes
which ignites the air-fuel mixture in the combustion
1
chamber surrounding the plug. In early engine
Student, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing development, before the invention of the electric spark
Engineering, University of San Carlos, Cebu City 6000,
Philippines. E-mail: michaeladrianygnacio@gmail.com
plug, many forms of torch holes were used to initiate
combustion from an external flame. (Pulkrabek, 1982)
Experimental Methods
Apparatus
Figure 1 shows the experimental set-up at the
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory of the University of
San Carlos for the performance test of the SI engine. The
engine is placed on top of the test bed along with the
brake dynamometer.
= (2)
where = torque
= weight of load
= length of lever arm
= 2 (3)
Data Gathering
The specific fuel consumption is the ratio between
the rate of fuel consumption and the power produced.
The Morse test method was used in this This is calculated using the equation:
experiment. In a Morse test method, cylinders were
individually cut-off from the SI engine one at a time. The
SI engine used in the experiment has four cylinders = (4)
properly labelled on its position. The experiment is done
by detaching the 4 cylinders one at a time each trial. The Where = specific fuel consumption
initial condition of the SI engine wherein no cylinder is = fuel consumption
being cut off yet. The fuel consumption, torque produced = engine brake power
and the speed of the shaft were recorded. A constant fuel
volume of 10 mL gasoline consumption was used as the
base reference for this experiment. After taking all the The brake thermal efficiency of the SI engine is the
necessary parameters, one cylinder is cut-out. Then the ratio of the output work by the input work. Since the
same parameters are taken for each time a cylinder is cut- engine uses the combustion to drive the shaft, therefore
out. The procedure is repeated until all four cylinders the specific fuel consumption will be regarded as the
have been individually cut-out. input power of the SI engine. This is calculated using the
equation:
Calculations
= 100 % (5)
The fuel consumption of the SI engine is
obtained by measuring the amount of time it takes for the where = thermal efficiency
SI engine to consume 10 mL of gasoline when the engine = brake power
is stable at a given condition. Fuel consumption is SFC = specific fuel consumption
calculated using the equation:
m
= (1)
Indicated Power is the brake power when no cylinder 70
is cut off subtracted to the brake power when one GROUP 6 GROUP 4
20
The engine was expected to lose some of its power Bettes, H. (2008). Dyno testing and tuning. CarTech
during the cut-off of cylinders however, that was not the Inc., Denver.
case in the experiment. Instead of the speed to decrease, Epe, D., Lagumbay, P., and Pasquil, Y. (2016),
it increase during cylinder 1 and 2 cut-off. From our Performance test of an SI engine. BSME, DMME,
experiment, it could be concluded that misfire within the USC-TC.
working cylinders are present. By meaning of misfire, Heywood, J. (1988), Internal combustion engine
the ignition timing is not in its optimum. The ignition fundamentals. McGraw-Hill, New York.
could be earlier or later based on the popping sound like
firecracker during the cut-off. As stated from Pulkrabek, Khemani, Haresh. (2008). A comparison of Spark
a higher power output can be gained at correct ignition Ignition and Compression Ignition Engines.
timing. The maximum efficiency of the SI engine during
the experiment reached 64 % which is quite odd for an Pulkrabek, W. (1982), Engineering fundamentals of the
old engine and the engine has huge fuel consumption internal combustion engine 2nd edition. New Jersey:
compared to the modern engine nowadays. Prentice Hall.
Salazar, F., (1998). Internal Combustion Engines.
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical
Notation Engineering. University of Notre Dame.
Stone, R. (1985), Introduction to internal combustion
engines. Palgrave Macmillan, Oxford.
The following symbols are used in this paper:
= fuel consumption;
m = base mass of fuel;
= time taken to consume the base
mass of fuel;
= torque;
= weight of load;
= length of lever arm
= engine brake power;
= value of pi;
= shaft speed;
= specific fuel consumption;
= break thermal efficiency;
= friction power;
= indicated power;
= engine brake power;