International Journal of Engineering Science Invention Research & Development; Vol. II Issue XII, June 2016 www.ijesird.

com
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DESIGN, ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF

SIX CYLINDERS COMPRESSED AIR RADIAL
ENGINE
Madhukumar K1, Nataraj M2, Sampathkumar L3, Kumaraswamy R4, Karthik M5
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Visvesvaraya Technical University,
Karnataka,India
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract - This paper explains the design and analysis of six either linear or rotary motion. According to a
cylinders radial engine which runs only on high pressure
compressed air, which makes it a zero pollution engine. In this proponent, compressed air has a great deal of
engine, the pressure energy of compressed air is utilized for the potential as a clean, inexpensive, and infinitely
reciprocating movement of the piston inside the cylinder renewable energy source. Its use is currently being
arrangement thereby producing mechanical work. This design
consists of six cylinders to provide the required balance for the explored as an alternative to fossil fuels.
engine and to increase the overall efficiency. Two cylinders form A widespread application of pneumatic
one pair with pistons set in 180 degree opposite phases to each motors is in hand-held tools, impact wrenches,
other. When compressed air is fed to the cylinder, piston inside
the cylinder starts moving from TDC to BDC due to pressure pulse tools, screwdrivers, nut runners, drills,
energy of the compressed air. As the piston reaches the BDC, grinders, sanders and so on. Most successful early
exhaust port gets opened and expanded air escapes through it. forms of self-propelled torpedoes used high
This action is continuously repeated in all the six cylinders,
thereby producing power in continuous phase. pressure compressed air, although this was
Six cylinders compressed air engine is designed keeping superseded by internal or external combustion
crankcase as standard using CATIA V5. Stress analysis is engines, steam engines, or electric motors.
performed to obtain the variation of the stress magnitude at
critical locations of various parts like Piston, Crankcase and Compressed air engines were used in trams and
Connecting rod by Finite Element Method using ANSYS shunters, and eventually found a successful niche in
WORKBENCH 14.0. Based on the result obtained by analysis, mining locomotives, although in the end they were
dimensions of the parts are optimized.
replaced by electric trains. Transport category
Keywords: Compressed air engine, modeling, Finite element airplanes, such as commercial airliners, use
analysis. compressed air starters to start the main engines.
The air is supplied by the load compressor of the
1. INTRODUCTION aircraft's auxiliary power unit, or by ground
equipment. Compressed-air propulsion may also be
There is an urgent need for mobility
incorporated in hybrid systems, like battery electric
technologies and infrastructures that are based on a
propulsion. This kind of system is called hybrid-
technology other than oil and that have acceptable
pneumatic electric propulsion.
costs [5]. Even though fossil fuels meet the most of
Additionally, regenerative braking can also be used
the worlds energy demand, they are getting depleted
in conjunction with this system.
rapidly. Also combustion products cause global
Compressed air engines offer greater power
warming which pose a great danger to the
density (a smaller pneumatic motor can provide the
environment [4]. One of the possible alternatives is
same amount of power as a larger electric motor),
compressed air engine.
do not require an auxiliary speed controller (adding
A compressed air engine or
to its compactness), generate less heat, and can be
pneumatic motor is a type of motor which
used in more volatile atmospheres as they do not
does mechanical work by expanding compressed
require electric power and do not create sparks.
air. Pneumatic motors generally convert the
Also, they can be loaded to stop with full torque
compressed air energy to mechanical work through
Madhukumar K, Nataraj M, Sampathkumar L, Kumaraswamy R and Karthik M ijesird , Vol. II Issue XII June 2016/771
International Journal of Engineering Science Invention Research & Development; Vol. II Issue XII, June 2016 www.ijesird.com
e-ISSN: 2349-6185

