Showing posts with label Air-fuel ratio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Air-fuel ratio. Show all posts

Tuesday 19 November 2013

AIR-FUEL MIXTURE AND STOICHIOMETRIC RATIO

AIR-FUEL MIXTURE AND STOICHIOMETRIC RATIO

CHEMICAL COMBUSTION OF FUEL

Subhankar Karmakar
Assistant Professor; SGIT
Jindal Nagar; Ghaziabad

Chemical Combustion is basically a rapid oxidation process of hydro-carbon fuel inside thekjm combustion chamber in the presence of air. The oxidation of fuel is basically a Exothermic or heat liberating chemical process.

In SI engines generally we use volatile hydrocarbon as fuel. The intermixing of fuel with air takes place outside the engine and the device that prepares air-fuel mixture of required mixture strength is called CARBURETION and the device is known as CARBURETTOR.

Estimation of air quantity needed for complete combustion of a given fuel

We know that any chemical reaction can be represented by the corresponding chemical equation like
CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + 2H2O
here molecular weight of CH4
μCH4 = 12 + 4x1 = 16
μ2O2 = 2x16x2 = 64
μCO2 = 12 + 2x16 = 44
μ2H2O = 2x(2+16) = 36

For complete combustion of CH4
16 kg CH4 needs 64 kg Otherefore,
1 kg of CH4 needs (64/16) = 4 kg of O2
For 23 kg of O2 air needed is 100 kg
hence, for 4 kg of O2 air needed is (100/23)x4 = 17.39 kg of air.
Air-fuel ratio will be 17.39 : 1

The ratio of air fuel mixture, needed for the complete combustion of the fuel or the chemically correct ratio of air fuel mixture required for complete combustion of the fuel is called " Stoichiometric Air fuel mixture. "

If the amount of air in the air-fuel mixture is less than the chemically correct amount of air, then the mixture is called rich mixture, where as if the quantity of air is more than the chemically corrected amount of air it is called lean mixture.

The strength of air-fuel mixture has a profound influences on the process of combustion. The required mixture strength for different operation conditions are different.

Different Operating
Conditions
Required air-fuel
Mixture Strength
For Max. Efficiency17 : 1,
16.4% weak
For Max. Power 12 : 1
17.8% rich
For Starting, Idling,
& Low load running
11 : 1 ~ 16 : 1
very rich mixture
For accelerated motion 13 : 1 rich mixture
For Part Load running
Cruising Range
17 : 1
Lean Mixture Strength