Effects of Temperature on the Performance of a Small Internal Combustion Engine at Altitude

Abstract

The effects of atmospheric pressure and temperature variations on the performance of small internal combustion (IC) engines operating at altitudes significantly above sea level are not widely documented. Using an altitude chamber and fuel-injected twostroke engine, data were collected while varying air temperature along with pressure. The peak engine power was 4.1 kW at roughly sea level standard conditions and dropped to 3.5 kW at the standard conditions for an altitude of 1.5 km. At a combination of pressure and temperature corresponding to an altitude of 3 km, peak power fell further to 2.5 kW. The combined effects of standard atmospheric conditions showed pressure dominated temperature and resulted in around a 3.5% loss of power and brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) along with a 3% increase in brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) per 300 m increase in altitude.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 21, 2013
Accession Number
ADA576150

Entities

People

  • Travis D. Husaboe

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Burning Rate
  • Carburetors
  • Combustion
  • Combustion Chambers
  • Combustion Products
  • Fuel Efficiency
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transfer
  • Ignition
  • Ignition Lag
  • Internal Combustion Engines
  • Otto Cycles
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Test Facilities
  • Thermodynamics

Readers

  • Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Technology.
  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Petroleum Engineering