without damages. The engine runs on cold or warm protect the compressor machinery, the air
air, hence it can be made of lower strength light discharged has less suspended dust in it, though
weight materials such as aluminum, plastic, low there may be carry-over of lubricants used in the
friction Teflon (structural steel is also an option, engine.
based on requirement). Much like electrical
vehicles, air powered vehicles would ultimately be II. LITERATURE REVIEW
powered through the electrical grid, Which makes it
easier to focus on reducing pollution from one Literature review includes various aspects of
source, as opposed to the millions of vehicles on the compressed air engine, Finite element analysis,
road. Transportation of the fuel would not be design of engines, etc.
required due to drawing power off the electrical The pneumatic motor was first applied to
grid. This presents significant cost benefits. the field of transportation in the mid-19th century.
Pollution created during fuel transportation would Though little is known about the first recorded
be eliminated. The engine can be massively reduced compressed-air vehicle, it is said that the
in size also low manufacture and maintenance costs Frenchmen Andraud and Tessie of Motay ran a car
as well as easy maintenance. Compressed-air powered by a pneumatic motor on a test track in
technology reduces the cost of vehicle production Chaillot, France, on July 9, 1840. Although the car
by about 20%, because there is no need to build test was reported to have been successful, but the
a cooling system, fuel tank, Ignition Systems or idea was not pursued further.
silencers. The price of filling air powered vehicles The first successful application of the
is significantly cheaper than petrol, diesel or pneumatic motor in transportation was the Mekarski
biofuel. If electricity is cheap, then compressing air system air engine used in locomotives. Mekarski’s
will also be relatively cheap. innovative engine overcame cooling that
The laws of physics dictate that uncontained accompanies air expansion by heating air in a small
gases will fill any given space. The easiest way to boiler prior to use. The Tramway de Nantes, located
see this in action is to inflate a balloon. The elastic in Nantes, France, was noted for being the first to
skin of the balloon holds the air tightly inside, but use Mekarski engines to power their fleet of
the moment you use a pin to create a hole in the locomotives. The tramcar was also shown at the
balloon's surface, the air expands outward and due exhibition of 1878 as it seemed to be an ideal
to high energy balloon explodes. Compressing a gas transport method, quiet, smooth, without smoke,
into a small space is a way to store energy. When fire or the possibility of boiler explosion. The
the gas expands again, that energy is released to do tramway began operation on December 13, 1879,
work. This is the main principle behind the working and continues to operate today, although the
of compressed air engine. pneumatic trams were replaced in 1917 by more
Laws of physics explain that pressure, efficient and modern electrical trams.
volume and temperature are proportional; change American Charles Hodges also found success with
one variable and one or two of the others will also pneumatic motors in the locomotive industry. In
change, according to this equation: (P1 V1) / T1 = 1911 he designed a pneumatic locomotive and sold
(P2 V2)/T2, compressed air is normally used in the patent to the H. K. Porter Company in
pressure ranges from 1 bar to 300 bar (14 to 6004 Pittsburgh for use in coal mines. Because pneumatic
PSI) at various flow rates from as little as 0.1 m motors do not use combustion they were a much
(3.5 CFM - cubic feet per minute) and up. safer option in the coal industry.
Compressor tanks may be refilled at a Compressed air locomotives were used for
service station equipped with heat exchangers, or in haulage in 1874 while the Simplon tunnel was
a few hours at home or in parking lots, plugging the being dug. An advantage was that the cold exhaust
car into the electrical grid via an on-board air aided the ventilation of the tunnel.
compressor. Since the compressed air is filtered to

