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The presence of unsaturated methyl esters in biodiesel makes it susceptible to oxidation and fuel quality degradation upon long-term storage. In the present work, the effects of oxidation of Karanja biodiesel upon long-term storage on the combustion and emission characteristics of a heavy-duty truck diesel engine are studied. The Karanja biodiesel is stored for one year in a 200 litres steel barrel at room conditions to mimic commercial storage conditions. The results obtained show that compared to diesel, the start of injection of fresh and aged biodiesels are advanced by ~2-degree crank angle, and the ignition delay time is reduced. Aged biodiesel showed a slightly smaller ignition delay compares to fresh biodiesel. The fuel injection and combustion characteristics of fresh and aged biodiesels were similar at all the load conditions. Both fresh and aged biodiesels produced higher oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and lower smoke emissions compared to diesel.

Adopting a low compression ratio (LCR) is a viable approach to meet the stringent emission regulations since it can simultaneously reduce the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions. However, significant shortcomings with the LCR approach include higher unburned hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions and fuel economy penalties. Further, poor combustion stability of LCR engines at cold ambient and part load conditions may worsen the transient emission characteristics, which are least explored in the literature. In the present work, the effects of implementing the low compression ratio (LCR) approach in a mass-production light-duty vehicle powered by a single-cylinder diesel engine are investigated with a major focus on transient emission characteristics.

The pressure gain characteristics of jet pipe servovalve is required as an input to the designer for improving performance of the servovalve. An attempt has been made to design the first stage jet pipe servovalve parameters to get maximum pressure recovery. The static recovery pressure in receiving holes is a function of jet pipe nozzle displacement relative to receiver plate. The recovery pressure depends on web thickness, jet pipe nozzle diameter, receivers hole diameter, nozzle offset and nozzle stand-of distance. A detailed static recovery pressure analysis of a two stage, four-way, closed ports electrohydraulic flow control valve considering the effect of web thickness, nozzle diameter, receiver hole diameter and offset parameters are presented in the paper. Also the effect of supply pressure on recovery pressure is presented.

Unsaturated methyl esters in biodiesel make it susceptible to oxidation and fuel quality degradation upon long-term storage. It is almost impossible to use biodiesel for commercial applications immediately after production. The lead time between biodiesel production and usage is generally high, causing auto-oxidation and fuel quality degradation. Hence any onsite improvement in fuel quality should be tested with aged biodiesel. To avoid the food versus fuel debate, non-edible oil feedstocks are preferable for producing biodiesel. However, biodiesel from non-edible oil sources has more unsaturated methyl ester constituents. The traditional trade-off between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and soot emissions in conventional diesel combustion is reduced to a more severe NOx problem with biodiesel. In the present study, NOx mitigation through fuel modifications is studied for oxidized biodiesel produced from a non-edible oil, Karanja.

Heavy commercial road vehicles are less stable in terms of rollover because of their elevated center of gravity (CG). Rollover is a type of accident in which the vehicle rotates excessively about its longitudinal axis. An untripped rollover happens when the centrifugal force acting at the CG is stronger than the cornering force acting at the tires and the vehicle rolls outwards of the turn. The accurate detection of the onset of untripped rollover is a critical step towards its prevention. This study presents a model based rollover index using the lateral Load Transfer Ratio (LTR) for detection of untripped rollover of heavy commercial road vehicles. The corroboration of any rollover detection and prevention strategy with a full-sized vehicle would be costly and potentially dangerous.