ENGINE NOISE EMISSION

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED EFFORT IS TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF EMPLOYING A REAL-TIME FEEDBACK ENGINE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION OF THE NOISE EMISSION FROM DIESEL ENGINE DRIVEN, ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION EQUIPMENT. FUEL INJECTION TIMING AND INJECTION RATE HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AS PRIME CANDIDATES TO SERVE AD INPUT CONTROL PARAMETERS FOR REDUCING DIESEL COMBUSTION NOISE. IT IS WELL KNOWN IN THE COMBUSTION RESEARCH COMMUNITY THAT COMBUSTION NOISE IN DIRECT INJECTION DIESELS CONSTITUTES A MAJOR, AND SOMETIMES PREDOMINANT, NOISE SOURCE IN OVERALL ENGINE NOISE EMISSIONS, WHICH IS GENERALLY CHARACTERIZED IN THE LITERATURE AS BEING COMPRISED OF TWO COMPONENTS: COMBUSTION NOISE AND MECHANICAL NOISE. HENCE, A SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN COMBUSTION NOISE WOULD TRANSLATE INTO A SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN OVERALL DIESEL ENGINE NOISE EMISSION. THIS PROVIDES AN ELEGANT AND HIGHLY FLEXIBLE SOLUTION FOR THE DIESEL NOISE REDUCTION PROBLEM, IN MARKED CONTRAST TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BULKY BARRIERS, ENCLOSURES OR MAJOR REDESIGN OF THE ENGINE.