Modelling the Effects of Al <sub>2</sub> O <sup>3</sup> -SiO <sub>2</sub> Nanocomposite Additive in Biodiesel–Diesel Fuel on Diesel Engine Performance Using Hybrid ANN-ABC
Maryam Jabraeili, Razieh Pourdarbani, Bahman Najafi, Ali Nematollahzadeh
Abstract
Abstract Yearly, large amounts of waste cooking oil are produced, which are discharged to urban sewage system. However, majority of them is recyclable and can be re-used as biodiesel fuel. When using biodiesel fuels, one way to improve the engine performance is to use nano additives. This study investigates the biodiesel fuel with different ratios of Al 2 O 3 -SiO 2 nanocomposite additive (Al 0% -Si 100% , Al 25% -Si 75% , Al 50% -Si 50% , Al 75% -Si 25% and Al 100% -Si 0% ) at full load and four different nanocomposite concentrations (30, 60, 90 and 120 ppm). The Hybrid ANN-ABC modelling was conducted for two cases: a) finding and applying the most effective properties as network inputs; and b) total properties as inputs showed that the most effective properties have higher performance. The fuels B 5 Al 60 Si 60 and B 5 Al 9 Si 21 showed the highest brake power; the fuels B 5 Al 0 Si 60 and B5Al 120 Si 0 showed the lowest brake power, indicating that the interactions of nanoparticles in the composite mode had positive effects on brake power. The performance improvement using nano-composite additive was more than that of the nanoparticles individually.