Development of a gravimetric fuel measurement system for the evaluation of engine performance physical parameters
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Prada Botia, Gaudy Carolina | 2021
This paper presents the implementation and design features of a gravimetric-based
fuel consumption system. The proposed system comprises a gravimetric balance with serial
output, a fuel pump, and a control valve that are integrated into a complete engine test bench via
Arduino UNO®. The study implements an instrumentation methodology to minimize
measurement disturbance and error propagation, which represents a major concern in engine
experimental testing. Moreover, an interactive virtual environment is developed to reinforce user
interaction via LabView™. Results demonstrated that the proposed measurement system
features robust and reliable operation while maintaining negligible disturbance and overall
uncertainty ranging from 0.010-0.23 g/s. Additionally, it was evidenced that the measurement
system allows the analysis of key parameters to evaluate engine performance. The study of the
fuels blends shows that the ethanol content causes a 6.8% increase in brake specific fuel
consumption and a 4% decrease in the brake thermal efficiency. Due to the low cost of the
developed measurement system can be easily adapted to test bench laboratories to promote a
better learning process and in industrial sectors for better energy management.
LEER