Icing Characteristics of Liquid Phase LPG Injection According to Butane and Propane Mixing Rates

LPG(Liquified Petroleum Gas) fuel for vehicles has lots of advantages such as low emission level, cheaper fuel cost and enough infrastructure. Therefore it arouses interest as an alternative engine to reduce emission of diesel engines. Especially MPI(Multi Point Injection) type LPLi(Liquid Phase LPG injection) system could have overcome the disadvantages of mixer types such as low engine performance, decreased charging efficiency and cold starting difficulty. However ice formation on the nozzle tip and intake port due to the freezing of moisture around the components is often observed in LPLi systems. This icing phenomenon is the direct cause of unstable engine combustion, resulting in engine emissions. Therefore in this research, a spray visualization test for LPG injection was carried out to obtain the basic information of an LPLi injector, then the effects of butane and propane mixing rates on ice formation at the intake port and nozzle tip was investigated. As a result, the icing characteristics of them showed contrary results according to the mixing rates