Energy 174 (2019) 386e406

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Combined effect of influence of nano additives, combustion chamber

geometry and injection timing in a DI diesel engine fuelled with
ternary (diesel-biodiesel-ethanol) blends
Harish Venu a, *, V. Dhana Raju b, Lingesan Subramani c
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai, 600077, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lakireddy Bali Reddy College of Engineering, Mylavaram, A.P, 521230, India
c
Department of Automobile Engineering, Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai, 600044, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present experimental work focuses on the combined effect of nano additives, combustion chamber
Received 16 February 2018 geometry and injection timing in a single cylinder diesel engine fuelled with ternary fuel (diesel-bio-
Received in revised form diesel-ethanol) blends. Ternary fuel (TF) is doped with alumina nano additives and the resulting fuel is
23 January 2019
termed as high performance fuel (HPF). HPF is subjected to different combustion chamber geometries
Accepted 22 February 2019
Available online 23 February 2019
and TRCC (torroidal re-entrant combustion chamber) geometry is found to be effective among other
geometries. HPF operated at TRCC chamber is subjected to four different injection timings namely,
21obTDC (HPF-TRCC21), 22obTDC (HPF-TRCC22), 23obTDC (HPF-TRCC23) and 24obTDC (HPF-TRCC24)
Keywords:
Ternary fuel
respectively. BTE is lowered for HPF-TRCC21 and HPF-TRCC24 by 4.53% and 1.22% while highest BTE of
Nano additive about 33.8% is achieved for 22obTDC in comparison with other blends such as DIESEL-HCC23 (32.75%),
Combustion chamber HPF-TRCC21 (31.41%) and HPF-TRCC24 (32.53%). Lowest BSEC profile was achieved for HPF-TRCC22. HPF-
DIESEL-RK TRCC22 resulted in lowered HC and CO emissions of about 9.18% and 16.83% in comparison with HPF-
Injection timing TRCC23. HPF-TRCC21 resulted in lowered NOx emissions by 22.53% along with higher HC and CO
Exhaust emission emissions by 6.13% and 20.51% in comparison with HPF-TRCC23. Cylinder pressure and HRR of HPF-
TRCC22 stays at an acceptable range of 75.42 bar and 85.34 J/deg CA in comparison with other test
blends. The DIESEL-RK theoretical simulation results are compared with the experimental study con-
ducted at the same operating conditions and its revealed that TRCC combustion chamber geometry is
better for enhanced performance and combustion characteristics.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Rapid increase in number of vehicle industries has escalated the
exhaust emissions along with health hazards and global environ-
ment degradation. The air quality degrades tremendously with
increasing vehicular emissions such as hydrocarbon (HC), carbon
monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and
smoke emissions for which the transportation sector is hugely
responsible [1,2]. There is an inherent need for searching a suitable
alternative fuel for transportation sector due to twin problems of
stringent emission norms and depleting fossil fuel reserves. Bio-
diesel and ethanol received severe attention in recent years as it can
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: harishvenuresearch@gmail.com (H. Venu), dhanaraju.v@lbrce.
ac.in (V.D. Raju), s.lingesan@gmail.com (L. Subramani).
be blended with mineral diesel for achieving both energy and
environmental benefits [3]. Biodiesel cannot be utilized up to 100%
as alternative fuel, owing to its highly viscous nature and essential
minor engine alterations [4]. The usage of alcohols (ethanol,
methanol, n-butanol etc.) and its blends with diesel emerged as a
typical binary fuel pattern at the beginning of 21st century [5].
However, binary blends posed a serious issue of phase stratification
or mixture stratification which was minimized by appending
mixture stabilisers that were pretty costlier [6]. Among various
alcohol alternatives, ethanol is preferred widely due to its higher
oxygen content (34% by weight) which helps in improving the
combustion rate. Ethanol has higher octane number [7] and hence
it is utilized directly in spark ignition (SI) engines. Compression
ignition (CI) engines are preferred in transportation sector widely
owing to its improved thermal efficiency.
It is interesting to note that, addition of biodiesel in limited

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2019.02.163
0360-5442/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406
content (20%) in diesel þ ethanol blend resulted in mitigation of
mixture stratification and lowered the dependency of high cost
mixture stabilizers. This paved way for a ternary fuel pattern
comprising diesel þ biodiesel þ ethanol blends [8e10]. Considering
the above blending proportions, a ternary fuel (TF) is prepared by
blending 20% biodiesel, 10% ethanol and 70% diesel fuel which are
found to be more stabilized blends as well as its properties lying
closer to diesel fuel. However, the profile of resulting ternary fuel
lay below the diesel fuel in terms of performance and emission
characteristics, which is identified as the problem statement of this
research. To overcome the above addressed limitation, the
researcher decided to adopt three techniques in a phased manner
towards improving the combustion and emission characteristics of
identified TF, namely (i) Addition of nano additives, (ii) Modifica-
tion of combustion chamber geometry and (iii) Injection timing
variation.
Addition of nano additives in base fuel is found to affect the fuel
properties significantly thereby resulting in effective oxidation of
fuel precursors during combustion and thereby resulting in low-
ered exhaust emission [11]. Gumus et al. [12] examined the effect of
aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and copper oxide (CuO) nano particles
with diesel. Al2O3 and CuO addition in diesel leads to lowered BSFC
of about 0.5% and 1.2% at moderate engine speeds and found that
nanoparticle addition can enhance the dispersion rate, improve the
engine performance and lower the exhaust emissions. Sivakumar
et al. [13] investigated the effect of alumina nano additives in
pongamia biodiesel and found that the BSFC is lowered and the BTE
is improved owing to pooled effect of physical ignition delay, higher
evaporation rate, prolonged flame sustenance and higher flame
temperatures of alumina nano particles leading to complete com-
bustion. Shaafi & Velraj [14] experimentally investigated the effect
of alumina nano particles in binary and ternary blends and found
cylinder pressure and HRR of alumina blended ternary fuel are
higher owing to higher surface area to volume ratio of alumina.
Moreover they found that the atomization rate and heat transfer
rate are improved with nanoparticle addition. Raju et al. [15]
experimentally investigated the effect of nano particles doped in
tamarind biodiesel blend fuelled in a single cylinder diesel engine.
Combustion chamber geometry is also an important parameter
to be considered when the fuel is altered since the standard
hemispherical chamber is suitable only for diesel fuel. Bapu et al.
[16] performed an experimental investigation on the influence of a
modified piston bowl geometry (MHCC) in comparison with con-
ventional piston bowl (HCC) in a single cylinder diesel engine
fuelled with B20 (20% Calophyllum inophyllum methyl ester þ 80%
diesel fuel). It was observed that there is a substantial increase in
peak pressure with MHCC when CR is increased. Singh et al. [17]
reported that with different combustion chamber geometries,
desired levels of squish, tumble, swirl and turbulence can be initi-
ated inside the combustion chamber and subsequent improve-
ments in performance and lowered emissions can be achieved. Jyoti
& Reddy [18] conducted on single cylinder four stroke diesel engine
with three different combustion chamber geometries namely
Hemispherical Combustion Chamber (HCC), Torroidal Combustion
Chamber (TCC) and Torroidal Re-entrant Combustion Chamber
(TRCC). In comparison with HCC, the BTE of TCC and TRCC were
higher by about 2.94% and 3.28% while the BSEC dropped by about
1.3% and 3.1% owing to inducement of air swirl inside the com-
bustion chamber leading to complete charge combustion with
maximized energy liberation. Gafoor & Gupta [19] numerically
investigated the influence of piston bowl geometry and initial swirl
ratios on the diesel engines performance and emissions. For such
investigation, three configurations with various d/D ratios (aspect
ratio) and initial swirl ratio were considered for improved engine
performance and minimized emissions.
387
Another strategy of improving the performance of engine with
alternative fuels is modification in injection parameters such as
injection timing and injection pressure since it makes direct impact
in atomization, vaporization and influences the fuel droplet size
variation. Shameer & Ramesh [20] conducted a brief assessment on
researches pertaining to variation of Injection Timing (IT) and In-
jection Pressure (IP) on biodiesel fuelled diesel engines on com-
bustion characteristics. They found that, with advancement in IT,
there is an increase in in-cylinder pressure, peak pressure rise; HRR
and ID period is prolonged as a result of rapid combustion rate in
PCP. Deep et al. [21] conducted experimentation on a single cylin-
der diesel engine fuelled with B20 (20% castor oil biodiesel þ 80%
diesel fuel) at various IT and IP. They modified the IT's in range of
21, 23 and 25 while IP is varied by 200 bar, 250 bar and 300 bar
respectively. It is observed that, for all the IP's the BTE is compar-
atively lower. Goel et al. [22] had done a comprehensive review on
the impact of modifications in diesel engines with various IP, IT,
combustion chamber geometry, etc for identifying optimum
working condition. High IP's with advancement/retardation of IT
can improve the engine performance significantly with lowered
HC, CO and smoke emissions owing to betterment in combustion
and improvement in air-fuel mixing rate. Ganapathy et al. [23]
studied the effect of Injection Timing (IT), load, torque and engine
speed in jatropha biodiesel fuelled diesel engine. Advancing the IT
to 340CAD from a standard engine specified timing of 345CAD
lowers the BSFC, HC, CO and smoke levels by 5.1%, 1.2%, 2.5% and
1.5%.
Based on the critical survey of literature presented, it is observed
that there are so far no literature focused on the combined effect of
nano additives, combustion chamber geometry and injection
timing. With this strategic conception the current research focuses
on preparation of ternary fuel, preparation of high performance fuel
by blending with nano additives followed by the operation of high
performance fuel in various combustion chamber geometries and
injection timings. The problem definition and the objectives for the
current study are depicted in Fig. 1.
1.1. DIESELeRK simulation engine software
The simulation software DIESEL-RK is designed for modeling the
actual working processes of compression ignition engines with all
necessary required operating parameters. It is engine simulation
and optimization software. Any type of combustion chamber
geometrical shapes can be modeled with inclusion of profile of
swirl, sprayer location, multiple injection, and number of nozzles,
diameter of nozzle, and direction of nozzle holes and also the
interaction of the sprays with walls. This RK model has a capability
to optimize the geometry of piston bowl shape as per the specified
design. Further, it helps in presenting the visualization of fuel spray
with the combustion chamber walls, air swirl movement and
neighbouring sprays in the animation visual format. The perfor-
mance, combustion and emission characteristics of diesel engine
such as brake thermal efficiency, specific fuel consumption, air-fuel
ratio, heat release rate, in-cylinder pressure, combustion duration,
ignition delay, peak cylinder pressure, NOX formation and soot
concentration can be analyzed critically when it is operated with
various fuels at different operation conditions and also validate this
simulation results with the experimental test data. In the multi
zone combustion model, the spray is split into seven characteristic
zones, as shown in Fig. 2. The seven characteristics zones are (1)
Dense axial core of free spray (2) Dense forward front (3) Dilute
outer sleeve of free spray (4) Axial conical core of near wall flow of
air with high density of fuel drops (NWF) (5) Dense core of NWF (6)
Dense forward front of NWF (7) Dilute outer surroundings of NWF.
Further, hwfr represents the height of the forward front of the NWF
388
Fig. 1. Flowchart illustrating the problem definition and research objective.
Fig. 2. Various characteristic zones of the fuel spray in combustion chamber.
and bm represents the spray forward front.
The border between the initial and main stages of spray evo-
lution corresponds to the moment when the axial flow close to the
spray tip starts to deform and break up, forming a condensed
mushroom-shaped forward front. As the spray moves on, constant
breakup of the spray forward part takes place and the front is
renewed by new flying fuel portions. The delayed droplets move
from the breaking front to the environment. The moving spray
carries the surrounding gas with it. The core diameter in the cross
section is about 0.3 of the spray outside diameter. Same operating
conditions and fuel properties with engine specifications were used
as input data to the software. In this phase of experimental work,
HCC SDRCC
Fig. 3. Design of piston bowl combustion chamber geometries with Diesel-RK.
H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406
without altering the operating conditions of the engine, the piston
bowl geometry is designed to have Hemispherical Combustion
Chamber (HCC), Shallow depth Re-entrant Combustion Chamber
(SDRCC), Toroidal Combustion Chamber (TCC), and Toroidal Re-
entrant Combustion Chamber (TRCC) which is depicted in Fig. 3.
It means that the proposed methodology is capable of creating
most of the bowl shapes used in practical diesel engines. Kuleshov
[77] recommended the use of DIESEL-RK simulation software for
optimization of operating parameters such as geometry of piston
bowl, injection pressure, injection timing, compression ratio,
number of nozzles and the various fuels to the diesel engine to
generate improved performance, combustion and emission
characteristics.
From the design and modeling of HCC, SDRCC, TCC and TRCC
piston bowl geometries, considering the actual operating condi-
tions of diesel engine at compression ratio 17.5, fuel injection
timing of 220 CA and fuel injection pressure of 200 bar fuelled with
high performance fuel (HPF) under same operating conditions and
the simulation results are elaborated in the results and discussion.
2. Experimental material & methods
2.1. Fuel precursors
Diesel fuel employed in the tests was obtained locally from
commercial petroleum reserve. Raw Jatropha oil was obtained by
crushing the Jatropha curcas seeds in mechanical expeller. Jatropha
biodiesel is prepared from raw Jatropha oil by a chemical process
named transesterification where the glycerin is separated from the
Jatropha oil. As a result, Jatropha oil methyl ester and glycerine is
TCC TRCCC
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406 389

