Global Journal of Researches in Engineering Vol. 10 Issue 2 (Ver 1.0) June 2010 Page | 11 GJRE Classification (FOR) A,B 090201, 091302, 091305 Performance of a Thermally Insulated Constant Speed Diesel Engine with Dioxane Blended Fuels C. Sundar Raj 1 S. Sendilvelan 2 S. Arul 3 Abstract- Dioxane (1,4 Dioxane) An Ether Derived From Alcohol Has Favorable Properties As An Alternative Or Blend Stock For Diesel Fuels. This Work Presents The Comparative Analysis Of Performance, Emission And Combustion Characteristics Of A Single Cylinder Direct Injection Diesel Engine Fuelled With Various Mixtures Of Dioxane And Conventional Diesel Fuel With And Without Thermal Barrier Coating. Results Show Addition Of Dioxane With Diesel Has The Potential To Reduce Smoke Density With Slight Increase In Nox And Drop In Fuel Economy For A Normal Engine While, Increase In Efficiency, Increase In Cylinder Pressure, Reduction In Nox And Reduction In Maximum Heat Release Rate Were Observed When The Engine Components Were Replaced With Zirconia-Alumina Plasma Spray Coated Components. I. INTRODUCTION ue to the shortage of petroleum product and its increasing cost, efforts are on to develop alternative fuels especially to diesel oil for full or partial replacement. The most promising substitutes for petroleum fuels are the alcohols but are not suitable for compression ignition (CI) engines because of its low cetane number and non miscibility. The addition of oxygen containing compounds to diesel fuel has been proposed as a method to complete the oxidation of carbonaceous particulate matter and associated hydrocarbons. In addition, many oxygenates have high cetane number and their association with diesel results in high cetane number and hence lower exhaust emissions. Due to this advantages, there is growing interest in the introduction of oxygenates into diesel fuel. Di methyl ether (DME) was considered as an ignition- improving additive to methanol powered diesel engines [1]. However, DME is a gaseous fuel and therefore requires that a vehicle be adopted for gaseous operation [2]. In addition, the fuel delivery infrastructure is not currently suitable to distribute large quantities of a gaseous fuel. For these reasons, there is interest in new liquid compression ignition fuels or fuel additives, which have high cetane rating and reduce particulate emissions and at the same time they are compatible with current vehicle technology and fuel delivery infrastructure. Some oxygenated compounds like ethers or methyl carbonates have been tested as additives to improve the performance of diesel fuels [3]. Particularly Author 1_ Imayam College of Engineering, Thuraiyur, India Dr.MGR Educational and Research Institute, Chennai, India ( Email-csundarraj@yahoo.com) Author 2_ Aksheya College of Engineering, Maduranthagam, India Author 3_ Panimalar College of Engineering, Chennai, India 1,2-diemthoxyethane, 1,2- dimethoxypropane, butyl ether, 2-methoxyethyl ether, 2- ethoxyethyl ether, pentyl ether and dibutoxymethane [4,5]. Bailey et al. [6] suggest DEE as a potential replacement fuel for CI Engines. The molecular weights of DEE are low; the molecules have high hydrogen to carbon ratios and a low number of carbon-to-carbon bonds. All these properties lower the tendency of forming solid carbon particulate during combustion. The molecules contain oxygen, which also suppress the formation of soot. The molecular bonds break up to radicals at reasonable activation energy, which leads to high cetane numbers. P. Mohanan et al.,[7] studied the effect of DEE on the performance and emissions of a four-stroke direct injection diesel engine and found that 5% DEE can be blended with diesel fuel to improve the performance and to reduce emissions of the diesel engine even though experiments were carried out successfully up to 25% DEE blend. Gong Yanfeng et al.,[8] proved 15% of 2-methoxyethyl acetate (MEA) can be used to decrease exhaust smoke as a new oxygenated additive of diesel with marginal increase in efficiency. Zhenkun Lin et al., [9] studied combustion intermediates of a cyclic oxygenated hydrocarbon, 1,4-dioxane at low pressure with an equivalence ratio of 1.80 and found no aromatic intermediates, that was a prominent difference between the fuel-rich flames of 1,4-dioxane and previously studied non cyclic oxygenated hydrocarbons. C. Sundar Raj et al [10] formed a stable ethanol-diesel blended fuel with the help of 1, 4 dioxane additive, and analyzed the performance, emissions and combustion data for an evaluation of different oxygen content based on ethanol content on a single cylinder DI diesel engine and concluded that 10% addition of 1,4 dioxane by virtue of its properties is capable to stabilize 30% ethanol addition with 60% diesel by volume, and can be used as a blended fuel with diesel in a compression ignition engine with significant reduction in exhaust emissions as compared to neat diesel without any engine modifications. Approximately one third of the heat released by the combustion of the fuel in a diesel engine is dissipated to the cooling medium. If this can be reduced by thermally insulating the piston crown, cylinder head then the gases in the cylinder will lose less heat and hence, there will be a possibility for extracting more work. The state of art of Thermal barrier coating (TBC) provides the potential for higher thermal efficiencies of the engine. The objective is not only to reduce cylinder heat rejection and thermal fatigue protection of underlying metallic surfaces, but also D