The role of accumulator in reducing the energy consumption of gasoline engine

The second rate of energy consumption is dominated by the automotive. It is reported that the energy usable at the output shaft constitutes only 25% of the thermal energy input to the engine. About 14% of the energy losses may be recovered by applying a special technique. The non-stationary flow phenomenon in the manifold causes a large amount of fuel moving as a liquid film on the manifold walls. This is a prime source of uneven fuel distribution between cylinder resulting in increased pollutant emission, fuel consumption, and power loss. The charge efficiency may be altered by using an accumulator. However, the discussions with respect to the use of accumulator in conventional engines are not sufficient. Therefore, the present paper provides some data regarding the effect of accumulator on the acceleration, power, and fuel consumption. The test facility is a one-liter, four cylinders Suzuki engine. The engine is equipped by an accumulator, which is placed just at the downstream of the carburetor. There are two types of accumulator used in the present study. One has 250 ml volume, which corresponds to the volume of one cylinder, and the other one is 1000 ml accumulator, which corresponds to the total volume of the cylinders. The data are collected from road test-drive. The results show that the accumulator increases the acceleration and the power, and reduces the fuel consumption. The larger the volume of the accumulator the higher the acceleration and the power of the engine. The lowest fuel consumption of the engine is reached when the 250 ml accumulator is used. The 250 ml accumulator reduces the fuel consumption at all engine operation conditions. The 1000 ml accumulator, however, increases the fuel consumption at high traveling speed.