SAE INDIA 0301017

Altitude Performance Comparison of A Wankel Engine With Carburetor and Fuel Injection
V Sarveswaran and Capt Y V S Murthy (IN)
Aeronautical Development Establishment, Bangalore, India

V Ganesan
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
Copyright 2003 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

ABSTRACT The modern automobile engine has enjoyed more than a century of continuous development dating back to 1878, when the German engineer, Dr. Nicholas August Otto exhibited his first four-cycle engine. The quests for positive displacement rotary piston machines have attracted the attention of several centuries and actually pre-date the invention of the reciprocat ing piston principles. A bewildering variety of possible rotary engine configurations seem to have been tried and at the same time, confused inventive minds, thereby preventing the early success of purely rotating engines. Over the period of time, engine technology, which was in paper those days staged a come back, and started entering the market. One such, new technology is the Wankel engine development. This engine has already made their impact in the aeronautical field, and its use in automobile field is being explored. These engines are available in both carburetor and Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) version. Both versions of the engines have their merits and demerits. However, the Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) engine has got an edge over the carburetor engine in terms of better fuel control with the help of a microprocessor. Its advantage is clearly felt in altitudes. This paper discusses the altitude performance comparison of a Wankel engine tested with a carburetor and fuel injection system. The tests were conducted in a Climatic Test Facility (CTF), which can simulate altitude upto 14000 feet (4242 m). The results show that fuel injection has better prospects in altitude operation. INTRODUCTION Piston engines have established themselves well in the field of automobiles, aviation and ground support systems like pesticide sprayer, water pump etc. Application of Wankel Rotary engine, which is also another form of Internal Combustion (I.C) engine, is being heard once again all over the world nowadays. Though Wankel engines had some initial teething problems such as limited seal life, over heating of rotor bearing, higher emissions and higher specific fuel

consumption. Present day engines have seal lives in excess of 1500 2000 hours; the rotor cooling problems has been solved by oil cooling or charge cooling or by air-cooling. The specific fuel consumption has also been improved to the levels of piston engines by reducing leakage (improved sealing), introducing dual plug, employment of higher compression ratios and by charge stratification. Though compared to piston engines, Wankel engines have many advantages like higher power to weight ratio, fewer moving parts, smoother operation and choice of using heavier fuel etc. but the fact that it has not yet reached volume production for any application, and has not been certified for any automobile, aviation use suggests that further experimentation and improvements are required. However, its use in several experimental aircrafts in western countries confirms its potential for this application. LITERATURE SURVEY Though Wankel engines started entering the market in limited numbers, it has not made an impact in the commercial automobiles market. People are of the view, that these engines are not suitable for commercial use. In addition to this, production of these engines in large scale is not an attractive feature for an industry. Hence not much of technical work has been carried out in any industry/academic institution in this country. Scientist/Research scholars o f Japan have carried out extensive work from 1969 onwards. Kenich Yamamoto [1] published a book on Rotary engine in 1969, but its scope is limited to the description of the NSU-Wankel engine developed jointly by NSU based on Felix Wankels invention. The author explains the concepts and ideas of the Wankel engine. Ritsuharu Shimizu et al [2]: explains the development of a fourrotor engine to achieve high levels of power output, fuel efficiency, and reliability, as required for racing engines. These engines use telescopic intake manifold system, peripheral port injection, three-plug ignition system, and two-piece ceramic apex seal.

