The Effect of Water Injection on the Fuel Consumption of a Gasoline Engine

The object of this thesis was to determine the effect of water injection upon the fuel consumption of a gasoline engine. Before beginning the tests it was necessary to design and construct a new reducing motion for the indicator, the old one having proven unsatisfactory. This new reducing motion, drawings of which may be found in the appendix, consists of an eccentric mounted on the main shaft, connecting rod, crosshead guides, etc. Care was taken in the design of this motion to keep the ratio of the throw to the length of the connecting rod the same as that of the engine itself, this being necessary in order to obtain an accurate reproduction of the mot ion of the piston. Duplicate tests were made at loads ranging from zero to full load of the engine and a comparison of the results obtained will be found in the balance of this thesis. Difficulties encountered in the construction and attachment of the reducing motion and the limited time available for this thesis made it impossible to secure enough data from which to draw positive conclusions. However, the results obtained are sufficient to indicate what may be expected, from the use of water injection devices.