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e-ISSN: 2349-6185

Use of compressed air in industry and in Based on the literature review it is understood
service sectors is common as its production and that there is a significant improvement in design
handling are safe and easy. In most industrial and fabrication of compressed air engines. Many
facilities, compressed air is necessary to researchers have done research on two, three and
manufacturing. Compressed-air generation is four cylinder engines. Here in this work an attempt
energy intensive, and for most industrial operations, is made to design and analyze the six cylinder
energy cost fraction of compressed air is significant compressed air radial engine.
compared with overall energy costs. Yet, there is a
vacuum of reliable information on the energy III. OBJECTIVES
efficiency of a typical compressed-air system[1]. Following are the objectives of the work
Mohammad Masood, [2] has worked on A 1. Modeling of compressed air engine based on
New IC engine that can work on compressed air. literature review.
This evolutionary engine is the first of its kind in 2. Identifying major load taking components in
India and second of this kind in the world. However engine for the analysis.
some of the modifications are very unique, which 3. Finite element analysis of the major parts of
makes it a very unique engine. Extensive research is the engine.
in progress to eliminate all the problems of design. 4. Study of result to decide the safety of
Since this engine runs only on high pressure engine.
compressed air, the exhaust of which is 5. Optimization of dimensions of the engine
undoubtedly only air, making it a zero pollution parts based on analysis.
engine. Experimental analysis were carried out on
IV. MODELING OF ENGINE
this modified engine to find out its performance
characteristics like brake power, mechanical This phase involves the modeling of various
efficiency, overall efficiency, air to air ratio, cost parts of the engine and assembling them to form
analysis etc. the proposed compressed air engine. For this
Anirudh Addala and Srinivasu Gangada, [3] purpose CATIA V5 is selected, which is
have done research on Fabrication and Testing of modeling software being used for designing
Compressed Air Car. various mechanical models. Initially the
This research aims to examine the crankcase of the engine is modeled then remaining
performance of a car which takes air as the working parts are modeled with respect to the crankcase,
medium. Air car is a car currently being developed keeping it as a standard reference with the help of
which is still in the R&D stage all over the world. modeling software.
The basic principle involved in this concept is that Components made individually are assembled
compressed air is capable enough to provide into one part. Care has been taken to keep the
sufficient thrust which in turn can propel the car. computer model dimensionally in accordance with
D.Ravi, [4] has done research on Fabrication the real world model. The assembled engine
of Compressed Air Engine. For the fabrication of with all the parts in the model is shown below
compressed air engine, emphasis is given to the in figure 1. The design is validated by performing
usages of rapidly available parts as maximum as stress analysis on the models using ANSYS
possible to avoid complexity of the works as well as Workbench 14.
to reduce cost. The engine consists of two cylinders
with opposed pistons. The selection of opposed
piston arrangement was done for the balancing
purpose. The valve timing mechanism was provided
by two solenoid valves which were assisted by
contact point beaker mechanism.

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Table 2 – Aluminum material properties

Material Properties
Density -2700 kg m-3
Shear modulus, 79.3 Gpa
Aluminum Modulus of elasticity, E = 68.9 Gpa
Coefficient of Thermal Expansion- 24 x 10-6/°C
Tensile Ultimate Strength – 310 Mpa
Tensile Yield Strength – 241 Mpa

3. GEOMETRY (BUILD THE MODEL)

Figure 1: Assembled 3-D Model of Compressed Air Radial Engine

V. STRESS ANALYSIS CATIA V5 is used to build 3-D model of engine.

Finite element analysis is done on the designed 4. MESHING OF MODEL
components of the compressed air engine. The The whole solid model is discretized into
components modeled in CATIA V5 (Computer small elements depending upon the requirement of
Aided Three Dimensional Interactive Application) the accuracy of results the fineness of meshing
software are imported to ANSYS workbench 14.0 varies. Finer is the meshing, much closer to the
to perform stress analysis. accurate results.
Meshing Details, Boundary condition and
modeling of engine assembly are mainly focused. 5. BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
Steps of Finite Element analysis of compressed air Following boundary conditions are applied
engine are; on various parts.
a) Force
1. DEFINING ELEMENT TYPES
b) Fixed Support
The element library of analysis software
contains more than 100 different element types. c) Cylindrical Support
Each element type has a unique number that defines
6. LOADING
the element category. Element type SOLID 186 is
The load is applied at appropriate surfaces
preferred to analyze 3D model of engine parts
of various parts depending on real time conditions.
because it is most suitable for the 3D parts to obtain
accurate results. Total numbers of elements V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
obtained are 867610.
Analysis of piston, crankcase and
2. DEFINING THE MATERIAL PROPERTIES connecting rod for stress and deformation by using
Structural Steel and Aluminum are selected Ansys has been done and results obtained are
as materials for 3D solid model of engine assembly discussed below. Analysis is done for only the parts
parts. The values of properties corresponding to mentioned above as they are the most important
Structural steel and Aluminum materials like components of the engine and most of the engine’s
Young’s Modulus, Density and Yield Strength, etc. load is taken up by these components. The red and
These properties are shown in table 1 and 2. yellow portion shows the maximum deformation.
Table 1 – Structural steel material properties
Material Properties 1. ANALYSIS OF PISTON
Density -7850 kg m-3 The piston is constrained in X and Y
Modulus of elasticity, E = 210,000 N/mm² direction but free in Z direction. A pressure of
Shear modulus, 81,000 N/mm² 2Mpa is applied on the piston head.
Structural Steel Coefficient of thermal expansion, α = 12 x 10-
6
/°C (in the ambient temperature range)
Tensile Ultimate Strength – 460 Mpa
Tensile Yield Strength – 250 Mpa

