Single-cylinder diesel engines are generally not turbocharged because of highly pulsating exhaust gas flow, resulting in increased speed fluctuations and reduced turbine performance. In the present work, a novel and simple method is proposed wherein an exhaust plenum is placed before the turbine to reduce the flow fluctuations. A production light-duty naturally aspirated (NA) diesel engine modified into the turbocharged version was incorporated with an exhaust plenum. Steady-state experiments were performed with the base naturally aspirated engine, the turbocharged version without an exhaust plenum (conventional pulse turbocharging), and the turbocharged version with the exhaust plenum. The present work attempts to establish the limitations of conventional pulse turbocharging in a single-cylinder diesel engine unavailable in the existing literature. Though the conventional pulse turbocharged version could deliver a boost pressure of about 2 bar (absolute), a brake power reduction of 40% and the associated drop in brake mean effective pressure was observed compared to the base NA engine due to high exhaust back pressures. The pumping work was four times higher in conventional pulse turbocharging than the NA engine, thus reducing the performance. After validating the simulation models, a one-dimensional simulation tool was used to evaluate the effect of incorporating exhaust plenum before the turbine. Simulated results predicted the brake power output within a 3% error for the NA and plenum turbocharging configurations. An optimal plenum volume was arrived at using the validated simulation model. Subsequent experiments on the turbocharged engine with the plenum in place showed a significant improvement in the engine performance and reduced exhaust emissions compared to the NA version. Brake power output was enhanced by 25%, which indicated improved thermal efficiency of 2%. Compared to the NA version, the soot, carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbon HC emissions were reduced by 93%, 88%, and 53%, respectively. However, an increase in oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions was seen, which can be controlled with suitable mitigation methods taking advantage of the significantly lower soot levels. Thus, the proposed method of placing an exhaust plenum before the turbine makes turbocharging viable on single-cylinder diesel engines with performance improvement and emission reduction when suitable NOx mitigation measures are adopted.
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