Charles S Preston et al [3] documents the design and validation of a closed cycle propulsion system suitable for use on the Perseus, a high altitude research aircraft. In this oxygen and cooled exhaust gas are supplied to the engine intake to maintain a manifold pressure of one atmosphere regardless of the existing ambient conditions. Apart from the above reference, the number of publications on the above subject is almost nil and therefore, it was decided to take the present experimental work to study the performance of a Wankel engine with a carburetor and fuel injection for various simulated altitudes. OBJECTIVE This paper aims at carrying out performance test on a Wankel engine with carburetor and fuel injection for various altitudes, and compares the results to see the superiority if any, of the fuel injection version. Towards this goal, an altitude chamber has been utilized, which has the capability of simulating altitude up to 14000 feet (4242 m). SYSTEM DESCRIPTION The core Wankel engine was developed initially with a carburetor and later on improved by incorporating an altitude-compensating device (ACD). This Wankel engine produces 38.8 kW (52 BHP) at 8000 rpm. The continuous research had evolved the latest techniques of Electronic Fuel Injection. (EFI), with which, the engine could produce 44.8 kW (60 BHP). Both carburetor and fuel injection engines were made use of to carry out the performance tests. This engine uses a wooden propeller, which is the load for this engine. WANKEL ENGINE A Wankel engine is also an internal combustion engine, which works in a completely different way than the conventional piston engine. In a piston engine, the same volume of space (the cylinder) alternately does four different jobs -intake, compression, combustion and exhaust. A rotary engine also does all these jobs, but each one happens in its own part of the housing. The main components are 1. Rotor 2. Epitrochoid housing 3. Eccentric shaft 4. Apex and side seals.

Figure 1 shows the pictorial view of a Wankel engine.

Housing

Rotor

Eccentric shaft Fig.1 Wankel engine The rotor, which is equivalent of a piston in an I.C engine, has three convex faces, each of which acts like a piston. There are two gears located inside the engine, of which one is stationary fitted on the side plate, the other one is located inside the rotor. The gear ratio between the rotor gear and the stationary gear is 3:2. Due to this gear ratio, for one rotation of rotor, the eccentric shaft makes three rotations. The rotor is mounted on the eccentric shaft. At the apex of the each face is an apex seal, which separates each chamber. There are also side seals on each side of the rotor that seals side o f the combustion chamber. There are three power impulses for each revolution of the rotor. For one revolution of the rotor, the output shaft experiences three revolutions. Rotary engine is assembled in layers. The single rotor engine has three main layers namely drive end plate, central housing, and non -drive end plate. The central housing is an epitrochoid in shape. Each part of the housing is dedicated to one part of the combustion process. These engines have only ports and not valves. The intake valve can be of peripheral or side port, but the exhaust port of all engines is of peripheral type only. All these ports are located in this housing. The drive and non-drive side will contain the required supporting bearings for the eccentric shaft. Each phase (suction, compression etc) of the rotary engine is completed in 90 degree of the rotor movement; hence one complete thermodynamic cycle is completed o over 360 rotation of the rotor. Since the output shaft makes three revolutions for every single rotation of the o rotor, one thermodynamic phase is completed for 270 rotation of the output shaft. The 3:2 gear ratio of the rotor and fixed gears gives the Wankel engine its characteristic feature of producing a thermodynamic o phase over every 270 rotation of the output shaft. This eccentric (output) shaft has round lobes mounted eccentrically. Each rotor fits over one of these lobes. The lobe acts like the crankshaft in a piston engine. As the rotor follows its path around the housing, it pushes on the lobes. Since the lobes are mounted eccentric to the output shaft, the force that the rotor applies to the lobes creates torque in the shaft, causing it to rotate. CARBURETOR WITH ALTITUDE COMPENSATING

