Transportation Engineering 3 (2021) 100041

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Transportation Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/treng

Prediction efficiency of artificial neural network for CRDI engine output

parameters
Mebin Samuel P a,∗, Gnanamoorthi V b, Purushothaman P c, Gurusamy A d, Devaradjane G a
a
Department of Automobile Engineering, M.I.T. Campus, Anna University, Chennai, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College of Engineering, Villupuram, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Agni College of Technology, Chennai, India
d
School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Considering the environmental and energy concerns, the need for finding an alternative fuel is increasing greatly.
Biofuel But also, the toil associated with finding the suitable fuel for the engine under study is very high. As a measure
ANN to reduce this work, theoretical analysis can be used in the search of suitable fuel blends. The present study deals
DTBP
with the creation of an Artificial Neural network (ANN), training, testing the network and finally comparing the
Rice husk
predicted values with the experimental values. The test engine was operated with lemon peel oil, with differ-
Lemon Peel
ent ratios of Di tertiary butyl peroxide (DTBP), rice husk nanoparticles and water injection. Six engine output
parameters (BTE, BSFC, HC, NOx, CO & Smoke) were predicted for different input values of engine load, DTBP
proportions, RH nanoparticle concentration and water injection percentage. A single cylinder constant speed di-
rect injection diesel engine is used for obtaining all the experimental values. From the obtained results a data
set of 70 experimental values were used to train and test the neural network formed. The predicted values were
correlated with the experimental values and the R2 was found for each correlation. The R2 values, thus obtained
is in the range of 0.98209 to 0.99744 (which is very close to unity) thus proving that the network created were
able to predict the performance and emissions of engine accurately. This work shows the prediction of multi
component fuel mixture using ANN, which is new and also helps to reduce the experimental works needed to
find the engine output parameters.

1. Introduction of additives considered to improve different qualities of the fuel, not a

The fossil-based energy consumption in developing and developed
countries are estimated to increase by 5% and 1% annually [1]. The
total consumption of liquid fuels (diesel, gasoline and jet fuels) each
day, is about 11 billion litres [2]. And diesel engines are considered as
one of the major contributors for air pollution [3]. To face this increase
in energy demand and to reduce the environmental pollutions created
by fossil-fuels, alternative fuel source is much needed. In this search,
biodiesel seems to be a good alternative to diesel fuel, but the higher
viscosity of the fuel and the need for transesterification process are re-
ducing its effectiveness as a potential alternative fuel [4]. Thus, lower
viscous fuels are considered to be the potential alternative sources for
diesel engines [5]. Not all the fuels are ideal, hence, additives are re-
quired to make an ideal alternative fuel [6]. There are different types
single additive can provide all the necessary upgrades to the fuel. There-
fore, considering the needs of the fuel, additives are to be selected. The
usage of biofuel and additives, improves the combustion process and
thereby leading to higher in-cylinder temperature and leading to more
NOx emission. The water injection method can be considered, as a con-
trol method to reduce NOx reducing the limitations caused during the
emulsion process [7].
It is an unavoidable fact that the entire experimental process has
to be repeated for every change made in the fuel or additive or wa-
ter injection ratios. Which is a time and money consuming process.
Hence, to avoid this, a theoretical model can be created for the particu-
lar study to predict and evaluate the outputs with changes in the input
factors. Such a theoretical study can be done by using artificial neural
network for predicting the output values of performance and emission

Abbreviation: ANN, artificial neural network; BSFC, brake specific fuel consumption; BTE, brake thermal efficiency; CD, combustion duration; CO, carbon monox-
ide; CP, cylinder pressure; DTBP, di-tert-butyl peroxide; HC, hydro carbon; HRR, heat release rate; ID, ignition delay; LPO, lemon peel oil; LPOA, lemon peel
oil + DTBP; LPOB, lemon peel oil + DTBP + RH; LPOC, lemon peel oil + DTBP + RH + WI; MSE, mean square error; NOx, oxides of nitrogen; R2, coefficient of
determination; RH NP, rice husk nano particle; WI, water injection.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mebin@mitindia.edu (M.S. P).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.treng.2020.100041
Received 16 August 2020; Received in revised form 6 October 2020; Accepted 19 December 2020
2666-691X/© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
M.S. P, G. V, P. P et al. Transportation Engineering 3 (2021) 100041

Table 1 Table 3
Properties of fuels used. Specification of the engine used.