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Figure 2(c): Total Deformation of the Piston

Figure 2 (a): Stress Distribution in the Piston From the Fig 2(c), the maximum
deformation occurs at the top and bottom part of the
From the Fig 2(a), the maximum stress piston and it is 0.0021877mm and minimum
occurs at the hole provided for gudgeon pin in the deformation occurs at the hole provided for
piston and it is 17.04 Mpa and minimum stress gudgeon pin.
occurs at outer surface of the piston and it is
0.26527Mpa. 2. ANALYSIS OF CRANKCASE
The crankcase is fixed in all the directions and a
force of 2 Mpa is applied on all the six sides of the
case.

Figure 2(b): Strain Distribution in the Piston

From the Fig 2(b), the maximum strain occurs

at the hole provided for gudgeon pin in the piston Figure 3 (a): Stress Distribution in the Crankcase
and it is 0.00017949mm and minimum strain occurs
at outer surface of the piston and it is 4.9654-6 mm. From the Fig 3(a), the maximum stress occurs
at the hole provided for screws to support the
crankcase and it is 14.2576686 Mpa and minimum

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stress occurs at the fixed side of the crankcase, it is and minimum stress occurs at fixed side of the
0.038238324 Mpa. crankcase is 0.0004375 mm.

3. ANALYSIS OF CONNECTING ROD

One end of the connecting rod is fixed and a
force of 2Mpa is applied on the other end.

Figure 3 (b): Strain distribution in the Crankcase

From the Fig 3(b), the maximum strain occurs Figure 4 (a): Stress Distribution in the Connecting Rod
at the hole provided for screws to support the
crankcase is 0.00025473 mm in and minimum From the Fig 4 (a), the maximum stress occurs
strain occurs at the fixed side of the crankcase, it at the piston end of the connecting rod is 66.683
0.0118424351 Mpa. Mpa and minimum stress occurs at the crank end of
the connecting rod is 1.162Mpa

Figure 3 (c): Total Deformation of the Crankcase

Figure 4 (b): Strain distribution in the Connecting rod

From the Fig 3 (c), the maximum
deformation occurs at the areas connecting the
holes which support the cylinder is 0.003938 mm

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From the Fig 4 (b) the maximum Von-mises analysis (design obtained after optimizing the
strain occurs at the piston end of the connecting rod dimensions for the compactness). Also engine can
is 0.00033567mm and minimum Von-mises strain be fabricated for the further testing to check engine
occurs at the crank end of the connecting rod is capabilities.
1.2112 X 10-5 mm. With the present situation of alarming
From the Fig 4 (c), the maximum pollution and depletion of fossil fuel, the concept of
displacement occurs in the connecting rod is compressed air engine has taken a vital position in
0.016108 mm. It is clear that the load imparts a the Research and Development field. Various
compressive stress to Connecting Rod and causes improvements in this regard are proving that in near
bending. future, the world will witness a much cleaner
environment by the practical implementation of
such air engine. Thus the potential of air can be
utilized as an alternating fuel for the automobiles.
However excessive research is needed to
completely prove the technology for both its
commercial and technical viability.

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e-ISSN: 2349-6185

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