DEVICE Carburetor, which is the heart of an engine, prepares the mixture required for combustion. The power produced by an engine depends on the mixture strength. The mixturepreparing device is called a carburetor. But the carburetor can be optimally tuned for one altitude only, once the engine crosses this tuned altitude, because of density variation, the mixture will be no longer chemically correct and keep becoming richer and richer, unless a suitable device is incorporated to take care of the situation. However, meeting the various requirements of the engine at high altitude by a carburetor is really a difficult one. Hence an Altitude Compensating Device (ACD) was developed and mounted as an attachment to the carburetor. This device is having a pressure capsule, which will respond to each altitude and start restricting the fuel flow as altitude increases. The Wankel engine selected for the testing is having this provision. The other problem, with the carburetors is the formation of ice at high altitudes. When fuel is discharged into the low-pressure area in the carburetor venturi, the fuel evaporates rapidly. This evaporation of the fuel cools the air, the walls, and the water vapour. If the humidity of the air is high and the metal of the carburetor is cooled o below 32 C ice forms and interferes with the operation of the engine. The fuel air passages are clogged, the mixture flow is reduced and the power outputs drops. Eventually, if the condition is not corrected, the drop in power output may cause engine failure. Ice formation in the carburetor may be indicated by a gradual loss of engine speed, a loss of manifold pressure or both, without change in the throttle position. It is extremely important that a pilot/operator, recognize the symptoms of carburetor icing and the weather conditions which may be conductive to icing. The principal effects of icing are the loss of power, engine roughness, and backfiring. ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION (EFI) SYSTEM Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) system, like many developments in automotive applications, was initially pioneered on racing cars. In many cars fuel injection systems were fitted only where more power was required. But with the continual tightening of emissions legislation, fuel injection is becoming more common on todays cars although it is still largely confined to those in the higher emissions regulations and larger engines. There are two types of fuel injection system (i) single point and (ii) multi-point injection. Single point is also called throttle body injection. Single point fuel injection as the name suggests, involves only one injector in the main body of the inlet manifold in a similar position to the carburetor. It has an obvious cost advantage. Multi point fuel injection, however, gives much more accurate control over the amount of fuel injected. For each cylinder there is one injector, which injects fuel into the inlet manifold immediately, when the valve/port is open.

Electronic fuel injection is a constant fuel pressure system; therefore the quantity of fuel injected is determined purely by the time of injector opening. But in practice controlling the injector is not quite that simple. Electronic fuel injection works by determining the mass of air drawn into the engine and injecting the appropriate amount of fuel to produce a combustible mixture suitable for higher power output and better specific fuel consumption. By adjusting the quantity of fuel injected, the quality (rich/lean) of the mixture can be controlled. If a stoichiometric mixture is achieved during mixture preparation by carburetor, complete combustion should occur and all unburnt hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide should be eliminated. The problem however is that spark ignition engines operate at maximum efficiency with the slightly richer mixture of 13:1 and run most economically at 15:1. A rich mixture increases fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions, where as, a weak mixture causes loss of power, and engine overheating, so a compromise must be achieved As explained earlier the main drawback of the carburetor is that it can be calibrated to produce a stoichiometric mixture for a given air density/altitude only. Air density, however varies with temperature and altitude, factors which an EFI system can take into account. If the volumetric efficiency of an engine remained constant, the task of the EFI system would be very simple in that fixed quantity of fuel could be injected irrespective of engine speed. The volumetric efficiency does, however, rise with engine speed and taper off at high engine speeds. The two primary inputs for an EFI engines are engine speed and engine load (air mass); however, the method of detection of above parameters are generally different. Engine speed is derived from ignition coil negative terminal. Air mass is measured by two common methods, by a silicon strain gauge pressure transducer or by an air mass flow meter. These two primary inputs are used to address a matrix of injector on time versus engine speed and load; the injector is opened accordingly. EFI CONTROL UNIT The first task of the control unit is to determine engine speed from the crankshaft sensor or ignition coil negative pulses. The EFI unit uses the primary inputs of engine speed and air mass to address a look up table (ROM or EEPROM) and determines the optimum amount of fuel, that is, injector opening time required under these conditions to produce a stoichiometric mixture. This look up table is based on the results of dynamometer tests. Basically, the EFI engine needs engine speed and air mass as its primary inputs, and this requires an analog to digital converter to produce a usable digital representation. Converters are required for all other analogue inputs, such as engine temperature, air temperature, throttle potentiometer etc. All other inputs to the control unit are generally some form of modification of these two primary inputs, but they may

