Air-Fuel Ratio Determination

Abstract

“In the beginning there was none and now there.”

Thus spoke an unknown sage centuries ago with regard to our existence in the realm of reality. While he specifically was speaking in reference to material things coming from nothing, he might also, have been looking at the development of the dynamometer laboratory at the University of Detroit. In its own small way, the evolution of this laboratory from a once fond dream of the department heads and members of the administration, to the marvelous example of inspired student ingenuity and workmanship that it is now, probably parallels any other endeavor which men have made in their ever ceaseless making of something, out of' nothing . In referring to nothing " l mean "no thing" with respect to equipment, money and skilled workmen, and not to the absence of existence of' anything tangible. To make a statement like that after having spent five years in a Jesuit institution invites either a longer stay so the venerable fathers could change the way of our thinking, or else, direct excommunication.

Ever since the day when the Mechanical Engineering department was given the "OK" to "go ahead and build your –dynamometer room," there has been an endless array of students who, not knowing anything in particular about dynamometers, have gone ahead under very able leadership to build one of the finest dynamometer laboratories in this part of the country . As has been stated many times by the man who has had the most to do with the lab since its present construction was started, Professor John J. Uicker: “Maybe we haven't as many chromed bolts and nuts and as much cop per tubing, but we can do practically what any of the others can do now, and in a few years we will be able to do anything that they can do." I think that these words have been the watchword of the men who have worked under Professor Uicker’s leadership and will be for those who follow in our footsteps.

It has been the practice of those who have been actively employed by the Mechanical Department, when deciding upon the topic of their senior thesis, to try and solve some of the problems relative to the construction of the laboratory, or in the building of the many pieces of equipment so vital to the functioning of a "working" lab. It is through this kind of thinking by the students who have gone before, those of us of the present and they who will be of the future, that this lab has prospered and this thesis of which we now write was made possible.

When in 1949, Gordon Millar, Albert LaRou, and William Walton submitted their thesis titled, "Utilization Of Air-Flow Measurement As An Aid To Internal Combustion Engine Development" and in 1950, when Henry Fedorchuk built his famous fuel-weighing system, the pattern or mold for our thesis was formed. Through combining both Millar’s and Fedorchuk's thesises into one compact unit and presenting a method, whereby the results of the individual elements could be correlated, a new thesis was born, as was a fine piece of usable equipment. It is this accomplishment that is the thesis of which we write.

When our thesis, which we call “Air-Fuel Ratio Measurement,” had its inception, it was originally planned to have two units, one to measure the air and another to measure the fuel. During its construction, however, it was decided that the two pieces of equipment would take too much room in the already crowded lab, and so the two units were joined in matrimony, as it were, to exist as one. In this respect, the authors owe a great deal of gratitude to two of the young engineers employed by the Department in the dynamometer lab, Mr. Arthur Hammond and Mr. Peter Pentescu, for their very helpful suggestions.

It is sincerely hoped that the development of what we hope to be a very valuable piece of equipment during this project, will materially aid future internal combustion engine work at the University of Detroit.