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International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (3.17) (2018) 90-93
International Journal of Engineering & Technology
Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET
Research paper
Rapid Prototyping of a Customized Cooling System for a Novel
Crank Rocker Engine
Khurram Altaf
1
*, Masri Baharom
2
, A. Rashid A. Aziz
3
, Junaid A. Qayyum
4
and Mirza Jahanzaib
5
1, 2, 3,4
Center for Automotive Research and Electric Mobility (CAREM) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi
PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia
5
Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila, Pakistan
*Corresponding author Email: khurram.altaf@utp.edu.my
Abstract
A novel internal combustion engine termed as Crank Rocker Engine has been developed at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP)
Malaysia. In the existing design, the engine cylinder is cooled through forced convection which is not efficient and malfunctioning of
cooling system could lead to engine overheating. The objective of the current study is to develop a concept of an integrated and custom-
ized cooling system for the Crank-Rocker engine and to develop through rapid prototyping (RP). The proposed cooling system comprises
of an integrated cooling water jacket around the engine cylinder, which works on the principle of forced convection. The forced convec-
tion is energy intensive and not suitable for stationary engines. Therefore, an enhanced design of the cooling system is required to im-
prove the overall performance of the engine. Since the engine cylinder is curved, the conventional manufacturing technologies could be
difficult to apply for the development of cooling system. For swift, precise and economic development as well as performance analysis of
the cooling system, RP technique could be promising. In the present study, a customized and modified cooling system has been designed
and developed through fused deposition modelling (FDM), an efficient RP technology. Design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) is
applied to mitigate development time and support structures of the cooling system. The design is proposed by keeping in view the cool-
ing performance and manufacturability.
Keywords: Additive manufacturing; crank rocker engine; design for additive manufacturing; fused deposition modeling; rapid prototyping.
1. Introduction
A typical large capacity Internal Combustion (IC) gasoline engine
dissipates approximately 1200 kJ/s of heat while delivering opti-
mum performance. Even a small 10 horse-power engine dissipates
13 kJ/s of heat while running at full load. Therefore cooling of the
IC engines is an essential requirement. Forced convection could be
one of the options to cool smaller engines, however for prolong
running for larger IC engines, convection alone may not be suffi-
cient. Therefore, for reliable and smooth running of an IC engine,
a proper cooling mechanism is inevitable.
The idea and a fully functional prototype of the Crank Rocker
Engine (CRE) was developed in Center for Automotive Research
and Electric Mobility (CAREM), Universiti Teknologi
PETRONAS (UTP) Malaysia. The CRE is a gasoline-port injec-
tion, four-stroke, spark-ignition, and single-curved cylinder en-
gine. The novelty in the engine design is that it has curved cylin-
der due to which the swept volume has been increased while oc-
cupying the same space in the engine. This increases the power to
volume ratio of the engine, when compared to conventional engine
designs. Additionally, torque, power and thermal efficiency are
higher than conventional slider-crank engine. The indicated torque
and power are increased by about 6.28%, while the indicated spe-
cific fuel consumption is lower by 4.69% (Salah E. Mohammed et.
al. 2017).
Since CRE is a novel design of engine therefore, a customized
cooling system for this kind of engine is demanded. A conven-
tional cooling systems are tailored according to crank-slider en-
gines and therefore could not deliver best performance for CRE.
One approach to produce cooling system could be manufacturing
components independently through conventional machining fol-
lowed by assembly. Nevertheless, thus made prototype of the
cooling system could be pricy and time consuming. Therefore
additive manufacturing (AM) could potentially be a viable solu-
tion for the fabrication of such type of customized systems. Rapid
prototyping (RP) is an offshoot of AM which is responsible for
making prototypes by making use of AM technologies. RP is most
suitable for highly customized and tailored demands. Since cool-
ing system is customized and the design is based on true and accu-
rate parameters of the engine, therefore it is anticipated to be more
efficient. The integrated cooling system with cylinder block could
directly be manufactured through RP.
ASTM (F2792 − 12a) has defined Additive Manufacturing (AM)
as ‘‘a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model
data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufac-
turing methodologies”. AM has different synonyms, like freeform
fabrication, additive fabrication, additive processes, layer manu-
facturing etc (Wohlers Associates 2010). AM could substantially
reduce the time and cost of manufacturing for integrated cooling
system and cylinder block and the probability of integration, com-
patibility could be more effective. Properly cooled engine is be-
lieved to deliver superior output power and is less pollutant
(Zheng et al. 2008). Moreover, Carnot efficiency of the engine is
dependent on temperature difference of source and sink. Therefore