interact with each other and so demand processing power from the microprocessor. A fuel pump of the EFI system pumps fuel from the tank into the pressurized injector system. A constant pressure of approximately 2. 7 bar (37 psi) is maintained by the pressure relief valve, which releases excess fuel back into the tank. Apart from speed and load, the other inputs, which have an effect on the amount of fuel injected, are, engine temperature (for cold starting) and ambient air temperature, ambient pressure, throttle position. Cold starting has been taken care by injecting additional fuel. ALTITUDE TESTING Performance of an IC engines and its power output deteriorate under rarefied atmospheric conditions, at extremely low-pressure, at high altitude and high temperature conditions of desert terrain. Evaluation of engines at such locations poses major problems of setting up testing infrastructure and transportation of equipment besides the prohibitive logistics, cost and loss of time associated with such activities. To overcome these problems a Climatic Test Facility (CTF) wherein testing can be carried out at simulated conditions upto an altitude of 14000 feet (4242 m). The main advantage in conducting the tests at CTF is, simulating the temperatures which otherwise cannot be achieved on ground. The problem with CTF is, due to the restricted space, the wall effects will come into picture and this will influence the results. Because of this, values obtained in CTF may be slightly different, compared to the field trials. However, since both carburetor and EFI engines were tested in the same environment, it is assumed that the effects of CTF will get nullified. TEST SET UP To conduct the tests in the CTF, the engine was mounted on a test rig. The rig has got a movable cradle on which the engine was mounted. When the engine was running, the movable cradle will move against a fixed load cell. The load cell records the thrust developed by the engine. A fuel flow sensor was mounted on the fuel flow line, to measure the fuel consumed by the engine. For the EFI engine, the software associated with the engine was giving the fuel consumption, ignition advance, injector opening and closing angle, injector opening duration in micro seconds and throttle position. A `T' type and `K' type thermocouple was mounted on the carburetor venturi wall and exhaust pipe respectively to monitor the venturi temperature and exhaust gas temperature (EGT) of the engine. TEST Engine was started manually and allowed to run at idling

speed for 2 to 3 minutes for warming up. Then the CTF vacuum pumps will be switched on to maintain the desired pressure/altitude in side the climatic chamber. For attaining low temperatures, the refrigeration plant was used. After stabilization at that particular altitude, the engine speed was varied from idle to maximum in steps of 1000 rpm. At each speed, thrust, fuel consumption, carburetor venturi temperature and EGT values were recorded. Then the test was repeated for different altitudes from 2000 feet (606 m) to 14000 feet (4242 m). ENGINE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS The parameters measured during the CTF tests are: For carburetor engine: 1. Engine rpm 2. Engine thrust 3. Fuel consumption 4. Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) 5. Carburetor venturi temperature For EFI engine: 1. Engine rpm 2. Engine thrust 3. Fuel consumption 4. Exhaust Gas Temperature 5. Injector start and stop angle 6. Ignition advance angle (EFI engine)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figures 2 and 3 show the variation of thrust with respect to speed for an altitude of 8000 feet (2424 m) and 14000 feet (4242 m) respectively. As expected, the thrust increases with speed for both the engines, since the thrust is direct indication of power and it is directly proportional to speed. However, as could be seen, up to a speed of 7000 rpm the EFI engine develops comparatively less power than carburetor engine. Beyond 7000 the EFI engine is found to develop substantially higher power (more than 15% at 8000 rpm). This is due to the fact that the EFI engine was specially tuned to attain the best possible power at 8000 rpm. Essentially the power gain related to carburetor engine is achieved by the improvement in the volumetric efficiency. It must be noted that the carburetor engine is already tuned to its optimum conditions and therefore to get the higher power output of 44.8 KW (more than 15% hike), we have to resort to EFI mode. Figures 4 and 5 show the variation of thrust specific fuel consumption (TSFC) with engine speed for an altitude of 8000 feet (2424 m) and 14000 feet (4242m) respectively. The EFI engine outperforms the mechanical ACD of the carburetor engine at all speeds except at 4000 rpm, which is not in the operating range. The graph trend remains the same irrespective of the altitude and shows an improvement of approximately 10% over the carburetor engine.

