The effect of inlet temperature and spark timing on thermo-mechanical, chemical and the total exergy of an SI engine using bioethanol-gasoline blends

Exergy is a quantity of the work potential of energy from a given thermodynamic condition. Unlike energy, exergy can be destroyed, and for gasoline engines, the major source of this destruction is during the combustion process. Therefore, to assess the quality of gasoline engines, the research team examined the effect of inlet temperature and spark timing on chemical, thermo-mechanical and total exergy of fuel using E0, E20, E40, E60 and E85 fuels. Results showed that by advancing the spark timing (20° bTDC), thermo-mechanical exergy has increased but chemical exergy and total exergy have decreased. In addition, advance or delay in spark timing had no effect on the fuel chemical exergy for the compression and expansion strokes. The effect of temperature on exergy parameters indicated that by reducing inlet temperature (320 K), exergy parameters increased. In other words, the fuel chemical exergy at 320 K for E0, E20, E40, E60 and E85 fuels, increased by 7%, 7.1%, 7.2%, 7.2%, 7.3%, respectively, than 350 K and increased by 14%, 14.3%, 14.4%, 14.4% and 14.5% than 380 K.