A Three-Dimensional FEA Model of a Catalytic Plug for Alternative Fuels

Paper ID: EIJTEM_2018_5_1_1-4

Author's Name: V. Karthikeyan, K. Yuvaraj and P. Gobinath

Volume: 5

Issue: 1

Year: 2018

Page No: 1-4

Abstract:

Aquanol which is a blend of 70% ethanol and 30% water is used as fuel in our testing. This fuel reduces the NOx emissions from the engine. Existing spark plugs cannot produce spark intensity high enough to ignite the aquanol fuel. The plug’s core is an alumina rod over which platinum wire of 0.45mm diameter is wound. When electrical connection is provided to the wire, it turns red hot reaching a temperature of around 850o Celsius. When the aquanol and air mixture comes in contact with the red hot wire, the fuel mixture gets ignited. Also the catalytic core material dimensions were optimized by using ANSYS COUPLED-FIELD analysis and the Catalytic Plug has fabricated according to the results obtained. The Catalytic Plug was tested by varying the variables like input power, wire diameter and fluid velocity, the corresponding temperature distribution was obtained. Thus, this catalytic plug can be boon to the future of alternate fuels.

Keywords: Aquanol, Alternate Fuel, Coupled-Field, Catalytic Plug.

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