obtained. Obtained Jatropha biodiesel has high cetane number, a Table 2

high density and flash point and lower sulfur content compared to Comparison of fuel properties of Jatropha biodiesel and diesel.
diesel. The ethanol used for the experiments is analysis-grade
Properties Method Diesel Jatropha
anhydrous ethanol (99.7% purity). Jatropha biodiesel preparation (DF100) Biodiesel
was done in two phases, namely esterification and trans- (JB100)
esterification. For esterification, a mixture of 10:1 M ratio of Density @ 20  C, kg m3 ASTMD1298 840 874.3
methanol to raw oil and 1.5 (wt%) sulphuric acid (H2SO4) were Kinematic viscosity @ 40  C, cSt ASTMD445 2.84 4.34
treated with preheated oil and stirred at 700 rpm for 4 h at 60  C Lower heating value, kJ/kg ASTMD270 44700 42673
The esterified oil was separated from alcohol, H2SO4 and impurities Flash point,oC ASTMD92 68 130
Cetane number ASTMD613 48 52.7
using a funnel separator. Separated esterified Jatropha oil was then
Iodine value, g I2/100 gm. ASTMD1959 0.1 0.26
heated to 60  C and retained for 1 h in a rotary evaporator for Carbon residue (% by wt) ASTMD524 0.1e0.12 0.23e0.26
removing water and methanol. Transesterification was carried out C/H ratio (by vol) 6.52 6.93
to further reduce the viscosity as the esterified Jatropha oil was very Elemental analysis (%wt)
viscous (4.2 cSt). The fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) composition of C (%) 80.12 82.22
H (%) 12.2 11.96
Jatropha biodiesel were illustrated in Table 1. The properties of O2 (%) 1.21 5.74
synthesized Jatropha biodiesel in comparison with diesel fuel were N (%) 1.68 0.041
illustrated in Table 2. The transesterification reaction for conversion S (%) 4.79 0.038
of triglycerides to methyl esters are illustrated in equation (1)
below:

CH2 O  CO  R1 CH2  O  H CH3 O  CO  R1

¦ ¦
CH O  CO  R2 CH3 OH CH  O  H CH3 O  CO  R2
¦ ƒƒƒƒƒƒ! ¦ þ (1)
3
CH2 O  CO  R CH2  O  H 3
TRIGLYCERIDES CH3 O  CO  R
Glycerol ðJatropha biodieselÞ
ðRaw Jatropha oilÞ

2.2. Preparation of ternary fuel and assessment of its properties
With reference to above mentioned scenario, there is an
inherent need of reducing the density, viscosity and improving the
calorific value of JB100 to make it suitable for operation of diesel
engine without causing any harm to engine as well as improving
the engine performance. Government of India set itself high
blending targets for biofuels as per the “National Biofuel Policy”
approved on 24th December 2009 by which it is permitted to blend
ethanol up to 10% and biodiesel up to 20% with diesel fuel by the
end of 5th year plan (2017). It is interesting to note that, addition of
biodiesel in limited content (20%) in diesel þ ethanol blend resulted
in mitigation of mixture stratification and lowered the dependency
of high cost mixture stabilisers. This paved way for a ternary fuel
pattern comprising diesel þ biodiesel þ ethanol blends. Consid-
ering the above blending proportions, a ternary fuel (TF) is pre-
pared by blending 20% biodiesel, 10% ethanol and 70% diesel fuel
which is found to be a more stabilized blends as well as its prop-
erties lying closer to diesel fuel. Hence, the ternary fuel blend was
proposed to be developed with 20% biodiesel, 10% ethanol and 70%
diesel fuel. Hence, the mixture is prepared for 1 L and is subjected
to magnetic stirring for 2 h. The resulting mixture is named as TF
and important fuel properties such as density, kinematic viscosity,
calorific value, cetane number and flash point were determined for
TF according to ASTM standards as shown in table. It is observed
that, the density, viscosity and cetane number of TF were lowered
by 2.52%, 26.73% and 8.16% in comparison with JB100 and higher
than diesel fuel by 1.43%, 11.97% and 0.83% respectively. However,
the properties are still not a match with mineral diesel. Hence, the
researcher intended to adopt a novel technique of blending
alumina nano additives with TF of about 20 ppm and further
analyzing the property as well as performing experimentation with
nano additives doped ternary fuel blends. The properties of the
blending stocks were mentioned in Table 3.

Table 1
Fatty acid composition of Jatropha methyl ester.

Fatty acid Molecular weight Structure Systematic name Formula Composition (%)

Arachidic 312 20:0 Eicosanoic C20H40O2 0.3

Lauric 200 12:0 Dodecanoic C12H24O2 0.2
Linoleic 280 18:2 Cis-9-cis-12-Octadecadienoic C18H32O2 32.4
Linolenic 278 18:3 Cis-9-cis-12 C18H30 O2 0.5
Myristic 228 14:0 Tetradecanoic C14H28O2 0.2
Palmitic 256 16:0 Hexadecanoic C16H32O2 15.2
Palmitoleic 254 16:1 Hexadec-9-enoic C16H30O2 0.8
Oleaic 282 18:1 Cis-9-Octadecenoic C18H34O2 43.2
Stearic 284 18:0 Octadecanoic C18H36 O2 7.2
Saturated 22.6
Monosaturated 32.9
Polysaturated 44.5
390 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406

Table 3
Main properties of blending stocks.

Properties ASTM standard DF100 JB100 TF TF10 TF20 (HPF) TF30

Density at 20  C, (kg/m3) D1298 840 874 852 849 848 845

Kinematic Viscosity at 40  C, (cSt) D445 2.84 4.34 3.18 3.07 3.02 3.1
Calorific Value, (kJ/kg) D240 44700 42673 43176 43412 43846 43580
Cetane number D976 48 52.7 48.4 48.6 48.7 48.4
Flash point (oC) D93 68 130 59 60 63 62

2.3. Nanoparticle preparation Table 4

Physical properties of alumina nano additive.

There are various methods for preparation of alumina nano Property Value
additives like ball milling, sol-gel technique, chemical vapour Crystal structure with type g
deposition, precipitation method, etc., among which the easiest Micro strain (x) 0.086
and hassle free technique is sol-gel method. Sol-gel method in- Dislocation density (d), line2/m2 0.4*1014
cludes four stages namely; preparation of solution, formation of gel Purity, % 94.99
Surface area, m2/g 224.55
in prepared solution, growth of particles in gel and agglomeration
Average particle size, nm 28e30
of nano particles. In this method, initially aluminium nitrate solu- Appearance (colour) White
tion (0.5 M) is dissolved in 50 ml deionized water (H2O) at 22  C Bulk/true density, g/cm3 0.18
and stirred magnetically. Secondly, urea (0.05 M) is dissolved with
prepared aluminium nitrate solution and reacted for 30 min until
the solution attains a pH level of 2. This is the base solution which is 2.4. Characterization of synthesized alumina nanoparticle
to be titrated with a mixture of 0.1 M sodium hydroxide and 25 ml
of H2O till pH level 6 is attained. Further addition of sodium hy- The synthesized aluminium nano particles were characterized
droxide to the base solution forms a clady gel (pH ¼ 8), which is for grain size using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Fig. 5a
dried and calcined at 150  C for 12 h. Finally, alumina nanoparticles reveals the SEM image obtained using VEGA-3-TESCAN Scanning
were collected after the dried sample is subjected to 300  C and 2 h Electron Microscope. TEM morphology of Al2O3 nano particle was
in furnace. The flowchart for preparation of alumina nanoparticles done using JEM-3010 ultrahigh resolution analytical electron mi-
is clearly illustrated in Fig. 4. The physical properties of synthesized croscope and the image is illustrated in Fig. 5b. TEM morphology of
Al2O3 nanoparticles were detailed in Table 4. Al2O3 nano particle reveals confinement of Al2O3 nano particles to
the crystalline nature with minimal agglomeration and aggregate
formation. The visible polygon shaped particles in TEM image
varies between 30 nm and 50 nm and were comparatively higher
than XRD results. In terms of energetic perspective, formation of
Aluminium Nitrate 50 ml H2O
agglomerates is quite natural and allows the growth of crystallites.
(0.5M) XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) of synthesized Al2O3 nano particle is done
using PANalytical X'Pert Powder XRD System and illustrated in
Urea 25 ml H2O Fig. 5c. The diffraction peaks of Al2O3 with planes (110), (200), (211),
(0.05M)

Solution stirred at 90oC,

600rpm(pH=2)

Mixture solution
(pH=6)

Clady gel (pH=8) NaOH (0.1M)

(precipitate formation)

Drying @ 150oC
for 8-10 hours

Calcination@300oC
for 2 hours

2O3 nanoparticles

Fig. 4. Flowchart illustrating synthesis of Al2O3 nanoparticles. Fig. 5. Characterization of Al2O3 nanoparticles a) SEM b) TEM c) XRD d) EDS.
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406 391

(310), (411), (521) and (541) confirms to the crystalline structure of

synthesized nano particle which is in good agreement with JCPDS
card number (86e1156). The grain size is calculated using Debye-
Scherer's method as shown in equation (2),

kl
D¼ (2)
bcosq

where, D-average grain size of the nanoparticle, k- Shape factor

(0.89), l- X-Ray wavelength of Al2O3 (1.54 Å), b- Full Width at Half
Maximum (FWHM) (5.128*103) and 2q- Bragg angle (37.46 ),
q ¼ 18.73 , therefore ‘D’ is calculated as 28.2 nm. EDS spectrum is
analyzed by INCA Energy 250 Microanalysis System. EDS results
were depicted in Fig. 5d. EDS results confirms to the presence of
Aluminium and O2 elements in the composition. Also, there were
no impure atoms in report.

2.5. Preparation method and property analysis of high performance

fuel (HPF)

Ternary fuel (TF) blend is prepared by mixing diesel (70% v/v),

biodiesel (20%v/v) and ethanol (10%v/v) and subjecting for mag-
netic stirring for 2 h. Alumina nano additives were blended with TF Fig. 6. Layout of experimental setup.
at about 20 ppm and the resulting mixture is named as high per-
formance fuel (HPF). For blending the nano additives, ultra-
25%, 50%, 75% and 100% respectively. The air cooled test engine uses
sonication method is chosen as it results in uniform dispersion of
SAE40 lubricating oil with 3.7 L capacity for ensuring negligible
nanoparticles in base fuel. Placing the nano blended solution in
friction and wear between the moving components. The specifi-
ultrasonic bath for 30 min prevents the possible agglomeration of
cations of test engine were displayed in Table 5.
particles and helps providing a stable solution. Following the ul-
trasonic bath, each test fuel is kept in transparent test tubes at
steady ambient conditions for investigation of phase separation 2.7. Selection of combustion chamber geometry
and sedimentation of nanoparticles. It was observed that, the fuel
blends remained stable for more than 7 days. Dispersed nano- The prime objective of combustion chamber geometry in diesel
particles always undergo Brownian motion (random motion of engine is to render certain mixing rate in fuel-air mixtures. The
suspended particles due to molecular collision) and their stability is most important role of diesel engine combustion chamber is to
as a resultant of level of interaction (attractive and repulsive) be- enhance the fuel-air mixing rate (swirl) in short possible time. The
tween the particles during collision. When the repulsive interaction turbulence can be guide by the shape of the combustion chamber
is more than attractive interaction, then the dispersed particles hence there is a necessity to study the combustion chamber ge-
remains stable for longer time periods. HPF blend showed higher ometry in detail. The criteria behind the selection of combustion
calorific value of 43846 kJ/kg, lowered kinematic viscosity of chamber geometry will provide a powerful squish along with the
3.02 cSt and higher cetane number of 48.7. air movement, similar to that of the familiar smoke ring. It is found
that the squish and swirl flow plays a significant role in the tur-
bulence generation process near the top dead centre (TDC) during
2.6. Test engine selection
compression. The coupling among the swirl, squish, bowl shape
and turbulence is much more pronounced in the combustion
Experimentation was done on Kirloskar make, single cylinder
chambers.
four stoke diesel engine which is basically an agriculture applica-
A key objective in designing the combustion bowl then is to
tion oriented engine. Hence, this type of engine is preferred for
ensure that mixing of fuel and air is adequate to mitigate the impact
research work throughout the world with alternate fuels. The test
of fuel rich regions and allow the engine to meet its performance
engine develops an output power of 4.4 kW which operates at a
and emissions targets. Turbulence in the air motion within the
constant speed of 1500 rpm. This direct injection naturally aspi-
rated engine has a fuel capacity of 6.5 L, bore and stroke of 87.5 mm
and 110 mm along with 203 mm long connecting rod assembly. The Table 5
standard operating conditions as per the manufacturer prescribed Engine specifications.
is 17:1 compression ratio, 23obTDC injection timing and 200 bar Engine specifications
injection pressure. The current experimental arrangement uses
Engine make Kirloskar TAF 1
MICO fuel injection and a piezo electric pressure transducer Engine type 4 stroke, vertical diesel engine
mounted on engine cylinder head for recording the in-cylinder No. of cylinders 1
pressure and heat release rate generated during the power Rated power 4.4 kW @ 1500 rpm
stroke. QRO-402 exhaust gas analyzer measures the HC, CO, CO2 Bore and stroke 87.5 mm and 110 mm
Compression ratio 17.5: 1
and NOx emissions and AVL437C smoke meter measures the smoke
Displacement volume 661 cc
opacity. The layout of experimental setup is outlined in Fig. 6. The Injection timing 23 deg bDTC (rated)
engine load is attached with eddy current dynamometer which is Injection pressure 200 bar
connected with the test engine with flexible coupling. Based on the Combustion chamber geometry Hemispherical chamber
variation of current supply, the engine load varies from lower to No. of nozzle holes 3
Diameter of nozzle hole 0.3 mm
higher load. Experiments were performed with engine loads of 0%,
392 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406

combustion bowl is found to be beneficial to the mixing process Table 6

and can be used to achieve this goal. Swirl induced by the intake Specifications of Exhaust gas analyzer.

