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Alternate fuels like LPG and CNG are beneficial in terms of operating cost and emissions as well. They also contribute to reduce CO2 emissions. These gas fuels are known for its problems in engines including wear of parts. Cylinder head valve - seat wear is higher in gas engines. This paper discusses the experimental work on reduction of valve -seat wear in 3 wheeler engine. In the development of new higher power version of the gas engine valve-seat interface wear is observed. Effect of this wear on performance, leak and emissions were studied, qualitative measurements of valve temperatures were studied at different conditions with different fuels. Combustion gas and part temperatures are higher in gas engines. Simulation test cycle is developed for the wear test and various solutions to reduce wear at the valve - seat interface were evaluated. Cost effective solution is implemented with minimum changes in engine.

Development of small air cooled motorcycles is ever challenging due to combination of customer expectation, regulatory requirements and cost factors. Achieving higher performance, emission standards means higher engine and parts operating temperature. Under these changes meeting durability targets at reasonable cost needs good understanding of material, surface treatment and tribological aspects. In this paper some of the surface and process improvements done to reduce wear in engine valves and interface systems is discussed in detail. Design of engine valves shall ensure meeting thermal, mechanical strength requirements, wear and durability targets. Surface treatments, coating, surface finish and also use of special materials in tip, valve stem, seat ensures higher durability; low wear in valve and interfacing parts. During new engine development process verification tests, wear observed in valve stem- guide, valve tip- screw interface.

This paper discusses various noise sources of cylinder head assembly and focuses on design options developed to reduce the cylinder head noise in a single cylinder, 110cc scooter engine. Various experimental procedures were used for identification and ranking of different noise sources. In case of air-cooled small engines, temperature effects are dominant and as a consequence certain noises stand out in hot condition causing severe noise discomfort. After identifying the reasons for abnormal cylinder head noise, countermeasure mechanisms for reducing unintended impacts of valve train/ rocker arm in the layout were developed. The side-effects due to introduction of these additional mechanisms are studied using performance metrics. It is essential to limit noise deterioration over time to increase customer satisfaction. Simulation cycles were developed to quantify the cylinder head noise deterioration using accelerated testing procedures.

In this work, a new mechanical cam phaser (MCP) system is developed. This MCP system is simple, reliable, and cost-effective, and also offers good control. Phasing of either intake, exhaust or both intake and exhaust cam can be achieved with this system. A prototype of the mechanical cam phaser has been tested on a motored rig to validate its dynamic characteristics. The system was tested onto a small two wheeler engine and this paper describes the newly developed MCP mechanism and its effects on the performance of a small two wheeler engine.

Small gasoline four stroke engines used in motorcycle applications run mostly at part load conditions. Here fuel economy and good drivability are the major requirements. In this work, a single cylinder, four stroke, 2 valve gasoline motorcycle engine in which part load performance needs to be improved was taken for investigation. Various factors affecting part load performance were investigated and it was found that high exhaust gas dilution was the cause of high cycle by cycle variations in this engine. Commercial software was used in order to predict exhaust gas dilution levels. Based on the simulation, a set of parameters that lead to low exhaust gas dilution were arrived at. These were implemented and tested on the engine and part load performance characteristics such as combustion stability, brake specific fuel consumption and torque output were found to be improved.

Setting the correct valve timing and lift based on the operating speed will be the key to achieving good volumetric efficiency and torque. Continuously variable valve timing systems are the best choice but are too expensive. In this work a novel two stage variable valve actuation system was conceived and developed for a small single cylinder three wheeler spark ignition engine. The constraints were space, cost and complexity. The developed system uses one cam for low speeds and another cam that has a higher lift and duration for high speeds. The shift between the cams occurs through the mechanism even as the engine runs by the operation of a stepper motor which can be connected to the engine controller. A one dimensional simulation model validated with experimental data was used to predict the suitable valve timings and lifts in low and high speed ranges. Two profiles were then selected.

For more than a decade there is a progressive demand for fuel efficient and high specific power output engines. Optimization of engine cooling and thermal management is one of the important activities in engine design and development. In the present paper an effort has been made to simulate the heat transfer modes of cylinder block and head for a present 4-stroke air-cooled motorcycle engine. Two and three-dimensional decoupled and conjugate heat transfer analysis has been done with commercially available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. Experimental results are also presented. A complete simulation model has been developed and CFD techniques have been applied to design and optimize air cooling surfaces of cylinder head and block, for an air cooled motorcycle engine. The two dimensional analysis is an easy and fast method to predict fin surface temperature, heat transfer co-efficient and flow velocity.

The cooling system is an important engine subsystem. The air cooling mechanism of the engine is mostly dependent on the fin design of the cylinder head and block. In the present paper an effort is made to study the effect of fin parameters on fin array heat transfer. Two and three dimensional conjugate heat transfer analyses have been performed using commercially available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. For a given heat flux, the fin profile and fin array parameters could be optimized in a better way by numerical simulation methods. CFD could be used to determine optimal values of the fin parameters, upstream of design process. Different trends of these parameters are observed and the values which give optimized fin surface from the thermal point of view at a given heat flux are determined.

A 1-D Thermodynamic analytical model is developed using commercially available code, to study the gas-exchange process in a 125cc, single cylinder 4-stroke engine. Model is validated against the experimental results by comparing the pressure traces inside the cylinder, intake and exhaust pipe. Detailed parametric study has been conducted using the analytical model to optimise the valve timing, elements of intake and exhaust manifold. Design of experiment (DOE) technique is used to find the effect of individual parameter and optimum combination is obtained for the desired performance level. The results from analytical predictions are in good agreement with the experimental results for the optimised combination.