Design review of a locally innovated single piston diesel engine

Abstract

Engineering designs are important in any piece of product produced in any manufacturing process. Production in Uganda is always on a craftsman’s level which is accompanied with a lot of manufacturing errors and material wastage. KMEL produced a working engine but the required engineering documentation was missing which limited knowledge from being transferred to the future engine manufacturers. The research aimed at incorporating engineering principles and practices into the developed single piston diesel engine at KMEL. To achieve this objective, a number of specific objectives were applied, like; Evaluation of the performance of existing engine design, determination of the major engine components and their dimensions, development of designs of the major engine components. In order to achieve these objectives, several methods were applied for example, Tests on the already innovated engine were carried out to, the major engine components and measurements identified, and finally designs of the major components of the engine were generated together with material selection to find out whether the used material was appropriate for engine production. Results show that the engine runs at a speed of 1800 rpm, a torque of 5 Nm, and a power of 10 HP with 2.4 liters per hour of fuel. The major components of the engine included, the engine piston, the crankshaft, connecting rod, the cylinder head as well as the camshaft. The power obtained after carrying out the design is 13 hp, at a 5 Nm torque as well as 1 liter of fuel consumed per hour. In engine manufacture, the need of the engine should be considered, choice of injectors also since it affects the amount of exhaust and a provision for engine testing also given attention. Some components were not meeting the design specifications and the design was below the minimum required power of 13 hp. Power produced should be at least 13 hp so as to handle the purpose, the engine was designed to be a prime mover to do most of the local applications like pumping of water, driving maize mills and generating power. Therefore, to achieve the requirement for the engine, all components must be designed to standard values as per the measurements.