port can be enhanced or squish can be generated by the piston as it Make and Model of QROTECH Ltd., KOREA (QRO-402)
approaches the cylinder head to create more turbulence during the pressure transducer
compression stroke through proper design of the bowl in the piston Dimension 285 mm  410 mm x 155 mm
crown. Combustion chamber design has the most significant Accuracy and <±2% of Full scale reading
impact on exhaust emissions. It can also have an influence on un- reproducibility
Measurements HC, CO and CO2 (by NDIR method) O2 and NOx (by
burned hydrocarbons and CO. While NOx emissions can be influ-
Electrochemical method)
enced by bowl design bulk gas properties play a very important role Response time Within 10 s (90% of readings)
in their exhaust levels. Power supply 50W
For the current study, different chamber geometries like stan- Reheating time 2e8 min
Sample requirement 4e6L/min
dard hemispherical combustion chamber (HCC), shallow depth re-
Category temperature 0oC-40  C
entrant combustion chamber (SDRCC), torroidal re-entrant com- Weight 4.5 kg
bustion chamber (TRCC) and torroidal combustion chamber (TCC) Accuracy Carbon monoxide(CO) ±0.02%
were considered. The designs of geometries were done in such a Carbon dioxide (CO2) ±0.03%
way that by changing the original geometry (HCC) and replacing it Hydrocarbon (HC) ± 20 ppm
Oxides of nitrogen (NO) ± 10 ppm
with newer geometries (SDRCC, TRCC and TCC) keeping the
compression ratio and bowl geometry volume to be constant. The
pictorial representations of modified chamber geometries were
Table 7
shown in Fig. 7.
Specifications of Smoke meter.

Make and Model of pressure transducer AVL, Australia (AVL 437C-IP 52)
2.8. Instrumentation and measuring methods
Dimension 570 mm  500 mm x 1250 mm
2.8.1. Emission analysis Accuracy and reproducibility ±0.1 HSU and ±1% of Full scale reading
Measuring range 0-100 opacity (%)
The exhaust gas analyzer employed for the current experiment
0e99.99 absorption (m1)
is QRO-402 (Make: QROTECH Ltd., KOREA). It measures HC, CO, CO2 0-100 HSU (Hartridge smoke unit)
at operating ranges of 0e1500 ppm, 0e9.99% and 0e20% through Measurement chamber 0.43 m ± 0.005 m El (effective length)
NDIR (Non-Dispersive Infra Red) method. NOx measurement is in Power supply 190e240V AC; 50 Hz; 2.5A
Smoke temperature (maximum) <250  C
the range of 0e500 ppm and is measured by electrochemical
Heating time 220V (20 min)
method. The specifications of exhaust analyzer are briefed in Light source Halogen bulb (5W/12V)
Table 6. Smoke measurements were done using AVL 437C equip-
ment (Type: IP 52) operating at 190e240V AC; 50 Hz, 2.5A. Smoke
measurements were read at 0e100% smoke opacity and Table 8
0e99.99 m1 smoke absorbance. The specification of smoke meter Uncertainties of various instruments used.
used is detailed in Table 7. The uncertainties associated with various
Instrument Range Accuracy % Uncertainty
instruments were detailed in Table 8.
Manometer 0e200 mm ±1 mm 1
Tachometer 0e10000 rev/min ±10 rpm 0.1
2.8.2. Combustion analysis Stopwatch - ±0.5s 0.2
The combustion parameters involved for analyzing the com- Pressure transducer 0e110 bar ±0.1 bar 0.2
bustion characteristics were cylinder pressure, heat release rate Smoke meter 0-100 HSU ±0.1 HSU 1
(HRR) and cumulative heat release rate (CHRR) in reference to Exhaust gas temperature 0e900  C ±1  C 0.12

crank angle position. The in-cylinder pressure is recorded by

piezoelectric pressure sensor fixed on cylinder head. The sensor
operates at sensitivity range of 55 pC/bar with maximum operating
range of 250 bar. To cool the sensor, a cooling adapter is provided
adjacent to the sensor. Based on the signals received, there will be
an optimum charge output from sensor which is directly propor-
tional to the in-cylinder pressure. Charge amplifier amplifies the
output to equivalent voltage while the signal conditioner converts
the signal from analog to digital signal. The DAS (data acquisition
system) records the pressure data and gets stored in high speed
computer at every 100 consecutive cycles.
The engine cylinder is coupled with Data Acquisition System
(DAS) wich records the cylinder pressure data relevant to crank
angle and computes combustion parameters like heat release rate,
combustion duration and ignition delay. DAS processes the real
time data through a series of operation like signal generation
(through transducer), signal conditioning (through filters and cir-
cuitry), Analog to Digital signal conversion (through ADC con-
verter), data storage and display (through PC based arrangement)
and processing of data (through software “Engine soft 4.0”.
For identifying the position of crank angle during the engine
Fig. 7. Pictorial representation of modified chamber geometries.
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406 393

operation, the crank angle encoder (Make: Encoders India Pvt. Ltd.,
resolution: 1 ) is mounted on the flywheel which instantly sends
the signal about the position with respect to TDC (Top Dead Centre).
For measuring the engine speed, a proximity sensor (Make: Instron
Engg Pvt. Ltd., Range: 0e9999 rpm) is placed below the engine
coupling. Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) (Range:
0e200  C) is mounted to measure air temperature at inlet, inlet and
outlet temperature of cooling water. A K-type thermocouple is
placed near the exhaust valve for sensing the temperature of
exhaust gases (Range: 0e1500  C).

2.8.3. Uncertainty analysis

Errors and uncertainties can emerge from various factors like
selection and calibration of instruments, changing environment
conditions, tests and observations, etc. In general, uncertainty can
be grouped into two major factors, namely fixed errors and random
errors. The former scenario deals with repeatability while the latter
deals with the analytical measurements. The uncertainties in
various measured parameters were evaluated and tabulated in
Table 9.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE)

3.1.1. Effect of nano additives on TF

Fig. 8a shows the variation of BTE for DF100, JB100, TF and TF
with 10 ppm, 20 ppm and 30 ppm alumina nano additives. It is
observed that, JB100 exhibits lowest BTE throughout the engine
load condition which could be attributed to higher levels of density
and viscosity of pure biodiesel. In comparison with DF100, the Fig. 8. Variation of brake thermal efficiency with respect to engine load.
viscosity of JB100 is higher by 52.82% which resulted in lowest BTE
of 26.2% at full load condition indicating improper combustion of
100% pure biodiesel with respect to diesel fuel. The presence of be attributed to the enhanced surface area/volume ratio of the
ethanol in TF increases the BTE throughout the engine load con- nanoparticles, which have high potential to store energy and
dition which could be attributed to the oxygen content in ethanol reactivity [25,26]. Another possible reason for the engine
and enhanced combustion process. However, the BTE of TF is still improvement is that the nanoadditives have a positive influence on
lower than diesel fuel. Addition of nanoparticles in TF makes sig- the heat transfer rate due to its enhanced conductive, radiative and
nificant improvement in enhancing the BTE. From the fuel prop- heat/mass transfer properties [27]. Therefore, the presence of
erties (Table 3), it is inferred that with alumina nanoparticle nanoparticles leads to higher evaporation rate that enhances the
addition in TF, there is a surge in heating value and drop in fuel mixing of fuel vapour with air and a higher probability of complete
viscosity. In comparison with TF, the BTE of nano additives doped TF combustion. Hence, among different dosage levels of alumina, TF20
were higher by 2.48%, 7.8% and 1.42% for doping levels of 10 ppm, showed better BTE in comparison with TF10 and TF30. Increased
20 ppm and 30 ppm respectively. This could be attributed to cata- BTE with alumina nanoparticle addition were in accordance with
lytic activity of nano particles, promoting micro-explosion of pri- the previous research findings [28e30].
mary droplets [14,24] thereby increasing the evaporation rate and
reducing the physical delay which overall increases the combustion 3.1.2. Effect of combustion chamber geometry on HPF
efficiency along with improved BTE. Improvement in BTE can also Fig. 8b shows the variation of BTE for high performance fuel in
modified chamber geometries with respect to engine load. From
Table 9
figure, it is observed that the chamber geometry played a signifi-
Uncertainties in measured parameters. cant role in improving the efficiency of engine fuelled with HPF. In
comparison to HCC, the BTE of SDRCC, TRCC and TCC were higher by
Measured parameters % Uncertainty
9.21%, 11.51% and 2.63% respectively when operated with HPF at full
Load 0.21 load condition. This could be attributed to improved squish and
BP 0.26
Speed 0.1
swirl motion inside the combustion chamber which possibly en-
EGT 0.2 hances the air-fuel mixing rate with modified combustion cham-
BSEC 0.2 bers. Among various chambers, TRCC exhibits highest BTE
BTE 0.3 throughout the engine load condition. In comparison to HCC-HPF,
Air flow rate 0.6
the BTE of TRCC-HPF is higher by 11.73%, 7.88%, 18.68% and 11.51%
Fuel flow rate 0.68
HC 0.3 at engine loads of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% respectively. Such in-
CO 0.1 crease in BTE of TRCC is owing to re-entrant profile of the TRCC
CO2 0.2 chamber which increases the turbulence of the fuel along with
NOx 0.5 improved swirl motion. HPF with TRCC resulted in highest BTE of
Smoke opacity 0.6
about 33.9% at full load condition owing to the above said
394 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406

statements along with some influence of in-bound fuel oxygen

atoms in HPF which played marginal role in improving the com-
bustion efficiency followed by higher BTE. These are in good
agreement with the findings of Venkateswaran & Nagarajan [31],
Jaichandar & Annamalai [32] and Ravichandran et al. [33].

3.1.3. Combined effect of combustion chamber geometry and

injection timing on HPF
Fig. 8c shows the variation of BTE for high performance fuel in
modified chamber geometry at various injection timings with
respect to engine load. From figure, it is observed that with adop-
tion of TRCC geometry, the performance of HPF was enhanced to
8.22% in comparison to HPF-HCC23 at full load condition. Highest
BTE is achieved for HPF-TRCC22 throughout the engine load con-
dition. At retarded timing of 22obTDC, the performance of HPF-
TRCC23 was enhanced by 2.74%, while further retardation to
21obTDC resulted in drop in performance by 4.53% at full load
condition. This could be attributed to fluctuations in delay period
and air-fuel mixture formation inside the combustion chamber.
Higher BTE with retarded IT were in good agreement with the
findings of Agarwal et al. [34], Mani et al. [35], Ganapathy et al. [36]
and Jaichandar et al. [37]. This signifies that, the TRCC chamber
profile enhances the combustion efficiency of HPF at retarded
timing of 22obTDC in comparison with other injection timings.
Retarding the injection timing to 22obTDC causes the fuel injection
to begin lately with respect to TDC thereby providing optimum
residence time for mixture formation, followed by effective utili-
zation of O2 from additives in HPF leading to improved BTE. How-
ever, further retardation to 21obTDC resulted in reduced BTE, owing
Fig. 9. Variation of brake specific energy consumption with respect to engine load.
to lowered residence time for the mixture preparation. Further
retardation in injection timing lowering the BTE is in good agree-
ment with the findings of Agarwal et al. [34], and Ganapathy et al. considered test fuels. Hence, influence of fuel borne additives in TF
[36]. Advancing the injection timing to 24obTDC lowered the BTE is necessary. It is observed that, by addition of alumina nano ad-
only marginally by about 1.22% in comparison with HPF-TRCC23. ditives, the BSEC drops down marginally, which is in agreement
However, at lower engine loads, the BTE profile is still lower with BTE profile. This could be attributed to enhanced surface area
owing to lowered in-cylinder temperatures at lower loads and to volume ratio of nano additives, reduced physical delay and su-
combustion occurring earlier with respect to TDC which could perior cetane number properties which overall results in lowered
possibly shatter the power output through pumping losses. These BSEC trend for alumina blended TF blends. Among various dosing
are in good agreement with the findings of Raheman et al. [38] and levels of alumina with TF, it is observed that TF20 exhibits lowest
Sayin et al. [39]. However, as a contradiction, higher BTE with levels of BSEC which could be attributed to significant energy
advanced injection timings were also reported by Ganapathy et al. released during the combustion of nano additives.
[36] and Gnanasekaran et al. [40]. Hence, HPF-TRCC23 operated at Moreover, addition of nano particles results in higher evapora-
22obTDC is considered as optimal operating condition for high tion rate, lowered ignition delay and improved spray penetration
performance. altogether enhances the catalytic activity and improved combus-
tion efficiency of TF20 thereby resulting in lower levels of BSEC.
3.2. Brake specific energy consumption (BSEC) Lowered BSEC profile with alumina nano additives were reported in
similar works as well (Shaafi & Velraj [14], Patel & Kumar [15],
3.2.1. Effect of nano additives on TF Prabu et al. [30].
Fig. 9a depicts the variation of brake specific energy consump-
tion of diesel and ternary fuel with different dosage levels of
alumina nano additives. From the figure, it is observed that, JB100 3.2.2. Effect of combustion chamber geometry on HPF
(100% Jatropha biodiesel) exhibits highest energy consumption in The variation of BSEC for the test fuels in modified chamber
comparison with diesel and other test fuels. The calorific value of geometries with respect to engine load is portrayed in Fig. 9b. It is
JB100 is lower than diesel fuel by 4.53% which could possibly result observed that, the BSEC profile is in inverse trend of BTE as in case
in fluctuations in calorific value and higher viscosity of JB100 with previous research findings. With increase in engine load, there
lowers the fuel droplet's atomization and vaporization rate and is a drop in BSEC due to high in-cylinder temperatures prevailing in
thereby increasing the BSEC characteristics. The BSEC profile is also the combustion chamber and very less energy required for main-
in agreement with inverse profile of BTE. TF blend exhibits lowered taining the engine speed constant. Among different geometries
BSEC than JB100 by 22.32%, 22.1%, 15.54% and 8.97% at engine loads considered, it is observed that TCC has higher BSEC profile in
of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% respectively. This could be attributed to comparison to SDRCC and TRCC owing to lack of pace in swirl
the presence of ethanol and lower percentage of biodiesel in TF inducement. At 100% load, the BSEC of SDRCC, TRCC and TCC were
which results in enhanced combustion rate and lowered energy lower than HCC-HPF by 8.89%, 10.37% and 4.44% respectively. The
consumed to maintain the engine speed constant in comparison re-entrant chamber enhanced the performance characteristics
with low calorific value JB100 blend. Although, the BSEC profile is significantly owing to better air fuel mixture direction towards the
lower than JB100, the BSEC of DF100 is still lowest among the combustion zone and improved turbulence. On the whole,
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406 395

