Proceedings of the 6

th
International Mechanical Engineering Conference &
14
th
Annual Paper Meet (6IMEC&14APM) 28-29 September 2012, Dhaka, Bangladesh


IMEC&APM-AM-04
IMEC & APM 2012 1 AM-04




1. INTRODUCTION
A compressed-air engine is a pneumatic actuator that
creates useful work by expanding compressed air and
converting the potential energy into motion. A pneumatic
actuator is a device that converts energy into motion. The
motion can be rotary or linear, depending on the type of
actuator. Compressed Air Engine (CAE) are fueled by
compressed air, which is stored in a tank at a high
pressure of about 30 MPa. The difference between the
compressed air engine and IC engine is that instead of
mixing fuel with air and burning it to drive pistons with
hot expanding gases, CAEs use the expansion of
previously compressed air to drive their pistons.
The greatest advantages of compressed air vehicle are no
burning process and no waste gas discharge to the
surrounding environment. It can be said as a green
environmental protection vehicle with near zero
pollution (1) in the metropolitan cities. With the policy of
energy conservation and environment protection, studies
on air powered car become more and more warming-up.
Recently, its researches in domestic and aboard have
achieved notable achievements. Zhejiang University and
Hefei University of Technology of China have
accumulated abundant experience in theory analyses and
experimental test. The MDI Company in France has
realized the design, manufacture, and application of air
powered car (2) (3). The engines of compressed air cars
are piston type, vane type, rotary type and so on, and the
piston engine is widely taken now (4) (5). At present, the
piston engine power system has some disadvantages
such as complex structure, easy wearing, high noise and
low efficiency. Therefore, to develop and optimize
engine power system is the key technique for compressed
air car.

2. PROJECT OVERVIEW
In the present study, emphasis was given to
conversion of a two stroke single cylinder SI engine into
a compressed air engine with minimum possible
modification of the existing design. The design is based
on a rather simple working principle.
The compressed air is the source of energy that is stored
in a high pressure cylinder. Basically this cylinder is
re-filled by the compressor. But in the present case, the
compressed air is supplied directly from a compressor at
a pressure of 7 bar. When the piston is at TDC (Top dead
centre) then the inlet cam allows the inlet follower rod to
open the inlet port and let the compressed air enter into
the air chamber. In this situation the exhaust port is
closed by the respective follower controlled by the
exhaust cam. The high pressure air introduced to the
chamber passes through the inlet passage and creates a
downward thrust on the piston and the piston starts
moving downwards. After pushing the piston downwards
the air is then reflected towards the other passage of the
chamber and meanwhile the exhaust cam opens the
exhaust port to leave the air by the use of a follower rod.
The inlet cam has to close the inlet port with the help of
the inlet follower before the piston reaches the BDC
(Bottom dead center).
An extra supply of power is needed to give the piston an
Modification of an Si Engine into a Compressed Air Engine to
Work with Compressed Air or Gas

1
Dr. Maglub Al Nur, S.K.M.Asikul Islam

, Debashish Saha and AashiqueAlam Rezwan


1
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh


ABSTRACT
The environmental pollution in the metropolitan cities is increasing rapidly mostly because of the increased
number of fossil fuel powered vehicles. Many alternative options are now being studied throughout the
world. One of the alternative solutions can be a compressed air powered vehicle. The present study focuses
on converting an SI engine into a compressed air engine. A two stroke single cylinder SI engine is converted
to operate using compressed air because of its design simplicity. The cylinder head of the engine is
modified by replacing the existing cam with a set of newly designed flank cam and an inlet-exhaust air
passage. As the cylinder head of the engine is modified, the engine is tested for different timing of the valve
opening and duration of opening. Three sets of valve timing are used to test the converted compressed air
engine. The air pressure used in the present study is 7 bar which is obtained using a compressor. The design
and experimental test result presented here can be used for further research and modification of the
technique.

