Experimental study on performances of compressed-air engine

Two key factors that influencing the application of a new type of power machinery,the compressed-air engine,are its power and gas consumption rate.In order to learn the trend of their speed characteristics and load characteristic curves accurately,many experiments were conducted on a reconstructed prototype engine to obtain the speed characteristics and load characteristics curves.The results showed that at a constant inlet pressure,the engine power decreases linearly with increase of engine speed and that the gas consumption rate decreases at higher engine speed;at a constant engine speed,with increase of engine load,the gas consumption rate decreases and the inlet pressure increases.It can be concluded that the characteristics of compressed-air engine are different from those of a traditional engine.The compressed-air engine performances were best at lower engine speed and higher load,in other words,it has good dynamic and economic performance at this region.In application,the matching accessories should be reconstructed or redesigned according to test conclusion.