considering both BTE and BSEC, it is identified that HPF-TRCC re-

mains a better combination for improved performance. These are in
line with the findings of Saito et al. [41], Jaichandar & Annamalai
[32] and Wickman et al. [42].

3.2.3. Combined effect of combustion chamber geometry and

injection timing on HPF
The variation of BSEC for the test fuels in modified chamber
geometry at various injection timings with respect to engine load is
portrayed in Fig. 9c. It is observed that, highest BSEC is observed for
HPF-HCC23 throughout the engine load conditions indicating lack
of mixture formation and excess fuel accumulation in combustion
zone leading to too much energy consumed for maintaining the
engine speed to constant (at 1500 rpm). When fuelled with HPF, at
100% load, the BSEC of HPF-TRCC24 and HPF-TRCC21 were higher
than HPF-TRCC23 by 7.48% and 9.01% respectively, while the lowest
BSEC is recorded for HPF-TRCC22 (10.59 MJ/kW-hr). Lowered en-
ergy consumption with retarded injection timings were in line with
the findings of Agarwal et al. [34] and Mani et al. [35]. This could be
attributed to effective fuel utilization at 22obTDC, which is also in
good agreement with BTE profile, where HPF-TRCC22 ensures
highest BTE throughout the engine load condition. This effective
utilization is a resultant of optimized fuel blend, optimized com-
bustion chamber geometry and optimal injection timing which
together improves the performance of HPF in terms of higher BTE
and lowered BSEC profiles. Further retardation in injection timing
to 21obTDC resulted in higher BSEC levels which are in good
agreement with the findings of Jaichandar et al. [32], Agarwal et al.
[34] and Mani et al. [35]. Higher BSEC with advanced injection Fig. 10. Variation of carbon monoxide with respect to engine load.
timings were reported in earlier studies of Sayin et al. [39] and
Panneerselvam et al. [43], while lower BSEC with advanced injec-
tion timings were reported in literature of Gnanasekaran et al. [40]
and Jindal et al. [35]. Al2 O3 /Al2 O þ 2O (3)

3.3. Carbon monoxide (CO)
3.3.1. Effect of nano additives on TF
Fig. 10a illustrates the variation of carbon monoxide emissions
for all the test fuels with respect to engine load. It is observed that
DF100 exhibits highest CO level throughout the engine condition.
In comparison to diesel fuel, JB100 as raw fuel leads to lower the CO
emission by 13.33%, 17.33%, 13.95%, 24% and 9.76% at engine loads of
0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% respectively. This could be attributed to
availability of plenty of oxygen atoms in JB100 which enhances the
conversion rate to CO2 from CO. TF exhibits lower CO emissions
than JB100 throughout the engine load condition owing to the
presence of ethanol which acts as combustion enhancer, which
provokes faster rate of combustion followed by lowered CO emis-
sions. Addition of alumina nano additives in TF further lowers the
CO emission levels marginally. At full load condition, CO emissions
of TF10, TF20 and TF30 were lower than TF by 2.81%, 11.24% and
8.99% respectively. This is because, alumina nano additives acts as
oxygen buffer and oxygen donating catalyst for oxidation [72] of CO
molecule. In addition, large surface area to volume ratio of alumina
nanoparticles enhances the chemical reactivity and lowers the
delay period which promotes complete combustion and lowered
CO emissions. At higher temperatures, Al2O3 nanoparticle dissoci-
ates to Al2O and O. “Al2O00 molecule is very unstable at higher
temperatures inside the combustion chamber which further dis-
poses to 2Al and ½ O2. This oxygen molecule further reacts with CO
to get converted to CO2 as illustrated in the following Equations
(3)e(5):
1
Al2 O/2Al þ O2 (4)
2
O þ CO/CO2 (5)
Addition of nano additives lowers the ignition delay period and
thereby promotes complete combustion [12]. Lowered CO emis-
sions with addition of alumina nano particles were also reported in
previous literature [13,14,29,30].
3.3.2. Effect of combustion chamber geometry on HPF
The modifications in combustion chamber geometries have
found not only to improve the performance, but also strive to lower
the exhaust tailpipe emissions significantly. Fig. 10b illustrates the
variation of CO emissions for high performance fuel in modified
combustion chamber geometries with respect to engine load. It is
observed that, compared to ternary blends, DF100 exhibits highest
CO emission profile owing to lack of oxygen content in its chemical
structure and hence its inability to convert to CO2 via oxidation
reaction. In comparison with HCC-HPF, all the modified chambers
resulted in lowered CO emissions. At 100% load, CO emissions of
SDRCC-HPF, TRCC-HPF and TCC-HPF were lower than HCC-HPF by
24.05%, 33.54% and 8.23% respectively. Such a drastic CO reduction
can be attributed to improved air circulation inside the combustion
chamber along with the presence of in-built oxygen in HPF which
could improve the CO oxidation, thereby lowering the CO emis-
sions. In comparison to TCC-HPF, CO reduction is maximum for
SDRCC-HPF and TRCC-HPF due to effective O2 utilization leading to
quicker breaking up of fuel molecules, improved swirl and squish
formation and more fuel molecules directed towards the
396 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406

combustion zone. To conclude, TRCC-HPF resulted in lowest CO

emission throughout the engine load condition. Lowered CO
emissions with re-entrant chamber geometry is in good agreement
with the findings of Venkateswaran & Nagarajan [31], Wickman
et al. [42] and Zhu et al. [45].

3.3.3. Combined effect of combustion chamber geometry and

injection timing on HPF
Fig. 10c illustrates the variation of CO emissions for high per-
formance fuel in modified combustion chamber at various injection
timings with respect to engine load. It is observed that, diesel fuel
exhibits highest CO emission among all the considered blends. This
could be attributed to absence of excess oxygen in the pure hy-
drocarbon fuel and its inability to promote improved oxidation rate.
This higher CO is eventually lowered by 22.93%with the usage of
HPF as alternative fuel. Further with the modification of geometry
to TRCC, the CO emissions were lowered by 38.1%. Retarding the
injection timing to 22obTDC with TRCC geometry, emissions of HPF
shows a positive effect of lowered CO level by about 2.65%, 7.47%,
5.09%, 16.97% and 16.83% respectively in comparison to HPF-
TRCC23. Lowered CO emissions with retarded injection timing are
in good accordance with the findings of Mani et al. [35] and Agar-
wal et al. [34]. Further retardation to 21obTDC increased the CO
emissions by 20.51% at full load condition and this is in line with the
findings of Kumar et al. [46], Hariram et al. [47], Robert et al. [48]
and Agarwal et al. [34]. Similarly, advancing the injection timing to
24obTDC increased the CO emissions by 29.11% in comparison with
HPF-TRCC23 at full load condition. This can be attributed to the
twin effect of poor oxidation rate and higher fuel rich zones inside
the combustion chamber at 21obTDC and 24obTDC together
lowering the conversion rate of CO to CO2 and higher CO emissions. Fig. 11. Variation of hydrocarbon with respect to engine load.
These are in contrary to previous findings of Sayin et al. [39],
Ganapathy et al. [36] and Gnanasekaran et al. [40] where they
found the CO emissions to decrease with advanced injection timing. cylinder especially at quench layers. Moreover, the in-built oxygen
However, HPF-TRCC22 ensured lowered CO profile throughout the atoms released by nano additives at higher temperatures during
engine load owing to the combined characteristics of improved combustion helps to oxidise the soot precursors thereby promoting
fuel-air mixing rate, effective oxidation of nano additives complete combustion and lowered HC emissions. At full load, the
[28,70e73] and ethanol in HPF, followed by favorable squish and HC emissions of TF10, TF20 and TF30 were lower than TF by 2.44%,
swirl motions at optimum residence time provided by the retarded 5.69% and 4.07% respectively. The presence of oxygen buffer in nano
timing altogether facilitating more CO2 conversion followed by additives, lowered viscosity and increased contact area of fuel-air
lowered CO emissions. mixture overall contributes to high heat transfer rate of the fuel.
Metal oxide nano additives acts as oxygen donating catalyst,
3.4. Hydrocarbon (HC) thereby providing oxygen for oxidation [28,70e73] of unburned
hydrocarbons and CO emissions or absorbs oxygen for lowering
3.4.1. Effect of nano additives on TF NOx emissions. To sum up, TF20 blend resulted in lowest HC
Fig. 11a displays the variation of hydrocarbon emissions for all emission in comparison with other dosage levels. Lowered HC
the test fuels with respect to engine load. It is observed that DF100 emissions with alumina nano additives were in good accordance
exhibits highest HC levels throughout the engine load condition. In with previous research findings of Prabu et al. [30], Rao & Anand
comparison to diesel fuel, JB100 as raw fuel tends to lower the HC [49], Sivakumar et al. [13], Basha & Anand [50].
emissions by 4.74%, 10.59%, 13.41%, 11.66% and 7.99% respectively at
all the engine loads. The profile is similar to CO emissions where the 3.4.2. Effect of combustion chamber geometry on HPF
neat diesel possesses higher emissions in comparison with JB100. Fig. 11b displays the variation of hydrocarbon emissions for high
With increase in engine load, the HC emissions increases for all the performance fuel in modified combustion chamber geometries
test fuels owing to excess available fuel in combustion zone and with respect to engine load. It is observed that, the modified
more mixture formation in cold quench areas like crevices and wall chambers played a significant role in reducing the unburned HC
films. TF possess lowered HC emissions in comparison with JB100 formation. Highest HC formation is reported for HCC-DF100 while
due to the presence of ethanol which supplies readily available lowest HC is observed for TRCC-HPF. At 100% engine load, TRCC-
oxygen atoms during combustion, thereby oxidising the soot pre- HPF exhibits HC emissions of 47.4 ppm which is lower than HCC-
cursors followed by complete combustion and lowered HC emis- HPF, SDRCC-HPF and TCC-HPF by 22.49%, 13.52% and 15.63%
sions for TF blend. At full load condition, the HC emission of TF is respectively. The main reason for HC emissions are rich mixture
lower than DF100 and JB100 by 12.27% and 4.65% respectively. formation in the crevice areas inside the combustion zone [52,53].
Addition of alumina nano particle in TF blend showed typical The re-entrant profile of TRCC geometry helps to sustain the fuel
reductions in HC emissions for all the dosage levels in comparison mixture's turbulent kinetic energy and re-channels them towards
with DF100 and JB100. The activation energy of alumina nano- the combustion zone. This tends to lower the stagnation of rich
particle tends to burn off the carbon deposits within the engine mixtures inside the combustion zone followed by effective HC
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406 397

reduction. TCC-HPF exhibits higher HC emissions in comparison

with TRCC-HPF and SDRCC-HPF at full load condition, which could
be attributed to the wall wetting tendency of torroidal chamber
without re-entrant profile which affects the direction of fuel to-
wards combustion zone, thereby liberating higher HC emissions. To
conclude with, HPF operated with TRCC combustion chamber ge-
ometry is considered as optimized blend for lowering the un-burnt
HC emissions. Lowered HC emissions with re-entrant geometry
were in good agreement with the findings of Venkateswaran &
Nagarajan [31], Ravichandran et al. [33], Wickman et al. [42] and
Jaichandar et al. [32].