Keywords: Compressed Air Engine; Valve Timing;
IMEC &APM 2012 AM-04 2
upward motion after it reaches BDC. Therefore the
reciprocating motion of the piston is influenced by the
application of a flywheel mounted on the extended crank
shaft. The power storage capability of the flywheel is
used to supply the extra energy to the piston movement.
The transmission of power from the crank shaft to the
cam shaft is done directly by a chain sprocket mechanism.
The mechanism of cam shaft rotation is done by
mounting the shaft on two ball bearing holders. The two
follower rods are mounted on separate springs placed
above the air chamber. The restoration of force carried
out by spring allows the follower to lift back to its initial
position when the cam position is at zero displacement.
The use of a one way valve is to ensure a unidirectional
flow of the high pressure air from the compressor to the
air chamber.

3. STRUCTURAL DESIGN
In the present study, a CDI H1100S motorcycle
engine has been used for modification into compressed
air engine. There are several structural change required
to be done to run the engine with compressed air.

3.1. Extended Cylindrical Chamber
The cylinder head on top of the engine cylinder has been
replaced with a new cylindrical chamber made of mild
steel with pressure coating. The hole provided for the
spark plug has been bored further to match the outer
diameter of the new cylindrical chamber. The cylinders
have two through holes (diameter = 15 mm) for the
intake and exhaust valves to operate. At 60 mm from the
top of the cylinder, two 10 mm holes were drilled for the
purpose of intake and exhaust ports.











Fig. 1. Cylindrical Chamber

3.2. Inlet-Exhaust Passages
To avoid complexity in the design, providing inlet
passage with bypass air chamber as before, whereas
keeping the exhaust passage open the whole time, which
aroused ambiguity in operation when tested the previous
design, two separate passages has been bored in the
newly designed air chamber. A solid partition has been
provided in between the through passages for the safe
operation of valves.

3.3. Cam Shaft
It is a 10 mm diameter solid shaft. The shaft is supported
on two ball bearings staged in their housing and linked
with the output shaft of the engine via chain and
sprocket.

















Fig. 2. Cut-way view of the cylindrical chamber

3.4. Inlet-Exhaust Valves
These are basically two mild steel shafts of varying cross
section combining the action of both: a flat faced cam
follower and a valve. The varying cross section of the flat
face valve sits on a spring leaving the rest of the valve
hanging inside the air passage.








Fig. 3. Inlet Exhaust Valve

The cams are tightly attached to the shaft with the help of
Allen key screw.

3.5. Flywheel
A 150mm diameter and 12mm thick mild steel disc has
been cut in lathe machine and attached to the previously
modified output shaft. These dimensions were obtained
from the engine specification (Engine torque = 60 N-m)
and some assumption made according to engine space
constraints. The weight of the flywheel is 6kg.

4. CAM DESIGN
For replacing the original cylinder head, a new set of
two flank cams has been designed for operating the inlet
and exhaust valves of the modified engine. Both the
exhaust and inlet cams are symmetric about the center
line of the cam shaft. The cams are made of mild steels.
These cams are cut out from 90mm diameter 40 mm
thick cylindrical discs on milling machine and lathe
machine on the basis of the full scale drawing provided to
get the specific cam profile obtained from calculation
and theoretical assumptions. These cams provide
determined motion to the follower based on the assumed
cam profile which is done in actual practice.
The inlet cam profile is designed to give the valve a
maximum ascent/descent of 18 mm while it is 15mm for
the exhaust cam. The inlet cam has an ascent angle of 40
and a descent angle of 320, while the exhaust cam has
an ascent angle of 150 and descent angle of 210.
Inlet air
passage
Inlet port
Exhaust air
passage
Exhaust
port
Exhaust
port
IMEC &APM 2012 AM-04 3









Fig. 4. Inlet Cam










Fig. 5. Exhaust Cam
4.1. Valve Timing
The converted compressed air engine has been tested for
a set of three valve timings. In the first case, the inlet and
exhaust cam are set in symmetric in angle in both side of
TDC and BDC respectively. The inlet cam gives a lift of
18mm to the follower. When the piston is at TDC the
inlet valve is at fully opened condition and as the
compressed air starts entering into the chamber, the valve
has to close the inlet port of 10mm diameter before the
piston reaches BDC. To ensure the complete closure of
the 10mm inlet port, the inlet follower is given a
movement of 18mm. When the crank is at 20 degrees
after TDC, the closure of the inlet port is started by the
valve and it is completely closed when the crank is at 45
degrees after TDC. During this period the inlet port
remains fully closed and no air is allowed to pass through
the inlet port. The inlet port starts to open and allow the
air to pass into the cylinder just 45 degrees before the
TDC and reaches its maximum opening condition 20
degrees before TDC.

