Combustion and Vibration Analysis of Idi- Diesel Engine Fuelled With Neat Preheated Jatropha Methyl Ester

Experimentation is conducted on an IDI diesel engine and the results of combustion and vibration on IDI -Diesel engine fueled with the preheated Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME) are presented. The Present research trend is to replace conventional diesel by renewable alternative fuels in view of fast depletion of petroleum reserves and to reduce the exhaust emissions from the engines without altering the basic design of the engine. Due to moderately higher viscosity effects, the direct use of biodiesel in C.I. engines is limited to 20% and the limitation is based on the NO emission also. In this work, the biodiesel is preheated using on line electronically controlled electrical preheating system before it enters into the injector. Experiments are conducted on a four stroke single cylinder IDI engine to find combustion and vibration characteristics of the engine with the preheated Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME) heated to temperatures viz. 60,70,80,90 and 100 0 C. Normally thin oils due to heating may trigger fast burning leading to either detonation or knocking of the engine. This can be predicted by recording vibration on the cylinder head in different directions. The cylinder vibrations in the form of FFT and time waves have been analyzed to estimate the combustion propensity. Experiments are done using diesel, biodiesel and biodiesel at different preheated temperatures and for different engine loading conditions keeping the speed constant at 1500 rpm. Biodiesel preheated to 60 0 C proved encouraging in all respects.