Measurement and Analysis of lubricant oil consumption in a single cylinder hydrogen IC engine

Abstract

Understanding, predicting, and reducing lubricant oil consumption (LOC) in IC engines has been the focus of this lab for decades. Lubricant oil consumed in internal combustion engines is a significant contributor to harmful gas and particulate emissions directly threatening the environment and human health. This work focuses on the development and analysis of a direct LOC measurement method of a hydrogen combustion single cylinder test engine. This method utilizes an FTIR device to measure carbon dioxide in the exhaust gas. Since hydrogen is not a carbon-based fuel, its combustion reaction does not yield carbon dioxide. The only source of carbon in the system is the lubricating oil. Using this understanding, the carbon dioxide concentration in the exhaust is converted to oil consumption.

This measurement method was used to study the effect of liner surface roughness, oil control ring design, and piston clearance on oil consumption. The liner finish was found to have large impact on LOC, particularly for the ring pack with Three-Piece oil control ring (TPOCR). Very rough liner drastically increases LOC with a TPOCR. One implication is that liner finish may need to be changed when adapting HD diesel engines to natural gas or hydrogen by using a TPOCR.

For a Twin-Land Oil Control Ring based ring pack, slots/holes on the vertical wall of the ring was found to be effective in controlling LOC when the liner roughness is high.

The main contribution of this work is developing a reliable and accurate method for measuring LOC in a hydrogen combustion engine. The data collected from this system will contribute to the development of a digital twin model with the capability of predicting LOC in any engine.