S. No Property Unit Diesel LPO Type Single Cylinder, Compression Ignition Engine
3
1 Density kg/m 822 840 Make Kirloskar
2 Calorific value kJ/kg 43,200 41,200 Rated Power (kW) 3.5
3 Cetane Index – 52 15 Compression Ratio 17.5:1
4 Kinematic viscosity mm2 /s 3.6 1.4 Rated Speed (rpm) 1500
5 Flash point °C 63 53 Cooling Type Water Cooled
6 Fire point °C 75 64 Stroke (mm) 110
7 Boiling point °C 350 174 Bore (mm) 87.5
Injection Type Common Rail Direct Injection
Cubic Capacity (cc) 661
Injection Timing (°) 23 BTDC
parameters. ANN was advantageous than traditional polynomial meth- Injection Pressure (bar) 600
ods since it reduces the cost, time and the complexity. It was used in the Piston Bowl Shape Hemispherical bowl
optimization and forecasting of the output values [8]. The output for a
particular experimental combination can be easily identified with a very Table 4
less margin of error using ANN model. Hence, during need, first ANN Specification of exhaust measuring instruments.
predicted output can be studied and then the satisfied combinations can
be validated with experimental results. Many researchers have predicted Measured Instruments
parameter Used Measuring range Resolution
and compared the output values of ANN with that of experimental val-
ues and have proved that the predicted values are very close to that of CO AVL Digas 0–15% 0.01%
HC 444 N five gas 0–20,000 ppm 1 ppm
the experimentally obtained values [9,10]. But not much work is done
NOx analyzer 0–5000 ppm 1 ppm
with the usage of multicomponent (with additives) fuel blends. Smoke AVL 437 C 0–100% 1%
In this study, the experimentally found values are used to train and Smoke meter
test the ANN network created. Then input values are given to test the
prediction efficiency of the network. The coefficient of determination
(R2 ) value of the output is calculated to find the effectiveness of the test engine is given in Table 3. An eddy current dynamometer was used
process. This study can help to reduce the actual working time required to load the engine. Loading was altered by varying the current supplied
to conduct all the experiments. The experimental works conducted and to the dynamometer. The data acquisition system records the cylinder
the material used for the study are explained briefly followed by the pressure value measured by the Kistler pressure sensor. Emissions such
creation, the different parameters used, training and validating the ANN as CO, HC, NOx were measured using AVL exhaust gas analyser and
network are explained. smoke is measured by AVL smoke meter. The specifications of both the
exhaust measurement devices are given in Table 4. Water injection in-
2. Experimental work preparation side the inlet manifold using a secondary injection setup which uses an
injector operated by a solenoid valve. Solenoid valve was powered by
The experimental values required to train and test the ANN schema a 12 V electric pump which helps to inject water at 3 bar pressure. The
are obtained experimentally. The experimental setup, materials, the experimental setup is schematically represented in Fig. 1.
blends prepared for the experimental process are provided in this sec-
tion. 3. Artificial neural network (ANN)

2.1. Materials used 3.1. ANN

The biofuel, cetane improver and nanoparticles are the major mate-
rials required in this experimental work. Biofuel is obtained from waste
Lemon peels by a process called as steam distillation, DTBP was pro-
cured from a local chemists and rice husk nano particles are prepared
by using ball milling process after a series of operations as explained in
our previous paper [11]. The properties of lemon peel oil were given in
comparison with diesel fuel in Table 1.
With the combination of DTBP, RH nano particles and water injec-
tion, four different blends of Lemon peel oil were formed as given in
Table 2.
2.2. Experimental setup & procedure
A single cylinder, water-cooled, direct injection CRDI diesel engine
was used to test the LPO and its blends. The detailed specification of the
Artificial neural network is a widely known machine learning tool
comprised of mathematical non-linear algorithms. It is formed being in-
spired by the biological neural system of a human brain. It was designed
to look and work like an actual neural system of the brain. It generally
has three distinct stages namely; input, hidden and output stage. The
hidden layers have small functional units called neurons, which was
used for data processing through links and weights [12]. Being similar
to that of a brain, the ANN can solve even very complex multi inter-
related parameters. In this current work, ANN was used to predict the
output of BSFC, BTE, CO, HC, NOx and smoke using Load, DTBP ratio,
RH ratio and water ratio as inputs.
3.1.1. Input and output variable selection
The selection of input and output variables are given much more im-
portance as they decide the process flow of the system and if a wrong