3.4.3. Combined effect of combustion chamber geometry and

injection timing on HPF
Fig. 11c displays the variation of hydrocarbon emissions for high
performance fuel in modified combustion chamber at various in-
jection timings with respect to engine load. It is observed that, HC
profile is highest for diesel fuel In comparison with diesel fuel, HPF-
HCC23 resulted in lowered HC emissions by 17.11%, 17.65%, 23.97%,
21.96% and 17.26% at engine loads of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%
respectively. When HPF is operated with TRCC, the HC emissions
are further lowered by 31.08%, 35.27%, 35.69%, 33.74% and 32.24% in
comparison with diesel fuel. Retarding the injection timing caused
both incremental as well as decreased HC profiles. In comparison
with HPF-TRCC23, HC emissions of HPF-TRCC22 were lower
throughout the engine load and are in range of 28.3 ppm,
29.61 ppm, 34.12 ppm, 40.8 ppm and 51.4 ppm respectively. Low-
ered HC emissions with retarded injection timing are in good
accordance with findings of Mani et al. [41] and Agarwal et al. [39].
TRCC-HPF-RT21 and TRCC-HPF-AT24 resulted in marginal increase
in HC emissions indicating lowered residence time for mixture
formation and occurrence of fuel rich zones inside the combustion
chamber leading to higher HC emissions. These are in contrary to
Fig. 12. Variation of carbon dioxide with respect to engine load.
previous findings of Sayin et al. [39], Ganapathy et al. [36] and
Gnanasekaran et al. [40] where they found the HC emissions to
decrease with advanced injection timing. Similarly, higher HC Hosseini et al. [29] and Mehta et al. [54], while some contrary re-
emissions with too much retardation in injection timing are found sults of higher CO2 were observed for Shaaf & Velraj [14].
in literature of Sayin et al. [39], Agarwal et al. [34] and Kumar et al.
[46].

3.5. Carbon dioxide (CO2)
3.5.1. Effect of nano additives on TF
Fig. 12a shows the variation of CO2 emissions for nano blended
test fuels with respect to different engine load conditions. Addition
of alumina nano particle in TF blend resulted in increased CO2 levels
in comparison with DF100 and JB100. This is in good agreement
with lowered CO levels for TF blend with nano additives, as CO and
CO2 usually follows the inverse trend. When the conversion rate of
CO to CO2 is higher, then there will be lower CO and higher CO2
indicating better combustion. Addition of nano particles causes
improvement in combustion characteristics like enhanced heat
transfer rate and shortened delay perios thereby providing higher
enthalpies of reaction. These above mentioned factrs enhances the
conversion rate of CO to CO2 and therefore resulting in higher CO2
levels for all the alumina doped TF blends. In comparison with TF,
CO2 levels of TFþ10 ppm, TFþ20 ppm and TFþ30 ppm were higher
by 1.32%, 3.95% and 2.63% at full load conditions. This can be
attributed to lowered viscosity, enhanced cetane number proper-
ties and improved ignition characteristics of nano particle blended
fuel which altogether results in improved combustion followed by
higher CO2 levels. To conclude, TFþ20 ppm nano additives blend
resulted in highest CO2 level throughout the engine load in com-
parison with rest of the blends. Higher CO2 levels with alumina
nano particle addition were in good agreement with findings of
3.5.2. Effect of combustion chamber geometry on HPF
Fig. 12b portrays the variation of carbon dioxide emissions for
high performance fuel in modified combustion chamber geome-
tries with respect to engine load. It is observed that, with increasing
engine load, the CO2 emissions tends to increase indicating com-
plete combustion at higher in-cylinder temperatures. Lowest CO2
emissions were observed for HCC-DF100 and with adoption of TF
blend, the CO2 emissions improved marginally. All the chamber
geometries operated with HPF exhibit higher CO2 levels in com-
parison with HCC-HPF owing to improved combustion character-
istics. At 100% load, the CO2 emissions of SDRCC-HPF, TRCC-HPF and
TCC-HPF were higher than HCC-HPF by 9.49%, 15.19% and 2.53%
respectively. This could be attributed to the presence of in-built
oxygen in HPF and modified chambers which direct the oxygen
rich fuel towards the combustion zone thereby improving the CO
oxidation causing surplus CO2 levels at the exhaust. Further, the
presence of nano additives in HPF helps the mixture to get
agglomerated towards the combustion zone due to high surface are
to volume ratio which overall contributes to better combustion and
higher CO2 emissions. To sum up, SDRCC and TRCC geometries were
effective in improving the combustion of HPF and thereby resulted
in highest CO2 emissions of 8.7% and 9.1% respectively. These are in
contradiction with the results of Wickman et al. [42] and Mamilla
et al. [55], where the torroidal and re-entrant chambers produced
lowered CO2 emissions.
398 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406

3.5.3. Combined effect of combustion chamber geometry and

injection timing on HPF
Fig. 12c portrays the variation of carbon dioxide emissions for
high performance fuel in modified combustion chamber at various
injection timings with respect to engine load. It is observed that,
lowest CO2 emissions were obtained for diesel fuel, HPF blends at
various operating conditions resulted in higher CO2 emissions
which stand as an indicator of complete combustion with oxy-
genates addition. Application of HPF in HCC caused higher CO2
emissions by 41.67%, 32.26%, 41.03%, 26.32% and 8.22%, at engine
loads of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% respectively, in comparison
with diesel fuel. When HPF is operated ate HPF-TRCC23, the CO2
emissions were further increased indicating betterment of com-
bustion process. Advancing the injection timing to 24obTDC resul-
ted in lowered CO2 emissions throughout the engine load
condition. At 100% load, COs2 emissions of HPF-TRCC24were lower
than HPF-TRCC23 by 4.26%. Lowered CO2 emissions with advanced
injection timing were in accordance with findings of Nwafor [56].
This could be attributed to longer delay period which prolongs the
mixing time and affects the PCP, which in turn results in faster
burning rate, all these factors tends to shatter the direction of fuel-
air mixture directed towards the combustion zone and lowered
oxidation of CO, resulting in higher CO and lower CO2 emissions.
Highest CO2 levels were observed for HPF-TRCC22 which can be
attributed to the pooled effect of improved air-fuel mixing rate,
effective oxidation of additives [28,70e73], along with desirable
squish and swirl motions at optimum residence time provided by
22obTDC injection timing which facilitates faster CO oxidation and
higher CO2 emissions. Since CO2 and H2O are considered as prod-
ucts of complete combustion, HPF-TRCC22 blend proves to improve
the combustion significantly in comparison with other injection
timings.
Fig. 13. Variation of nitrogen oxides with respect to engine load.

3.6. Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) 1

3.6.1. Effect of nano additives on TF
Fig. 13a shows the variation of nitrogen oxides emissions for all
the test fuels with respect to engine load. From figure, it is observed
that, NOx emissions of JB100 were higher than diesel fuel
throughout the engine load condition owing to the presence of O2
molecule which could have boosted the combustion rate and raise
the in-cylinder temperatures which were favorable factors for the
formation of NOx. At 100% engine load, the NOx emissions of JB100
were higher than DF100 by 10.38%, which could be attributed to
higher cylinder temperatures achieved by JB100 along with higher
oxygen content.
With increase in engine load, the NOx emission increases due to
more retained heat inside the combustion chamber from preceding
cycles. It is observed that, the NOx profile of TF is highest among the
test fuels ranging about 132 ppm, 192 ppm, 320 ppm, 560 ppm and
756 ppm throughout the engine load condition. This could be
attributed to the presence of in-built oxygen molecule in ternary
blends promoting the oxidation rate of biodiesel, followed by
increased in-cylinder temperatures and higher NOx profile. From
Fig. 10a, it is clear that, in comparison with TF, NOx emissions of
TF10, TF20 and TF30 were lower by 4.89%, 9.29% and 7.67%
respectively. This could be attributed to the presence of alumina
nano additives which lowers the soot oxidation temperature
[70,72] and also acts as catalyst for reduction of hydroxyl radicals
resulting in lowered amount of NOx emissions. Lowered NOx
emissions with alumina nanoparticle addition were also reported
in earlier research findings of Basha & Anand [51] as shown in
equation (6).
Al2 O3 þ NO/2AlO þ N2 (6)
2
At higher in-cylinder temperatures, Al2O3 nanoparticles reacts
with NO to form 2AlO and ½ N2, thereby lowering the possibility of
NOx formation as represented in equation (4). To conclude with,
TF20 exhibits lowest NOx emissions of about 685 ppm at full load
condition, which is at acceptable limit in comparison with that of
other test fuels.
3.6.2. Effect of combustion chamber geometry on HPF
Fig. 13b portrays the variation of nitrogen oxides emissions for
high performance fuel in modified combustion chamber geome-
tries with respect to engine load. Lowest NOx emissions were
observed for HCC-DF100 throughout the engine load condition.
HCC-HPF resulted in higher NOx in comparison with HCC-DF100 by
51.56%, 44.44%, 50.51%, 8.44% and 3.01% at engine loads of 0%, 25%,
50%, 75% and 100% respectively. All the combustion chamber ge-
ometries exhibit higher NOx levels in comparison with HCC-HPF. At
100% load, SDRCC-HPF, TRCC-HPF and TCC-HPF exhibit higher NOx
levels of 761 ppm, 802 ppm and 703 ppm in comparison with HCC-
HPF (685 ppm). Among different chamber geometries, lowest NOx
profile were observed for TCC-HPF which could be attributed to
lowered swirl and squish motion of the fuel and improperly
directed fuel spray away from the combustion zone thereby
lowering the AFT, improper O2 utilization altogether lowering the
NOx profile. Even though TRCC-HPF resulted in highest NOx
emissions of 802 ppm at full load, it has a positive compromise of
higher BTE and lowered HC and CO emissions in comparison with
other geometries. These are similar to the findings of Mamilla et al.
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406 399

[55] and Jaichandar et al. [32] where there is higher NOx with
torroidal and re-entrant chambers, however some contradicting
results with lowered NOx for re-entrant geometries were also
observed for Prasad et al. [57], Li et al. [58] and Wickman et al. [42].

