Cyclic combustion studies of a CI engine operating on jatropha B20 fuel

The effect of injector opening pressure and injection timing on cyclic variations in combustion parameters of a CI engine fuelled with methyl esters of jatropha oil blended with petroleum diesel for 20% volume ratio(B20) at full load, are reported in this paper. The experiments were carried out at three injection timings of 20°bTDC, 23°bTDC, 26°bTDC and four IOP's of 180, 200, 220 & 240 bar. It was observed that advancing the injection timing and increasing the IOP up to 220 bar resulted in lower cyclic variations in peak pressure and IMEP, but at the cost of higher rate of pressure rise.