Table 2
Blends prepared.

S.No Blend Name Diesel (%vol.) LPO (% vol.) DTBP (%vol.) RH NP (ppm) Water (%vol.)

1 Diesel 100 – – – –
2 LPO – 100 – – –
3 LPOA – 98 2 – –
4 LPOB – 98 2 150 –
5 LPOC – 98 2 150 2

2
M.S. P, G. V, P. P et al. Transportation Engineering 3 (2021) 100041

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup.

variable which has less influence over the system was selected the de- Table 5
sired output will not be attained. Hence, input variables are chosen de- Selection parameters of ANN network created.
pending upon their influence over the process and those variables which Network Type Feed-Forward Backpropagation
can be measured and altered should be given importance [9]. In this Training Function Levenburg-Marquqrdt (TRAINLM)
present study, many parameters influence the process of performance Learning Function LEARNDGM
and emission outcomes of the engine. But the major influential parame- Performance Function Minimum mean square error (MSE)
Transfer Function Tan sigmoid
ters and those which are varied to examine the outcomes are chosen as No. of Layers 2
input variables. Totally 4 input variables are chosen at different propor- No. of Neurons 18
tions, namely, load (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%), DTBP (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and
Training data set: 70% of the experimental data
3%), RH NP (50, 100, 150 and 200 ppm) and water (1, 2, 3 and 4%). are selected randomly (50)
Output variables contain BTE and BSFC for performance considerations, Validation data set: 20% of the experimental data
Data Selection
HC, CO, smoke and NOx for emission considerations. are selected randomly (10)
Test data set: 20% of the experimental data are
selected randomly (10)
3.1.2. Neural network architecture 25 randomly selected input values alone.
Neural network architecture is the combination of the entire neural
Performance model: 4 inputs, 2 outputs and 2
network along with the network type, training function, transfer func- hidden layers with 18 neurons (4-18-1-2).
tion, performance function, learning function, number of neurons used, Topology Emission model: 4 inputs, 4 outputs and 2
number of hidden layers, number of input parameter, number of output hidden layers with 18 neurons (4-18-1-4).
parameters, interlinking between each layer, etc. They provide the way Epochs = 500
to interlink all these in order to train, test, validate and predict the data Limits Min. Gradient = 1.00 e−7
for the given process. The network parameters used in the present study Max. Fail = 7
is given in Table 5. Training is stopped when,
The training function, transfer function, learning function and net- Stopping criteria 1. Validation error crosses the pre-set limit.
work type are finalised after careful evaluation of previous research 2. No. of Iterations crosses the pre-set limit.
works [10,13].
Neurons were gradually increased in counts of 2 to a maximum of
26 for predicting the values of BTE. The predicted values are compared
with the experimental values and the neuron count for the best nearer 4. Results and discussion
value, thus obtained was used for further processes. In this study neu-
ron count of 18 gave better results. A diagrammatic representation of 4.1. Experimental analysis results
the ANN architecture used is shown in Fig. 2, and Fig. 3 for performance
and emissions correspondingly. ANN predicting performance was eval- The usage of Lemon peel oil in the diesel engine provided some good
uated using coefficient of determination as given in Eq. (II) and mean outcomes. In terms of performance outcomes, usage of LPO shows the
square error was calculated using Eq. (III). The overall process flow of least BTE value. But, the addition of DTBP (due to homolysis property),
the neural network working is specified in Fig. 4. RH additives (with its oxygen content & catalytic activity) improved
( ∑𝑛 ( )2 ) the BTE value by 2.23%, 12.33% and also reduced BSFC value than
𝑖=1 𝑡𝑖 − 𝑂𝑖 LPO. But water injection affected the performance outcomes of BTE
𝑅2 = 1 − ∑𝑛 ( )2 (II)
(4.43% reduction) and BSFC (3.57% increase). Considering the Emis-
𝑖=1 𝑂𝑖
sion outcomes, HC, CO and Smoke are reduced by using DTBP (11.4,
𝑛
1 ∑( )2 7.6 and 3.7%) & RH (26.2, 30.7 and 16.8%) respectively compared with
𝑀𝑆𝐸 = 𝑡 − 𝑂𝑖 (III)
𝑛 𝑖=1 𝑖 lemon peel oil. These performance improvements and emission reduc-
tion with the addition of DTBP and RH additives are mainly due to the
t = actual, O = predicted improved oxygen content of the additives [14,15]. The major problem is

