Date of Award

6-2009

Document Type

Union College Only

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Brad Bruno

Language

English

Keywords

hydrogen, fuel, combustion, tracer, internal

Abstract

Currently, optimization is where the research and development of hydrogen internal combustion engines has reached a barrier. In order to optimize hydrogen internal combustion engines it is necessary to be able to monitor the actual combustion behavior of the fuel inside the engine cylinder. One means of interrogating a combusting hydrogen flow is to add a “tracer” to the hydrogen fuel, which can be visualized by means of well-established laser diagnostic techniques. The on-going purpose of this project is to precisely determine the maximum allowable amount of tracer that can be added to hydrogen fuel so that the combustion properties of hydrogen fuel with the added tracer are essentially indistinguishable from those of hydrogen fuel without additives. The establishment of an optimal percentage of tracer to fuel will allow for the employment of planar laser induced fluorescence visualization in hydrogen internal combustion engine research and experimentation. Strides towards accomplishing the overarching goal of determining optimal percentage of fuel tracer have been made in the installation of an integrated plenum and air flow meter system to be utilized in determining the air consumption behavior of the hydrogen internal combustion engine. Additional progress has been made in resolving problematic aspects of the experimental setup, including the spark ignition system and intake manifold pressure measurement system.

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