The exhaust port is at fully closed condition when the
piston is at TDC and the exhaust valve starts to open the
exhaust port just 75 degrees after TDC. For the next 210
degree rotation of the crank, the exhaust port is kept at
fully opened condition and the air is allowed to leave the
chamber. The exhaust follower is given a displacement
of 15mm to completely close the outlet port of 10mm
diameter. Exhaust valve starts to close the outlet port just
75 degrees before TDC and it is moved to completely
closed condition just when the piston is at TDC.









Fig. 6. (a) Valve Timing Diagram 1; (b) Valve Timing Diagram 2












Fig. 7. Valve Timing Diagram 3

With the modification a second valve timing was tested
with inlet valve starts to open at 25 before TDC and
fully open at TDC. The total opening time remains the
same at 40 of cam rotation. The exhaust valve starts to
open at 60 before BDC and closed after 30 of cam
rotation before the piston reaches the TDC.

With the modification a third valve timing was tested
with inlet valve starts to open at TDC and fully open at
25 after TDC. The total opening time remains the same
40 of cam rotation. The exhaust valve starts to open at
30 before BDC and closed when the piston reaches the
TDC.

5. TESTING RESULTS
The engine has been tested with compressed air of 7
bar pressure. In the first design of the valve timing
diagram, the engine starts running with the opening of
the compressed gas line. But after a full cycle the engine
gradually slows down and eventually stops. This may
have occurred due to the fact that in the return stroke, the
inlet valve opens before TDC. This acts against the
piston in the return stroke and eventually slows down the
engine.

In the second valve timing design, the engine starts
running after the compressed air has started to flow into
the engine cylinder. But after several full cycles the
engine again slows down and stopped. In this case, the
inlet valve is started to open before TDC. As the
compressed air started to flow into the engine cylinder,
before the piston reaches TDC in the return stroke, the
compressed air again pushes the piston back in the return
stroke. Thus the engine again slows down and stopped.

In the third valve timing design, the engine starts running
with compressed air flow into the cylinder. This time, the
engine runs for half an hour before the pressure of the
compressed air dropped below a certain limit. The rpm of
the engine has been measured and is found to be 420 rpm.

6. CONCLUSION
In the present modification project, a two stroke single
cylinder SI engine has been reassembled with new
cylinder head and cam. The engine has been tested with
three different valve timing diagram. For first two
simplified valve timing, the engine didnt run for long
time. Thus the design of the valve timing cant be used
for the modified engine. The valve timing diagram has
IMEC &APM 2012 AM-04 4
been further modified and with the third valve timing
diagram. This time the engine runs until the gas pressure
dropped. The maximum rpm of the engine is 420.

In future, further modification can be done so that the
engine itself can run the compressor. The engine can also
be attached with other engines in support to the main
engine. The high pressure gas exhausted from the
primary engine can be used as input air for the
compressed air engine. The pressure of the air can also be
increased up to the limit of the engine structure. This
kind of engine can be used for different purposes.

















































6. REFERENCES

[1] Tokhi, M, O, Al-Miskiry, M and Brisland, M. Real
Time Control of Motors using a Pneumatic H-bridge.
Control Eng Pract. 2001, pp. 449-457.
[2] Huang, K, D, Quang, K, V, Tseng, K, T. Study of
Recycling Exhaust Gas Energy of Hybrid Pneumatic
Power System with CFD. Energy Converstion
Management. 2009, pp. 1271-1278.
[3] Thipse, S, S. Compressed Air Car. Tech Monitor.
2008, pp. 33-37.
[4] Liu, X, Y, Wang, Y. Overview of Developement of
Compressed Air Engine. Machine. 2008, Vol. 35, pp. 1-5.
[5] Shen, Y, T, Hwang, Y, R. Design and
Implementation of Air Powered Motorcycles. Applied
Energy. 2009, Vol. 86, pp. 1105-1110.