3.6.3. Combined effect of combustion chamber geometry and

injection timing on HPF
Fig. 13c portrays the variation of nitrogen oxides emissions for
high performance fuel in modified combustion chamber at various
injection timings with respect to engine load. Nitrogen oxides
emission formation can be attributed to improved burning rate,
higher inbuilt excess oxygen content and higher adiabatic flame
temperatures (AFT) where N2 in air reacts with O2 to form NO. From
the figure, it is observed that HPF blends at various operating
conditions tends to have higher NOx in comparison to diesel fuel
indicating improvement in combustion with higher in-cylinder
temperatures. In comparison to HPF-TRCC23, the NOx emissions
of HPF-TRCC22 and HPF-TRCC21 were lowered by 12.16% and
22.53% respectively at full load condition. This can be attributed to
the optimum combustion chamber geometry and injection timing
leading to reductions in maximum temperature of burning gases
and O2 content thereby lowering the NOx emissions [39,68,69].
Lowered NOx emissions with retarded injection timing were in
good accordance with the findings of Sayin et al. [39], Jaichandar
et al. [37], Agarwal et al. [34] and Hariram et al. [47]. Further
retardation in injection timing to RT21 still lowers the NOx emis-
sions as observed in similar works of Mani et al. [35], Sayin et al.
[39] and Hariram et al. [47]. Advancing the injection timing to
24obTDC resulted in marginal increase in NOx emissions in com-
parison to HPF-TRCC23. This marginal increase is owing to earlier
start of combustion of HPF in relation to TDC, which results in surge
in cylinder pressure and HRR, quicker attainment of AFT followed Fig. 14. Variation of smoke opacity with respect to brake power.
by higher NOx profile. These are in good agreement with the
findings of Sayin et al. [39], Ganapathy et al. [36] and Pan-
neerselvam et al. [43]. However, some literature have reported chamber prior to ignition which ensures better air-fuel mixing and
lowered NOx emissions with advanced injection timings [40,44]. higher combustion efficiency followed by lowered smoke emis-
sions. In comparison with other dosage levels, TF20 showed major
3.7. Smoke opacity drop in smoke level due to the presence of optimum fuel viscosity
and cetane number characteristics which can possibly influence the
3.7.1. Effect of nano additives on TF droplet diameter size and fuel spray characteristics which alto-
Fig. 14a depicts the variation of smoke opacity for all the test gether lowers the smoke emission significantly. Lowered smoke
fuels with respect to engine load. It is observed that, DF100 exhibits emissions with alumina nano particle addition are in good agree-
highest smoke level throughout the engine load condition. At 100% ment with the findings of Basha & Anand [51], Sadhik Basha &
load, the smoke level of JB100 were lower than DF100 by 13.58%, Anand [50] and Kao et al. [24].
which could be attributed to the presence of fuel bound oxygen
atoms in JB100, which helps in improving the combustion rate 3.7.2. Effect of combustion chamber geometry on HPF
followed by lowered smoke. Smoke is generally a resultant of Fig. 14b defines the variation of smoke emissions for high per-
incomplete combustion. In CI engines, the smoke formation can be formance fuel in modified combustion chamber geometries with
attributed to deficiency of air in combustion rich zones, poor at- respect to engine load. It is observed that, there is a trade-off be-
omization and excess fuel accumulation in combustion chamber. tween NOx and smoke opacity as several literature pointed out.
Lowered smoke emissions for JB100 can henceforth be attributed to Highest smoke level is observed for HCC-DF100 throughout the
better oxidation occurring near the fuel rich zones inside the engine load condition. In comparison with HCC-HPF, all the com-
combustion chamber [74]. Interestingly, in comparison with JB100, bustion chamber geometries have emitted lowered smoke emis-
the TF blend possess higher smoke levels till 50% load while the sions. However, lowest smoke emissions were observed for TRCC-
smoke level drops to 52% and 65% at engine loads of 75% and 100%, HPF throughout the engine load condition. In comparison with
respectively. This could be attributed to the fumigation of ethanol HCC-HPF, the smoke emissions of SDRCC-HPF, TRCC-HPF and TCC-
in TF blend which is effective at higher engine loads leading to more HPF were lowered by 3.31%, 14.38% and 2.98% at full engine load
complete combustion, especially at higher loads. Addition of condition. This could be attributed to modified geometries offering
alumina nano particle in TF lowered the smoke emissions nomi- improved spray penetration along with enhanced evaporation rate
nally as observed in Fig. 4.17. At 100% load, the smoke emissions of and quicker burning altogether lowering the deficiency of air in
TF10, TF20 and TF30 blends were lower than TF by 5.37%, 6.92% and combustion rich zone and reduces the possibility of unwanted fuel
6.15%, respectively. Addition of alumina nano particles in TF resul- accumulation in nozzle sac volumes, followed by lowered smoke
ted in enhanced evaporation rate, lowered ignition delay period emissions. Greatest smoke reduction was achieved by TRCC-HPF
and improved ignition characteristics. Owing to shortened ID throughout the engine load owing to improved swirl motion of
period, excess amount of fuel is collected inside the combustion fuel helping in lowering the soot oxidation, effective oxidation of
400 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406
additives [71,72] such as ethanol and alumina nano particle and
thereby lowering the smoke significantly. Lowered smoke emis-
sions for re-entrant profile were in good agreement with the
findings of Ravichandran et al. [33] and Li et al. [58].
3.7.3. Combined effect of combustion chamber geometry and
injection timing on HPF
Fig. 14c defines the variation of smoke emissions for high per-
formance fuel in modified combustion chamber at various injection
timings with respect to engine load. The variation of smoke emis-
sions is in good agreement with the NOx-smoke trade off charac-
teristics. Lowest smoke is observed for HPF-TRCC24 of about 6.3%,
24.2%, 29.4%, 27.9% and 45.7% at engine loads of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%
and 100% respectively. This could be attributed to availability of
excess residence time for fuel accumulation thereby leading to a
surge in cylinder pressure and heat release rate, better spray at-
omization and lowered delay period (evident from cylinder pres-
sure curve at Fig. 15b) resulting in limited formation of fuel rich
zones(crevices and cylinder walls) [74] inside the combustion
chamber thereby leading to lowered smoke emissions.
Moreover, at advanced injection timing there is more possibility
of oxidation of soot precursors owing to improved in-cylinder
temperatures paving way for vaporization of ethanol in HPF fol-
lowed by improved combustion and lowered smoke emissions.
These are in good agreement with the findings of Sayin et al. [39],
Gnanasekaran et al. [40] and Jindal et al. [44]. Retardation of in-
jection timing tends to increase the smoke emissions which are in
accordance with NOx-smoke trade off characteristics. HPF-TRCC21
and HPF-TRCC22 has higher smoke opacity of 56.8% and 55.7% in
comparison with TRCC-HPF- ST23 (54.1%). This can be attributed to
the reduced in-cylinder temperature which affects the oxidation of
soot precursors, as well as making an impact in insufficient pre-
mixed combustion leading to higher smoke formation. Higher
smoke emissions with retarded injection timings were in good
agreement with the findings of Sayin et al. [39], Kumar et al. [46],
Hariram et al. [47] and Jaichandar et al. [32]. Further retardation in
injection timing to 21obTDC showed higher smoke emissions,
which are in good agreement with the findings of Mani et al. [35],
Sayin et al. [39] and Hariram et al. [47].
3.8. Cylinder pressure
3.8.1. Effect of nano additives on TF
Fig. 15a illustrates the variation of in-cylinder pressure for all the
test fuels with respect to crank angle. As observed from the figure,
the maximum cylinder pressure is observed for DF100 (74.4 bar),
while the lowest cylinder pressure is obtained for JB100 (62.44 bar).
The in-cylinder pressure is a function of fuel property (especially
the viscosity and cetane number properties), as it profoundly in-
fluences the air-fuel interaction and combustion process. When the
viscosity of fuel is lower and its cetane number properties are
enhanced, then the air-fuel mixture formation is very uniform
followed by increased pressure. JB100 is of very high dense, highly
viscous and has lowered calorific value in comparison with DF100
(as observed from Table 2) which could have presumably affected
the air-fuel interaction characteristics (especially the atomization
and evaporation rate) followed by lowered cylinder pressure. TF
blend showed improved cylinder pressure of 67.29 bar in compar-
ison with JB100 (62.44 bar) which could be attributed to lowered
viscosity and improved calorific values. In addition to above states,
the presence of ethanol in TF makes the in-built fuel O2 molecules
to effectively take part in combustion followed by improved cyl-
inder pressure. TF blended with alumina nano additives showed
improved cylinder pressure in comparison with JB100 and TF.
Cylinder pressures of TF10, TF20 and TF30 were 70.23 bar, 72.67 bar
and 71.6 bar, respectively. The main reason attributed to such in-
crease in cylinder pressure is higher surface area to volume ratio of
alumina nano additives which improves the combustion efficiency
followed by higher premixed combustion phase and improved
cylinder pressures. Among various dosage levels, TF20 stand su-
perior in cylinder pressure (72.67 bar) which is only 2.33% lower
than diesel fuel.
3.8.2. Effect of combustion chamber geometry on HPF
Fig. 15b illustrates the variation of in-cylinder pressure for high
performance fuel in modified combustion chamber geometries
with respect to with respect to crank angle. As observed from the
figure, in comparison with HCC-DF100, both the TF and HPF blends
resulted in lowered cylinder pressure. Operating HPF at various
chamber geometries had a positive incremental effect in cylinder
pressures. Also, it is found that, with modification of chamber ge-
ometry, the pressure rise starts earlier with respect to Top Dead
Centre (TDC) which is an interesting phenomenon. While HCC-HPF
exhibited cylinder pressure of 71.37 bar at 368obTDC, cylinder
pressures of SDRCC-HPF, TRCC-HPF and TCC-HPF were 75.31 bar,
78.68 bar and 72.66 bar respectively. The improved pressure rise
can be attributed to better fuel-air mixing, enhanced evaporation
rate and long fuel spray penetration characteristics of HPF with
modified combustion chambers. Highest cylinder pressure of
78.68 bar is observed for TRCC-HPF owing to its re-entrant profile
improving the atomization, fuel-air mixing rate and evaporation
rate which can presumably support improving the combustion ef-
ficiency of fuel followed by higher in-cylinder pressures. Moreover,
the effect of ethanol's inbuilt oxygen content in HPF and catalytic
activity of nano additives were well utilized in TRCC-HPF in com-
parison with other chamber geometries which could also validate
the higher cylinder pressures.
3.8.3. Combined effect of combustion chamber geometry and
injection timing on HPF
Fig. 15c illustrates the variation of in-cylinder pressure for high
performance fuel in modified combustion chamber at various in-
jection timings with respect to with respect to crank angle. As
observed from the figure, in comparison with HPF-HCC23, all the
blends exhibit higher cylinder pressures. On modifying the com-
bustion chamber to TRCC, the cylinder pressure is improved to
78.28 bar, which is 6.69% and 9.85% higher than DIESEL-HCC23 and
HPF-HCC23 respectively. This could be attributed to the re-entrant
profile of TRCC geometry which increases the rim temperature,
lowers the delay period and improves the combustion efficiency
followed by higher in-cylinder pressure. Further, on varying the
injection timing, cylinder pressure is increased to 78.49 bar at
advanced injection timing of 24obTDC, while the cylinder pressure
is reduced to 75.42 bar and 72.69 bar for retarded injection timings
of 22obTDC and 21obTDC, respectively. This is because, at retarded
injection timing, the start of injection is delayed and combustion
duration is lowered which in turn lowers the peak in-cylinder
temperatures and pressures. This is also coherent with the low-
ered NOx emission which is a clear indicator of lowered in-cylinder
temperatures which suppresses NOx. These are in good agreement
with the findings of Raju et al. [59], Ganapathy et al. [36] and
Mohan et al. [60]. However, at advanced injection timing of
24obTDC, temperature and pressure inside the combustion cham-
ber is marginally higher, which in turn affects the ignition delay
characteristics and makes very less O2 available for combustion
with delayed burning thereby leading to higher in-cylinder tem-
peratures. These are in good agreement with the findings of Raju
et al. [59], Park et al. [61], Mohan et al. [60], Dhar et al. [62] and
Senthil et al. [63]. Similarly, it is observed that the NOx emissions
are highest for TRCC-HPF-AT24 throughout the engine load
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406 401

a) 80
DF100 JB100 TF TF10 TF20 (HPF) TF30
100
1200

CUMULATIVE HEAT RELEASE RATE (J)

70
80

HEAT RELEASE RATE (J/deg CA)

CYLINDER PRESSURE (bar)

1000
60

60 800
50

600
40
40

30 400

20
20 200

0
10 0

0 -200
-20
300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 340 360 380 400 420 440
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
CRANK ANGLE (degree) CRANK ANGLE (degree)
CRANK ANGLE (degree)

b) DF100-HCC TF-HCC HPF-HCC HPF-SDRCC HPF-TRCC HPF-TCC

100
80 1400

70 80 1200
HEAT RELEASE RATE (J/deg CA)
CYLINDER PRESSURE (bar)

CUMULATIVE HEAT RELEASE RATE (J)

60
1000
60
50
800

40
40 600

30
400
20
20
200
10
0
0
0
320 340 360 380 400 420 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 -200
CRANK ANGLE (degree) CRANK ANGLE (degree) 340 360 380 400 420 440

CRANK ANGLE (degree)

c) D100-HCC HPF-HCC23 HPF-TRCC23 HPF-TRCC22 HPF-TRCC21 HPF-TRCC24

90
1400
100
80
1200
CUMULATIVE HEAT RELEASE RATE (J)

70
HEAT RELEASE RATE (J/deg CA)

80
1000
CYLINDER PRESSURE (bar)

60
60 800
50

40 600
40

30 400
20
20 200

10 0
0

0
-20 -200
300 320 340 360 380 400 420 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 340 360 380 400 420 440

CRANK ANGLE (degree) CRANK ANGLE (degree)

CRANK ANGLE (degree)

Fig. 15. Cylinder pressure, heat release rate and cumulative heat release rate of a) Nano additive b) Combustion chamber geometry c) Injection timing.

