Injection Characteristics that Improve Performance of Ceramic Coated Diesel Engines

Thin thermal barrier ceramic coatings were applied to a standard production direct injection diesel engine. The resultant fuel economy when compared to the standard metallic engine at full load and speed (2600) was 6% better and 3.5% better at 1600 RPM. Most coated diesel engines todate have not shown significant fuel economy one way or the other. Why are the results more positive in this particular case? The reasons were late injection timing, high injection pressure with high injection rates to provide superior heat release rates with resultant lower fuel consumption. The recent introduction of the high injection pressure fuel injection system makes it possible to have these desirable heat release rates at the premixed combustion period. Of course the same injection characteristics were applied to the standard and the thin thermal barrier coating case. The thin thermal barrier coated engine displayed superior heat release rate. In comparison with other experiments by other investigators, the data reported are good and valid. The part that was missing was the lack of availability of the high injection pressure fuel system. The conventional Bosch jerk fuel system does not provide the high injection pressure needed to operate at retarded timing and with high injection rates.