EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION THE EFFECTS OF DIETHYL ETHER-DIESEL FUEL BLENDS ON THE ENGINE PERFORMANCE

In this study, the effects of diethyl ether (DEE)-diesel fuel blends on the performance of a diesel engine investigated experimentally. The blends were prepared with the addition of 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10 vol. % of DEE with a specified amount of diesel fuel. In the experiments, a single cylinder direct injection (DI) diesel experimental engine was used and compression ratio was fixed at 20. The experiments were performed with neat diesel fuel and DEE-diesel fuel blends at various engine speeds and wide open throttle conditions. The results of the study show that DEE addition to diesel fuel causes to decrease in engine performance parameters, i.e., brake mean effective pressure, brake torque and brake power. The decrement in performance parameters increased with increasing blending ratio. The maximum decrement in brake mean effective pressure was obtained with DEE10 blend as about 5.1%. However, brake thermal efficiency increases and brake specific fuel consumption decreases up to 7.5% DEE blending ratio. The maximum increment in brake thermal efficiency was obtained with DEE7.5 blend as about 10.9%. The same fuel blend gives about 8.7% reduction in brake specific fuel consumption. Additionally, exhaust gas temperature decreases and air excess coefficient increases with increasing DEE blending ratio.