indicating higher in-cylinder temperatures. test fuels with respect to crank angle at 100% engine load condition.
Highest HRR is observed for DF100 (84.41 J/degCA) in comparison
with other test fuels. This could be attributed to more diesel fuel
3.9. Heat release rate (HRR) and cumulative heat release rate
accumulating at premixed combustion phase (primary stage) and
(CHRR)
the lower cetane numbered diesel fuel liberates more heat in
comparison with other test fuels. JB100 fuel exhibits lowest HRR of
3.9.1. Effect of nano additives on TF
56.85 J/degCA owing to its typical fuel properties such as denser
Fig. 14a represents the variation of HRR and CHRR for various
402 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406
and more viscous nature which could have perhaps affected the
evaporation rate at premixed stage. However, the improved cetane
number properties of JB100 enables itself to liberate heat at earlier
crank angles well before the TDC and makes the diffusion com-
bustion to be more prolonged, because the presence of O2 molecule
plays major effect only at later stages of combustion. TF blend ex-
hibits HRR of 69.31 J/degCA which is 21.92% higher than JB100. This
can be attributed to lower proportions of biodiesel and presence of
ethanol in the blend which altogether lowers the fuel accumulation
in premixed combustion phase. TF10, TF20 and TF30 exhibits HRR
values of about 70.58 J/degCA, 76.22 J/degCA and 71.66 J/degCA
which are higher than TF (69.31 J/degCA). Similarly the CHRR values
of TF10, TF20 and TF30 are higher than TF by 1.49%, 3.79% and 2.57%
respectively. Highest CHRR is observed for TF20 (1171.1 J) which is
higher than DF100 by 7.76%. CHRR trend of diesel fuel shows the
significant variation in delay period amounting to excess fuel
accumulation during the premixed combustion duration which
causes higher HRR and overall lowest CHRR values. These are in
good agreement with the previous research findings of Rao &
Anand [49], Basha & Anand [50] and Tyagi et al. [27]. To conclude
with, TF20 resulted in improved combustion characteristics in
comparison with other test fuels.
3.9.2. Effect of combustion chamber geometry on HPF
The HRR and CHRR profiles were illustrated in Fig. 14b for the
operation of high performance fuel in modified combustion
chamber geometries with respect to crank angle. Similar to the
cylinder pressure characteristics, the HRR of TF and HPF were in
lowered trends in comparison with diesel fuel. However, subjection
of HPF at various chamber geometries have resulted in surge in
HRR, occurring earlier to TDC. Highest HRR is observed for TRCC-
HPF (89.18 J/degCA) followed by TCC-HPF (80.18 J/degCA) and
SDRCC-HPF (83.01 J/deg CA). This could be attributed to variation in
fuel properties during combustion such as change in delay period,
improved atomization and evaporation rate. TRCC-HPF resulted in
highest HRR of about 89.18 J/degCA owing to the torroidal re-
entrant profile paving way for higher fuel spray penetration and
improved burning rate. These are in good agreement with the ob-
tained CHRR values. Highest CHRR is obtained for TRCC-HPF
(1221.42 J) followed by SDRCC-HPF (1202.3 J), TCC-HPF (1184.68 J)
and HCC-HPF (1166.56 J). Hence, to conclude with, the re-entrant
profiles (SDRCC & TRCC) resulted in higher HRR and CHRR values
owing to improved air-fuel mixing rate and longer penetration of
fuel spray characteristics.
3.9.3. Combined effect of combustion chamber geometry and
injection timing on HPF
Fig. 14c illustrates the variation of HRR and CHRR for high per-
formance fuel in modified combustion chamber at various injection
timings with respect to with respect to crank angle. In comparison
with diesel fuel, the HRR of HPF-HCC23 is lower by 20.37% which
could be attributed to slightly higher dense and viscous nature of
HPF leading to excess diesel fuel accumulation on premixed com-
bustion stage itself and therefore liberating higher heat in com-
parison with HPF. However, when HPF operated with TRCC
geometry, the HRR is improved by 25.5% owing to the re-entrant
profile providing better squish and swirl motion, effective oxida-
tion of ethanol and nano additives in the base fuel and improved
spray penetrations. On varying the injection timing, it is observed
that, advancing the timing to 24obTDC liberates higher HRR while
retarding to 22obTDC and 21obTDC lowers the HRR. The main
reason for HPF-TRCC23 to exhibit highest HRR of 88.27 J/deg CA is
attributed to improved fuel spray characteristics along with lower
premixed combustion period resulting in higher residence time
and improved HRR. These are in good agreement with the findings
of Kannan et al. [64], Puhan et al. [30], Kannan et al. [65], Sharma
et al. [66] and Kim et al. [67]. The main reason for HPF-TRCC22 and
HPF-TRCC21 to have lowered HRR of 85.34 J/deg CA and 78.46 J/deg
CA, in comparison with HPF-TRCC23 (88.27 J/deg CA) is that with
retarded timing, the fuel injection begins lately followed by low-
ered combustion duration, lowered in-cylinder temperatures and
lowered HRR occurring closer to TDC. This is in coherence with
obtained values of CHRR, where the maximum CHRR is observed
for HPF-TRCC24 (1287.21 J), followed by HPF-TRCC22 (1202.2 J),
HPF-TRCC21 (1148.8 J) and DIESEL-HCC23 (1093.98 J).
3.10. Diesel-RK in-cylinder flow simulation
The ternary fuel (20% biodiesel, 10% ethanol and 70% diesel fuel)
is doped with alumina nano additives of 20 ppm and the resulting
fuel is termed as high performance fuel (HPF). The properties of
HPF is input to the Diesel-RK simulation software under same
operating conditions of diesel engine and runs at different com-
bustion chamber geometries such as HCC, SDRCC, TCC and TRCC.
The Fuel spray formation and combustion simulation of the
designed piston bowl geometries are delineated in Fig. 16. From the
Diesel-RK simulation software results, among all the piston bowl
geometries, TRCC (torroidal re-entrant combustion chamber) ge-
ometry is found to be effective among other geometries with
respect to the performance and combustion parameters. It is owing
to powerful squish along with the air movement created by the
TRCC leads to complete combustion of the air/fuel mixture.
The results obtained from the Diesel-RK simulation are
compared with the actual experimental values under same oper-
ating conditions of diesel engine powered with the high perfor-
mance fuel for the different piston bowl geometries such as HCC,
SDRCC, TCC and TRCC is presented in Table 10. It is found that the
TRCC shown superior performance in brake thermal efficiency,
lower specific fuel consumption, maximum cylinder pressure and
higher heat release rate when compared to the other combustion
chambers used in this study. This is mainly due to the induced
squish and swirl flow of TRCC plays a significant role in the tur-
bulence generation process results in enhanced combustion of fuel
air mixture. Further, the simulation test results are very close to the
experimental values. However, the theoretical simulation values
are slightly higher over actual values due to neglecting the heat
losses and friction. Al-Dawody and Bhatti [76] critically studied the
optimization strategies mitigate the nitrogen oxide emissions of
diesel engine with DIESEL-RK simulation software. They suggested
the deeper piston bowl with small diameter shown significant
reduction in NOx emissions.
4. Conclusion
The current experimental work is proposed to investigate the
combined effect of nano additives, combustion chamber geometry
and injection timing on the operation of ternary fuel (TF). Initially,
the TF is doped with alumina nano particle at three fractions of
about 10 ppm, 20 ppm and 30 ppm. The best blend obtained based
on experimentation was termed as high performance fuel (HPF).
The HPF thus obtained is subjected to varied combustion chamber
geometries namely HCC (hemispherical combustion chamber), TCC
(torroidal combustion chamber), TRCC (torroidal re-entrant com-
bustion chamber) and SDRCC (shallow depth re-entrant combus-
tion chamber, among which TRCC ensued higher BTE and BSEC by
11.51% and 10.37% along with emission reductions of HC, CO and
Smoke by 18.36%, 33.54% and 14.38% respectively. Hence, for
operating HPF at varied injection timings (IT's), TRCC geometry is
preferred owing to its enhanced performance and lowered emis-
sion characteristics.
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406 403

HCC SDRCC

TCC TRCC

Fig. 16. Fuel spray formation and combustion simulation of combustion chamber geometries.

Table 10
Summary of actual test and simulation results of diesel engine operated with HPF.

Combustion chamber BTE (%) BSEC (MJ/kWh) Cylinder pressure(bar) HRR (J/CA) NOX (ppm)

Actual Diesel-RK Actual Diesel-RK Actual Diesel-RK Actual Diesel-RK Actual Diesel-RK