ENGINE SPEEED Vs THRUST - 8000 Feet(2424m) altitude

80 0.25

ENGINE SPEED Vs TSFC-(8000 Feet(2424m)altitude)

70

60

0.2

TSFC(lt/kg-thurst.hr)

50

Thrust (Kg)

0.15

40

30

carb-engine EFI-engine

0.1

carb - engine EFI - engine

20

10 0.05 0 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500 7000 7500 8000 0 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500 7000 7500 8000

Engine speed (RPM)

Fig.2

Engine speed(RPM)

Fig.4
ENGINE SPEED Vs THRUST -14000 Feet (4242m) altitude
70

ENGINE SPEED Vs TSFC-14000 Feet (4242m) altitude

0.25

60

50 0.2 40

carb-engine 30 EFI-engine

0.15

Thrust (kg)

20

TSFC(lt/kg-thrust.hr)

0.1

carb-engine EFI-engine

10

0.05

0 3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

5500

6000

6500

7000

7500

8000

Engine speed (RPM)

0 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500 7000 7500 8000

Fig.3

Engine speed (RPM)

CARBURETOR TEMPERATURE To make sure that, this engine is not getting into the icing problem with the carburetor version at higher altitude, the carburetor venturi wall temperature was measured using a thermocouple. The sensor was glued to the wall and the temperature was measured for all engine speeds and for all altitudes. Since there is no inlet manifold for this engine, the carburetor is directly mounted on the central housing. So the venturi o o temperature was maintained between 20 C to 22 C even o for an ambit temperature of 10 C, clearly eliminating the possibility of carburetor icing. EFI PARAMETERS The EFI engines software is able to log on many important parameters on line. A sample reading logged during the engine operation at 14000 feet (4242m) altitude, at an ambient temperature of 3o C is placed for reference at Table 1. The software gives the start of injection, stop of injection (in crank angle) and the duration of injection in microseconds.

Fig.5

Table 1 EFI Sample Reading

F Pump duty Engine Speed Spark advance Battery Coolant Fuel Flow TPS raw Inj1 Open 50.39 % 7822 rpm 18.81 25.62 V 80 C 12.50 L/h 170 56.25 Spark mod Pulse width Spark (mod) Air Temp Inj Adv#1 Error 1 Air Pressure Inj1 Close 0.00 2504 S 18.81 -3 C 92.81 01000000 60.50 KPa 147.66

CONCLUSION By measuring the static thrust value at different altitudes, the maximum take off weight of an aircraft (when this

engine is used) can be found out. Static thrust is the maximum thrust an enginepropeller combination can produce (with out drag). However the effective thrust will be the difference between T and D, where T is the thrust produced by the engine and D is the drag of the airvehicle. The fuel consumption data at various altitudes is useful in planning the endurance. Once the flying/running hour is decided, the fuel consumption at each altitude can be found out from this experimental value, and the overall fuel consumption for the entire operation can be calculated. If the calculated total fuel consumption is not matching with the fuel quantity being carried for the engine operat ion, the endurance planning has to be adjusted in terms of time or in terms of the operating .

altitude. By looking at this data/chart, the fuel consumption can be worked out to a value very closer to the actual one. The testing of both carburetor and EFI engines in CTF proved the superiority of the EFI engine in terms of power, pollution and vibration. In addition to the increase in power the EFI engine was having a better TSFC also. REFERENCES 1. 2.
Kenich-Yamomoto, Rotary Engine Toyokogyo Company Ltd, 1969. Ritsuharu Shimizu, Tomoo Tadokoro, Toru Nakanishi and Junichi Funamoto, Mazda 4 Rotary Engine for the Le Mans 24 Hour Endurance Race, Mazda Motor Corp. SAE 920309 Charles S Preston, Stephen P Hendrickson and Aurora, A Closed Cycle, High Altitude Rotary Engine for Unmanned Ozone Sampler, Flight Sciences Corp. SAE 921548

3.