Liquid Piston Engines

The only book available on liquid piston engines, covering the design, application, maintenance, troubleshooting, and advances in the technology.

Whether used in irrigation, cooling nuclear reactors, pumping wastewater, or any number of other uses, the liquid piston engine is a much more efficient, effective, and "greener" choice than many other choices available to industry. Especially if being used in conjunction with solar panels, the liquid piston engine can be extremely cost-effective and has very few, if any, downsides or unwanted side effects. As industries all over the world become more environmentally conscious, the liquid piston engine will continue growing in popularity as a better choice, and its low implementation and operational costs will be attractive to end-users in developing countries.

This is the only comprehensive, up-to-date text available on liquid piston engines. The first part focuses on the identification, design, construction and testing of the liquid piston engine, a simple, yet elegant, device which has the ability to pump water but which can be manufactured easily without any special tooling or exotic materials and which can be powered from either combustion of organic matter or directly from solar heating. It has been tested, and the authors recommend how it might be improved upon. The underlying theory of the device is also presented and discussed. The second part deals with the performance, troubleshooting, and maintenance of the engine.

This volume is the only one of its kind, a groundbreaking examination of a fascinating and environmentally friendly technology which is useful in many industrial applications. It is a must-have for any engineer, manager, or technician working with pumps or engines.

Aman Gupta holds a masters degree from Punjab Technical University, and he has written or co-written several books and papers. His areas of research include heat transfer, thermal engineering, and solid mechanics.

Shubham Sharma holds a masters degree from Punjab Technical University. His area of research is in mechanical engineering, and he is a consultant in the field of combustion engines.

Sunny Narayan holds a masters degree from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and has several books and papers to his credit. He is a member of SAE, ASME and INCE and is a freelance tutor. His area of research includes combustion engines, focusing on noise and vibration aspects of engines.

Abstract ix

List of Symbols xi

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Types of Stirling Engines 2

1.3 Stirling Engine Designs 4

1.4 Free-Piston Stirling Engines 6

1.5 Gamma Type Engine 18

References 27

2 Liquid Piston Engines 29

2.1 Introduction 29

2.2 Objectives 32

2.3 Brief Overview of Pumps and Heat Engines 33

2.4 Heat Engine 38

2.5 Clever Pumps 42

2.6 History and Development of Stirling Engines 45

2.7 Operation of a Stirling Engine 48

2.8 Working Gas 53

2.9 Pros and Cons of Stirling Engine 53

2.10 Low Temperature Difference Stirling Engine 54

2.11 Basic Principle of a Fluidyne 55

2.12 Detailed Working of a Fluidyne 57

2.13 Role of Evaporation 61

2.14 Regenerator 61

2.15 Pumping Setups 62

2.16 Tuning of Liquid Column 63

2.17 Motion Analysis 64

2.18 Losses 65

2.19 Factors Affecting Amplitude 66

2.20 Performance of Engine 67

2.21 Design 67

2.22 Assembly 70

2.23 Calculation 71

2.24 Experiments 72

2.25 Results 74

2.26 Comparison Within Existing Commercial Devices 76

2.27 Improvements 78

2.28 Future Scope 79

2.29 Conclusion 80

2.30 Numerical Analysis 80

References 83

3 Customer Satisfaction Issues 87

3.1 Durability Issues 87

3.2 Testing of Engines 88

3.3 Design of Systems 88

3.4 Systems Durability 89

References 89

4 Lubrication Dynamics 91

4.1 Background 91

4.2 Friction Features 93

4.3 Effects of Varying Speeds and Loads 94

4.4 Friction Reduction 94

4.5 Piston-Assembly Dynamics 95

4.6 Reynolds Equation for Lubrication Oil Pressure 96

4.7 Introduction 102

4.8 Background 104

4.9 Occurrence of Piston Slap Events 105

4.10 Literature Review 110

4.11 Piston Motion Simulation Using COMSOL 114

4.12 Force Analysis 117

4.13 Effects of Various Skirt Design Parameters 120

4.14 Numerical Model of Slapping Motion 131

4.15 Piston Side Thrust Force 132

4.16 Frictional Forces 133

4.17 Determination of System Mobility 133

4.18 Conclusion 143

5 NVH Features of Engines 145

5.1 Background 145

5.2 Acoustics Overview of Internal Combustion Engine 146

5.3 Imperial Formulation to Determine Noise Emitted from Engine 149

5.4 Engine Noise Sources 151

5.5 Noise Source Identification Techniques 154

5.6 Summary 157

References 158

6 Diagnosis Methodology for Diesel Engines 161

6.1 Introduction 161

6.2 Power Spectral Density Function 162

6.3 Time Frequency Analysis 162

6.4 Wavelet Analysis 163

6.5 Conclusion 164

References 165

7 Sources of Noise in Diesel Engines 167

7.1 Introduction 167

7.2 Combustion Noise 168

7.3 Piston Assembly Noise 168

7.4 Valve Train Noise 170

7.5 Gear Train Noise 170

7.6 Crank Train and Engine Block Vibrations 171

7.7 Aerodynamic Noise 171

7.8 Bearing Noise 171

7.9 Timing Belt and Chain Noise 172

7.10 Summary 174

References 175

8 Combustion Based Noise 179

8.1 Introduction 179

8.2 Background of Combustion Process in Diesel Engines 180

8.3 Combustion Phase Analysis 183

8.4 Combustion Based Engine Noise 184

8.5 Factors Affecting Combustion Noise 186

8.6 In Cylinder Pressure Analysis 187

8.7 Effects of Heat Release Rate 187

8.8 Effects of Cyclic Variations 188

8.9 Resonance Phenomenon 189

8.10 In Cylinder Pressure Decomposition Method 189

8.11 Mathematical Model of Generation of Combustion Noise 192

8.12 Evaluation of Combustion Noise Methods 193

8.13 Summary 199

References 199

9 Effects of Turbo Charging in S.I. Engines 203

9.1 Abstract 203

9.2 Fundamentals 204

9.3 Turbochargers 205

9.4 Turbocharging in Diesel Engines 206

9.5 Turbocharging of Gasoline Engines 207

9.6 Turbocharging 208

9.7 Components of Turbocharged SI Engines 208

9.8 Intercooler 213

9.9 Designing of Turbocharger 213

9.10 Operational Problems in Turbocharging of SI Engines 222

9.11 Methods to Reduce Knock in S.I Engines 223

9.12 Ignition Timing and Knock 223

9.13 Charge Air Cooling 224

9.14 Downsizing of SI Engines 225

9.15 Techniques Associated with Turbo Charging of SI Engines Boosting Systems 225

10 Emissions Control by Turbo Charged SI Engines 231

11 Scope of Turbo Charging in SI Engines 233

12 Summary 235

13 Conclusions and Future Work 237

13.1 Conclusions 237

13.2 Contributions 237

13.3 Future Recommendations 238

References 240

List of Important Terms 243

Bibliography 247

Glossary 249

Index 251

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