EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS ON THE PERFORMANCE AND EMISSOIN CHARACTERISTICS OF A MULLITE COATED DI DIESEL ENGINE

Mullite (3Al 2O3-2SiO 2) ceramic powder has been used as a thermal barrier coating material to study its effect on the performance and exhaust emissions of a single cylinder diesel engine operated using diesel fuel. Mullite thermal barrier coatings have been proved to be an efficient thermal barrier coating material besides the conventional YSZ TBCs with lower thermal conductivity, high sintering resistance, low oxygen permeability. The study has shown that the performance of the engine is improved significantly on the account of brake thermal efficiency and specific fuel consumption. Emissions, on the other hand are also found to be reduced considerably, especially the smoke opacity which is significantly low at all Low Heat Rejection (LHR) operations.