Experimental test bench for studying the boiling dynamics

The need of reducing the fuel consumption and pollution in case of road vehicles force the researchers to find solutions. Since the improvements of the internal combustion engine by design are on a rather flat trend, the researchers are looking to recover the lost energy. About 70% of the fuel's potential energy is released into the atmosphere as heat. This energy can be recovered in different manners like Rankine cycle, thermoelectric Peltier modules, absorption refrigerator cycle, and so on. The steam engine might be a promising candidate. Depending on the operating regime, the fuel economy can be up to 31.7%, accordingly to some re-ports from the open literature. The scope of the present research is to make an experimental research on a steam engine where the boiling takes place directly in the engine cylinder. So the preliminary investigations are required for this purpose. As a first stage, an experimental test bench for studying the vaporization in an enclosure is presented in the paper. The experimental test bench will be equipped with a controllable heat source at adjustable volume and a complete automatization for process monitoring and control.