Acquisition of an Aircraft Diesel Engine for Bio-Diesel Fuel & Emission Research

There are limited propulsion options available for General Aviation (GA) aircraft and Unpiloted Air Vehicles (UAVs). The majority of these aircraft are equipped with spark-ignition piston engines. Most of these certified engines use aviation leaded gasoline (Avgas) which is becoming difficult to supply. Another type of power plant which is extremely fuel efficient is diesel engines. But these engines have generally been heavier than gasoline engines, noisier, and the diesel engines have emission issues. Because of the above concerns, these engines have been the prime movers in ground vehicles and marine transportation only. Fortunately, a few aircraft diesel engine models have recently been certified; therefore, becoming popular in Europe and Canada where the aviation gas prices are much higher than in the U.S. Now with the shortage and high cost of aviation gasoline in the United States, these engines could be attractive to U.S. markets as well. For many years, the KU Aerospace Engineering Department has been involved in performance testing of aircraft engines. The purpose of this proposal is to acquire a Thielert Centurion 1.7 Aircraft Diesel Engine. The engine would allow us to conduct detailed performance and emissions testing of biodiesel fuels developed by our team members and compare the results with standard diesel fuels. The research capabilities developed by acquiring this type of engine will provide us with a unique infrastructure for testing, evaluation, and trade study of alternative biodiesel fuels developed by the team. The benchmark data acquired will provide the required information for further development and certification of biodiesel fuels for aircraft engines. The diesel engine will also be used for educational purposes in the laboratory of our aircraft propulsion course.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Sponsor Organizations:

  University of Kansas, Lawrence

  Transportation Research Institute
  2117 Learned Hall, 1530 W 15th Street
  Lawrence, KS  United States  66045
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Kansas, Lawrence

  Transportation Research Institute
  2117 Learned Hall, 1530 W 15th Street
  Lawrence, KS  United States  66045
• Principal Investigators:

  Stagg-Williams, Susan

  Wang, Donghai

  Taghavi, Ray

• Start Date: 20071000
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 16731

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aircraft; Aircraft exhaust gases; Aircraft fuels; Aviation; Biodiesel fuels; Diesel engine exhaust gases; Diesel engines; Drones; Genetic algorithms; Pollutants; Research projects
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Research; Vehicles and Equipment; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01460032
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University of Kansas, Lawrence
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jan 3 2013 1:17PM