HCC 31.88 32.98 12.2 11.63 71.12 74.83 78.64 72.32 698 714
SDRCC 31.44 33.16 11.5 10.79 73.65 78.58 82.13 72.12 756 773
TCC 31.64 33.26 12.4 10.42 72.42 77.26 79.92 70.14 704 736
TRCC 32.81 34.89 10.5 10.01 75.42 88.48 85.34 73.15 798 821
404 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406
As a final venture, HPF-TRCC is subjected to 4 different IT's
namely, 21obTDC (HPF-TRCC21), 22obTDC (HPF-TRCC22), 23obTDC
(HPF-TRCC23) and 24obTDC (HPF-TRCC24). Based on experimen-
tation, the overall picture of performance, combustion and emis-
sions were summarized as follows:
The current experimental phase is carried out to investigate the
combined effect of modified combustion chamber geometry and
varied injection timings on the operation of high performance fuel
in a single cylinder diesel engine. Further, the in-cylinder flows of
various combustion chambers are presented when these are
simulated with DIESEL-RK engine software. Based on experimen-
tation, the overall picture of performance, combustion and emis-
sions were summarized as follows:
1. Performance wise, HPF-TRCC22 ensued highest BTE of about
32.8%, in comparison with DF100-HCC23 (32.7%), HPF-TRCC21
(31.4%), HPF-TRCC24 (32.5%). This can be attributed to favor-
able retarded injection timing for modified combustion cham-
ber enhancing the air-fuel mixing rate, evaporation rate and
improved combustion efficiency thereby resulting in high BTE
and low BSEC profiles.
2. Emission wise, HPF-TRCC22 resulted in lowered HC and CO
emissions of about 9.18% and 16.83% in comparison with HPF-
TRCC23. This only in compensation of marginally higher NOx
emissions. HPF-TRCC21 resulted in lowered NOx emissions by
22.53%, but this reduction is only in compensation of higher HC
and CO emissions of 6.13% and 20.51% in comparison with HPF-
TRCC23.
3. In combustion point of view, it is observed that, cylinder pres-
sure and HRR of HPF-TRCC22 stays at an acceptable range of
75.42 bar and 85.34 J/deg CA in comparison with other test
blends.
4. The Diesel-RK simulation results are verified with the experi-
mental measurement values for different combustion geome-
tries under same operating conditions. Finally it confirms TRCC
is better design for effective combustion.
Subsequently, TF blended with 20 ppm alumina nano additive,
operated at TRCC geometry at 22 bTDC (HPF-TRCC22) is found to
be the best operating condition due to its improved performance
with minimized HC and CO emissions.
Scope for future work.
 The ethanol content in the work reported here is limited to 10%.
Further works can be extended with higher ethanol content
with the final optimized engine condition.
 Experiments can be further extended for ternary fuel operation
with 4 hole & 5 hole nozzle injection rather than conventional 3
hole nozzle and its behaviour can be studied in the optimized
engine parameters.
 Microscopic investigations of fuel spray characteristics with a
miniature camera inside the optimized combustion chamber
along with CFD validation of fuel spray pattern can be an
interesting research.
 Dual fuelling of acetylene or hydrogen along with the ternary
blends in the current optimized engine condition and analyzing
the behaviour in terms of performance and emissions could be a
possible extended work.
Acknowledgement
The authors thanks the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
(MNRE) of Government of India for its technical support for this
investigation and thank Centre for Nanotechnology (Anna Univer-
sity, Chennai) for synthesis, characterization of nanoparticles.
References
[1] Zheng X, Wu Y, Zhang S, He L, Hao J. Evaluating real-world emissions of light-
duty gasoline vehicles with deactivated three-way catalyst converters. At-
mospheric Pollution Research 2018;9(1):126e32.
[2] Tiwari S, Thomas A, Rao P, Chate DM, Soni VK, Singh S, Ghude SD, Singh D,
Hopke PK. Pollution concentrations in Delhi India during winter 2015e16: a
case study of an odd-even vehicle strategy. Atmos Pollut Res 2018;9(6):
1137e45.
[3] Silitonga AS, Masjuki HH, Ong HC, Sebayang AH, Dharma S, Kusumo F,
Siswantoro J, Milano J, Daud K, Mahlia TMI, Chen WH. Evaluation of the engine
performance and exhaust emissions of biodiesel-bioethanol-diesel blends
using kernel-based extreme learning machine. Energy 2018;159:1075e87.
[4] Soares S, Rocha FR. Fast spectrophotometric determination of iodine value in
biodiesel and vegetable oils. J Braz Chem Soc 2018;29(8):1701e6.
[5] Çelebi Y, Aydın H. Investigation of the effects of butanol addition on safflower
biodiesel usage as fuel in a generator diesel engine. Fuel 2018;222:385e93.
[6] Turner JW, Lewis AG, Akehurst S, Brace CJ, Verhelst S, Vancoillie J, Sileghem L,
Leach F, Edwards PP. Alcohol fuels for spark-ignition engines: performance,
efficiency and emission effects at mid to high blend rates for binary mixtures
and pure components. Proc Inst Mech Eng - Part D J Automob Eng
2018;232(1):36e56.
[7] Sakthivel P, Subramanian KA, Mathai R. Indian scenario of ethanol fuel and its
utilization in automotive transportation sector. Resour Conserv Recycl
2018;132:102e20.
[8] Venu H, Madhavan V. Influence of diethyl ether (DEE) addition in ethanol-
biodiesel-diesel (EBD) and methanol-biodiesel-diesel (MBD) blends in a
diesel engine. Fuel 2017;189:377e90.
[9] Venu H, Madhavan V. Effect of Al2O3 nanoparticles in biodiesel-diesel-ethanol
blends at various injection strategies: performance, combustion and emission
characteristics. Fuel 2016;186:176e89.
[10] Venu H, Madhavan V. Effect of diethyl ether and Al 2 O 3 nano additives in
diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blends: performance, combustion and emission
characteristics. J Mech Sci Technol 2017;31(1):409e20.
[11] Venu H, Madhavan V. Effect of nano additives (titanium and zirconium ox-
ides) and diethyl ether on biodiesel-ethanol fuelled CI engine. J Mech Sci
Technol 2016;30(5):2361e8.
[12] Gumus S, Ozcan H, Ozbey M, Topaloglu B. Aluminum oxide and copper oxide
nanodiesel fuel properties and usage in a compression ignition engine. Fuel
2016;163:80e7.
[13] Sivakumar M, Sundaram NS, Thasthagir MHS. Effect of aluminium oxide
nanoparticles blended pongamia methyl ester on performance, combustion
and emission characteristics of diesel engine. Renew Energy 2018;116:
518e26.
[14] Shaafi T, Velraj R. ‘Influence of alumina nanoparticles, ethanol and iso-
propanol blend as additive with dieselesoybean biodiesel blend fuel: com-
bustion, engine performance and emissions’. Renew Energy 2015;80:655e63.
[15] Dhana Raju V, Kishore PS, Nanthagopal K, Ashok B. An experimental study on
the effect of nanoparticles with novel tamarind seed methyl ester for diesel
engine applications. Energy Convers Manag 2018;164:655e66. 2018.
[16] Bapu BR, Saravanakumar L, Prasad BD. Effects of combustion chamber ge-
ometry on combustion characteristics of a DI diesel engine fueled with Cal-
ophyllum inophyllum methyl ester. J Energy Inst 2017;90(1):82e100.
[17] Singh P, Tiwari SK, Singh R, Kumar N. Modification in combustion chamber
geometry of CI engines for suitability of biodiesel: a review. Renew Sustain
Energy Rev 2017;79:1016e33.
[18] Jyothi US, Reddy KV. Experimental study on performance, combustion and
emissions of diesel engine with Re-entrant combustion chamber of aluminum
alloy. Mater Today: Proceedings 2017;4(2):1332e9.
[19] Gafoor CA, Gupta R. Numerical investigation of piston bowl geometry and
swirl ratio on emission from diesel engines. Energy Convers Manag 2015;101:
541e51.
[20] Shameer PM, Ramesh K. Assessment on the consequences of injection timing
and injection pressure on combustion characteristics of sustainable biodiesel
fuelled engine. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2018;81:45e61.
[21] Deep A, Sandhu SS, Chander S. Experimental investigations on the influence of
fuel injection timing and pressure on single cylinder CI engine fueled with
20% blend of castor biodiesel in diesel. Fuel 2017;210:15e22.
[22] Goel V, Kumar N, Singh P. Impact of modified parameters on diesel engine
characteristics using biodiesel: a review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews; 2017.
[23] Ganapathy T, Gakkhar RP, Murugesan K. Influence of injection timing on
performance, combustion and emission characteristics of Jatropha biodiesel
engine. Appl Energy 2011;88(12):4376e86.
[24] Kao MJ, Ting CC, Lin BF, Tsung TT. Aqueous aluminum nanofluid combustion
in diesel fuel. J Test Eval 2007;36(2):186e90.
[25] Yetter RA, Risha GA, Son SF. Metal particle combustion and nanotechnology.
Proc Combust Inst 2009;32(2):1819e38.
[26] De Luca LT, Galfetti L, Severini F, Meda L, Marra G, Vorozhtsov AB, Sedoi VS,
Babuk VA. Burning of nano-aluminized composite rocket propellants.
Combust Explos Shock Waves 2005;41(6):680e92.
[27] Tyagi H, Phelan PE, Prasher R, Peck R, Lee T, Pacheco JR, Arentzen P. Increased
hot-plate ignition probability for nanoparticle-laden diesel fuel. Nano Lett
2008;8(5):1410e6.
 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406
[28] Aalam CS, Saravanan CG. Effects of nano metal oxide blended Mahua biodiesel
on CRDI diesel engine. Ain Shams Eng J 2017;8(4):689e96.
[29] Hosseini SH, Taghizadeh-Alisaraei A, Ghobadian B, Abbaszadeh-Mayvan A.
Effect of added alumina as nano-catalyst to diesel-biodiesel blends on per-
formance and emission characteristics of CI engine. Energy 2017;124:543e52.
[30] Prabu A, Anand RB. Emission control strategy by adding alumina and cerium
oxide nano particle in biodiesel. J Energy Inst 2016;89(3):366e72.
[31] Venkateswaran SP, Nagarajan G. ‘Effects of the re-entrant bowl geometry on a
DI turbocharged diesel engine performance and emissionsda CFD approach’.
J Eng Gas Turbines Power 2010;132(12):122803.
[32] Jaichandar S, Annamalai K. Effects of open combustion chamber geometries
on the performance of pongamia biodiesel in a DI diesel engine. Fuel 2012;98:
272e9.
[33] Ravichandran A, Rajan K, Narayanan MR, Kumar KS. Effect of piston bowl
geometry on the performance of a diesel engine using Corn biodiesel and its
diesel blends. Int J Chem Res 2016;9(1):105e12.
[34] Agarwal AK, Dhar A, Gupta JG, Kim WI, Choi K, Lee CS, Park S. Effect of fuel
injection pressure and injection timing of Karanja biodiesel blends on fuel
spray, engine performance, emissions and combustion characteristics. Energy
Convers Manag 2015;91:302e14.
[35] Mani M, Nagarajan G. Influence of injection timing on performance, emission
and combustion characteristics of a DI diesel engine running on waste plastic
oil. Energy 2009;34(10):1617e23.
[36] Ganapathy T, Gakkhar RP, Murugesan K. Influence of injection timing on
performance, combustion and emission characteristics of Jatropha biodiesel
engine. Appl Energy 2011;88(12):4376e86.
[37] Jaichandar S, Kumar PS, Annamalai K. Combined effect of injection timing and
combustion chamber geometry on the performance of a biodiesel fueled
diesel engine. Energy 2012c;47(1):388e94.
[38] Raheman H, Ghadge SV. Performance of diesel engine with biodiesel at
varying compression ratio and ignition timing. Fuel 2008;87(12):2659e66.
[39] Sayin C, Gumus M. Impact of compression ratio and injection parameters on
the performance and emissions of a DI diesel engine fueled with biodiesel-
blended diesel fuel. Appl Therm Eng 2011;31(16):3182e8.
[40] Gnanasekaran S, Saravanan N, Ilangkumaran M. Influence of injection timing
on performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a DI diesel engine
running on fish oil biodiesel. Energy 2016;116:1218e29.
[41] Saito T, Daisho Y, Uchida N, Ikeya N. Effects of combustion chamber geometry
on diesel combustion (No. 861186). 1986. SAE Technical Paper.
[42] Wickman DD, Yun H, Reitz RD. Split-spray piston geometry optimised for
HSDI diesel engine combustion (No. 2003-01-0348). 2003. SAE Technical
Paper.
[43] Panneerselvam N, Murugesan A, Vijayakumar C, Kumaravel A,
Subramaniam D, Avinash A. Effects of injection timing on bio-diesel fuelled
engine characteristics - an overview. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2015;50:
17e31.
[44] Experimental investigation of the effect of compression ratio and injection
pressure in a direct injection diesel engine running on Jatropha methyl ester’,
Appl Therm Eng, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 442-448.
[45] Zhu Y, Zhao H, Melas DA, Ladommatos N. Computational study of the effects
of the re-entrant lip shape and toroidal radii of piston bowl on a HSDI diesel
engine's performance and emissions (No. 2004-01-0118). SAE Technical Pa-
per; 2004.
[46] Kumar N, Varun, Chauhan SR. Evaluation of the effects of engine parameters
on performance and emissions of diesel engine operating with biodiesel
blend. Int J Ambient Energy 2016;37(2):121e35.
[47] Hariram V, Kumar GM. The effect of injection timing on combustion, perfor-
mance and emission parameters with AOME blends as a fuel for compression
ignition engine. Res J Appl Sci 2012;7(9):510e9.
[48] Robert CY, Shahed SM. Effects of injection timing and exhaust gas recircula-
tion on emissions from a DI diesel engine (No. 811234). SAE Technical Paper;
1981.
[49] Rao MS, Anand RB. Performance and emission characteristics improvement
studies on a biodiesel fuelled DICI engine using water and AlO (OH) nano-
particles. Appl Therm Eng 2016;98:636e45.
[50] Basha JS, Anand RB. The influence of nano additive blended biodiesel fuels on
the working characteristics of a diesel engine. J Braz Soc Mech Sci Eng
2013;35(3):257e64.
[51] Basha JS, Anand RB. ‘An experimental study in a CI engine using nanoadditive
blended waterediesel emulsion fuel’. Int J Green Energy 2011;8(3):332e48.
[52] Harun Kumar M, Dhana Raju V, Kishore PS, Venu H. Influence of injection
timing on the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of diesel
engine powered with tamarind seed biodiesel blend. Int J Ambient Energy
2018:1e31. just-accepted.
[53] Devarajan Y, kumar Jayabal R, Ragupathy D, Venu H. Emissions analysis on
second generation biodiesel. Front Environ Sci Eng 2017;11(1):3.
[54] Mehta RN, Chakraborty M, Parikh PA. Nanofuels: combustion, engine per-
formance and emissions. Fuel 2014;120:91e7.
[55] Mamilla VR, Mallikarjun MV, Rao GLN. Effect of combustion chamber design
on a DI diesel engine fuelled with jatropha methyl esters blends with diesel.
Procedia Engineering 2013;64:479e90.
[56] Nwafor OMI. Effect of advanced injection timing on emission characteristics of
diesel engine running on natural gas. Renew Energy 2007;32(14):2361e8.
[57] Prasad BVVSU, Sharma CS, Anand TNC, Ravikrishna RV. High swirl-inducing
piston bowls in small diesel engines for emission reduction. Appl Energy
405
2011;88(7):2355e67.
[58] Li J, Yang WM, An H, Maghbouli A, Chou SK. Effects of piston bowl geometry
on combustion and emission characteristics of biodiesel fueled diesel engines.
Fuel 2014;120:66e73.
[59] Dhana Raju V, Kumar MH, Kishore PS, Harish Venu. Combined impact of EGR
and injection pressure in performance improvement and NOx control of a DI
diesel engine powered with tamarind seed biodiesel blend. Environ Sci Pollut
Control Ser 2018;25:36381e93.
[60] Mohan B, Yang W, Raman V, Sivasankaralingam V, Chou SK. Optimisation of
biodiesel fueled engine to meet emission standards through varying nozzle
opening pressure and static injection timing. Appl Energy 2014;130:450e7.
[61] Park SH, Cha J, Kim HJ, Lee CS. Effect of early injection strategy on spray at-
omization and emission reduction characteristics in bioethanol blended diesel
fueled engine. Energy 2012;39(1):375e87.
[62] Dhar A, Agarwal AK. Experimental investigations of the effect of pilot injection
on performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of Karanja bio-
diesel fuelled CRDI engine. Energy Convers Manag 2015;93:357e66.
[63] Senthil R, Silambarasan R, Ravichandiran N. Influence of injection timing and
compression ratio on performance, emission and combustion characteristics
of Annona methyl ester operated diesel engine. Alexandria Engineering
Journal 2015;54(3):295e302.
[64] Kannan GR, Anand R. Experimental evaluation of DI diesel engine operating
with diestrol at varying injection pressure and injection timing. Fuel Process
Technol 2011;92(12):2252e63.
[65] Kannan GR, Anand R. Effect of injection pressure and injection timing on DI
diesel engine fuelled with biodiesel from waste cooking oil. Biomass Bio-
energy 2012;46:343e52.
[66] Sharma A, Murugan S. Combustion, performance and emission characteristics
of a DI diesel engine fuelled with non-petroleum fuel: a study on the role of
fuel injection timing. J Energy Inst 2015;88(4):364e75.
[67] Kim HJ, Park SH, Lee CS. Impact of fuel spray angles and injection timing on
the combustion and emission characteristics of a high-speed diesel engine.
Energy 2016;107:572e9.
[68] Zhang G, Qiao X, Miao X, Hong J, Zheng J. Effects of highly dispersed spray
nozzle on fuel injection characteristics and emissions of heavy-duty diesel
engine. Fuel 2012;102:666e73.
[69] Heywood JB. Internal combustion engine fundamentals. 1988.
[70] Arockiasamy P, Anand RB. Performance, combustion and emission charac-
teristics of a DI diesel engine fuelled with nanoparticle blended jatropha
biodiesel. Period Polytech - Mech Eng 2015;59(2):88e93.
[71] Sajith V, Sobhan CB, Peterson GP. Experimental investigations on the effects of
cerium oxide nanoparticle fuel additives on biodiesel. Adv Mech Eng 2010;2:
581407.
[72] Santhanamuthu M, Chittibabu S, Tamizharasan T, Mani TP. Evaluation of CI
engine performance fuelled by Diesel-Polanga oil blends doped with iron
oxide nanoparticles. International Journal of ChemTech Research 2014;6(2):
1299e308.
[73] Sajith V, Mohamed Jihad PM. Development of stable cerium zirconium mixed
oxide nanoparticle additive for emission reduction in biodiesel blends.
Research and reviews: J Eng Technol 2015;4(2):23e34.
[74] Kalargaris I, Tian G, Gu S. Influence of advanced injection timing and fuel
additive on combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of a DI
diesel engine running on plastic pyrolysis oil. Journal of Combustion
2017;2017. 9 pages.
[76] Al-Dawody MF, Bhatti SK. Optimization strategies to reduce the biodiesel NOX
effect in diesel engine with experimental verification. Energy Convers Manag
2013;68:96e104.
[77] Kuleshov AS. Multi-Zone DI diesel spray combustion model and its application
for matching the injector design with piston bowl shape. 2007. SAE 2007-01-
1908.
Abbreviations
Al2O3: Aluminium oxide nanoparticle
CO2: Carbon dioxide
EDS: Energy Dispersive spectroscopy
TF: Ternary fuel
HPF: High performance fuel
CI: Compression Ignition
TDC: Top Dead Centre
TCC: Torroidal combustion chamber
TRCC: Torroidal re-entrant combustion chamber
SDRCC: Shallow depth re-entrant combustion chamber
HCC: Hemispherical chamber
DI: Direct Injection
BTE: Brake Thermal Efficiency
BSEC: Brake Specific Energy Consumption
HRR: Heat Release Rate
CHRR: Cumulative Heat Release Rate
CRDI: Common Rail Direct Injection
HC: Hydrocarbon
CO: Carbon monoxide
DEE: Diethyl ether
406 H. Venu et al. / Energy 174 (2019) 386e406

LTC: Low Temperature Combustion TEM: Transmission Electron Microscope

NOx: Oxides of Nitrogen FTIR: Fourier Transform Infra Red
XRD: X-Ray Diffraction TKE: Turbulent Kinetic Energy
SEM: Scanning Electron Microscope