ELECTRO MECHANICAL ASSOCIATES INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Diesel engines are widely used in military and commercial vehicles, as well as some light

Description

Diesel engines are widely used in military and commercial vehicles, as well as some light duty vehicles. The compression ratio is a compromise between power, economy, and cold startability. The optimum ratio for economy is below 15:1, whereas the necessary compression ratio for cold starting ranges from 16 to 22:1 depending on the specific engine design. This is too high for best economy and optimum boost. The proposal objective is to demonstrate a combination of simple mechanisms designed for the Caterpillar C-12 to improve fuel economy particularly during idle as well as improve engine power output. The technology will include varying the compression ratio between high (for cold starting) and low (for warmed-up running). Minimal or no engine block modifications are anticipated. The work proposed is to demonstrate hardware viability in a bench test rig as well as estimate/model fuel economy and power improvement from the proposed technology. For the SBIR OPTION, a system will be installed on one cylinder of a multi-cylinder engine and motoring tests run to demonstrate effectiveness.