3
M.S. P, G. V, P. P et al. Transportation Engineering 3 (2021) 100041

Fig. 2. Neural network architecture for performance variable.

Fig. 4. Schematic representation of the process flow of ANN.

Fig. 3. Neural network architecture for emission variable.

that, with all these improvements NOx emission is also increased. Addi-
tion of water inside the combustion chamber reduces the peak cylinder
temperature, thereby helps to control NOx emission, thus water injec-
tion is adapted to control NOx emission [16]. Though this affects other
emissions reduction, it helps in reducing the harmful NOx emission by
11.01% at full load condition compared to the blend with RH particles.

4.2. Theoretical analysis results

ANN was used to predict BSFC, BTE, CO, HC, smoke and NOx using
load variations, proportion of DTBP, RH NP and water as input param-
eters. Initially, the experimentally obtained (70 set) results are fed into
the ANN schema for training purposes. To find the overall performance
of the formed network 70% of the experimental data was used for train-
ing the network, 15% was used for validating the network and 15%
was used for testing the network created. The performance of these can
be evaluated using the R value obtained for training, validating, test-
ing and overall. Thus, the obtained values for BTE is shown in Fig. 5,
and Fig. 6 gives the performance chart for the training process. The net-
work was trained until satisfactory results were obtained. The network
was then saved and the same process was done to train other parame-
ters. Then the output values of the randomly selected 25 input values
are done using the saved network. These output values are compared
with the experimentally obtained results and the coefficient of deter-
mination plots are shown in Fig. 7, for performance variables, Fig. 8
Fig. 5. Regression plots for BTE training.
for emission variables. The direct comparison between the experimental
and predicted values for 25 different cases are shown in Fig. 9, for per-
formance variables and Fig. 10 , for emission variables. The nearness of
the predicted results with the experimental results is stipulated using the
coefficient of determination value. It is denoted by ‘R2 ’ and ranges from
zero to one (1=best). The R2 value of BSFC (0.99604), BTE (0.98636),
CO (0.98209), HC (0.99744), smoke (0.99567) and NOx (0.99639) are
much closer to 1 hence, it can be said that the predicted values are in
unison with the experimental values. Thus, the ANN network formed
can be utilized for further predictions.

4
M.S. P, G. V, P. P et al.
Fig. 6. Performance chart for the BTE training.
Fig. 7. Coefficient of determination values of performance parameters.
Fig. 8. Coefficient of determination values of emissions parameters.
Fig. 9. Comparison of predicted and experimental performance values for dif-
ferent test cases.
5
Transportation Engineering 3 (2021) 100041
Fig. 10. Comparison of predicted and experimental emissions values for differ-
ent test cases.
5. Conclusions
The theoretical study with the use of Artificial Neural Network pro-
vided the following conclusions,
• The ANN tool can be effectively used as a prediction tool, with a
very small margin of error.
• The tansig-TRAINLM function in the feed-forward backpropagation
network with 18 neurons was identified as the best combination for
this study.
• The ANN predicted performance and emission outputs are very close
to experimentally obtained results with the R value ranging from
0.98209 to 0.99744.
Thus, this study saves a lot of time, cost and complexity in finding
the output values experimentally.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
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