Ilikeurtractor
Veteran Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2011
- Messages
- 1,070
- Tractor
- Iseki TX1300F/TX1500/ TX2160F/TS2220F/ Satoh S370D/S373D
So I found this on Wikipedia:
"The full load limit of a diesel engine in normal service is defined by the "black smoke limit", beyond which point the fuel cannot be completely burned. As the "black smoke limit" is still considerably lean of stoichiometric, it is possible to obtain more power by exceeding it, but the resultant inefficient combustion means that the extra power comes at the price of reduced combustion efficiency, high fuel consumption and dense clouds of smoke."
The problem with the above statement is how "black smoke limit" is defined, which the article does not explain or link to explain. Which means what I consider the "black smoke limit" may be different than what the guy next to me does. I have a hard time accepting that once the black smoke limit is reached the burn "is still lean of stoichiometric" because I would think black smoke means pure carbon molecules are in the smoke which, if they are in carbon form, have not combined with oxygen to release the associated energy by doing so.
I am curious as to why a gasoline engine of the same displacement as a diesel, given the same bore and stroke configuration, almost always (always?) has more rated power at the same speed since they are both theoretically taking in the same amount of oxygen despite the diesel having a higher thermal efficiency (i.e. it should produce more power inherently.) I'm guessing it at least partially has to do with this issue of eventual black smoke with diesels as "peak" load occurs, where the fuel and air mixture is not mixed well enough to achieve full combustion, and little carbon guys go out the stack without their oxygen partners attached resulting in a loss of liberated energy. Certainly a turbo helps with this problem.
"The full load limit of a diesel engine in normal service is defined by the "black smoke limit", beyond which point the fuel cannot be completely burned. As the "black smoke limit" is still considerably lean of stoichiometric, it is possible to obtain more power by exceeding it, but the resultant inefficient combustion means that the extra power comes at the price of reduced combustion efficiency, high fuel consumption and dense clouds of smoke."
The problem with the above statement is how "black smoke limit" is defined, which the article does not explain or link to explain. Which means what I consider the "black smoke limit" may be different than what the guy next to me does. I have a hard time accepting that once the black smoke limit is reached the burn "is still lean of stoichiometric" because I would think black smoke means pure carbon molecules are in the smoke which, if they are in carbon form, have not combined with oxygen to release the associated energy by doing so.
I am curious as to why a gasoline engine of the same displacement as a diesel, given the same bore and stroke configuration, almost always (always?) has more rated power at the same speed since they are both theoretically taking in the same amount of oxygen despite the diesel having a higher thermal efficiency (i.e. it should produce more power inherently.) I'm guessing it at least partially has to do with this issue of eventual black smoke with diesels as "peak" load occurs, where the fuel and air mixture is not mixed well enough to achieve full combustion, and little carbon guys go out the stack without their oxygen partners attached resulting in a loss of liberated energy. Certainly a turbo helps with this problem.