The Impact of Oil Consumption Mechanisms on Diesel Exhaust Particle Size Distributions and Detailed Exhaust Chemical Composition

Detailed exhaust emission data have been taken from a Cummins N-14 single cylinder research engine in which the oil consumption was varied by different engine modifications. Low sulfur fuel was used, and oil consumption was varied by modifying the intake valve stem seals, the exhaust valve stem seals, the oil control ring and combinations of these modifications. Detailed measurements of exhaust gas particle size distributions and chemical composition were made for the various oil consumption configurations for a range of engine loads and speeds. The particulate mass was measured with TEOM and traditional gravimetric filter methods. Filter data for EC/OC, sulfates and trace metals have been taken and analyzed. The trace metals in the particulate mass serve as the basis for assessing oil consumption at the different operating conditions. The data indicate that the oil consumption for the steady state testing done here was approximately an order of magnitude below oil consumption values cited in the literature. We did measure changes in the details of the chemical composition of the particulate for the different engine operating conditions, but it did not correlate with changes in the oil consumption. Furthermore, the data indicate that the particle size distribution is not strongly impacted by low level oil consumption variations observed in this work