Assessing combustion characteristics of alternative fuels in a CI engine by use of a wavelet-based analysis of engine vibration signals

In the current work, a wavelet-based approach for assessing combustion performance of alternative fuels in compression-ignition engines, indicated that changes in cylinder pressure amplitude were reflected by commensurate changes in a proposed parameter, with a maximum of a 9% variation. The proposed parameter, the wavelet transform coefficient maximum amplitude (WMA), successfully accomplished this for various engine conditions. The wavelet transform coefficient standard deviation (WSD), a second proposed parameter, was able to track changes in the rates of pressure rise associated with changes in load conditions and fuel type, with a maximum variation in the parameter of 7%. The approach was assessed by testing six fuels in a test engine unit. Thermodynamic property data and vibration signal data were recorded for each of the fuels tested, at six loading conditions. Subsequently, combustion performance was evaluated using traditional thermodynamic parameters and using the WMA and WSD via a MATLAB based algorithm. Thus, it was surmised that the proposed approach can form the basis for a vibration-based assessment of alternative fuel combustion performance in reciprocating engines.