Jishnu Bhattacharya

1st Semester - 2016-17

Lecture -10

Classification of heat engines

Classification of heat engines

How the ignition happens?

Based on how you initiate combustion, reciprocating IC engines can be of
two major types:
Spark Ignition (SI): Needs an external spark to initiate combustion
Compression Ignition (CI): The compression itself provides such a
high temperature, that the combustion starts by itself.

You can see, for the same kind of fuel, you need much higher compression
ratio to work in the CI mode.

Basic components

Basic Components
Cylinder block:
The main supporting structure for all the components
Usually modern engines are multicylinder to increase power output
(like V4, V6 engines). Cylinder block is cast as a single unit containing all
the cylinders
It is provided with the water jacket (for water cooling) or fins (for air
cooling). In motor-cycle engines, you can see these fins from outside.
Cylinder head if tightly fastened part over the cylinder block.
At the bottom of cylinder block, there is the crankcase, which serves
the housing of the crank as well for the sump of lubricating oil.
The inner part, where pistons slide are machines perfectly and
lubricated it is called bore of the cylinder.

Basic Components
Piston:
Cylindrical component that fits snugly into the cylinder to form the
moving boundary of the combustion system.
It fits perfectly to stop gas leakage (with piston rings) and lubricated
well to minimize friction.
Combustion chamber:
The upper portion of the cylinder where combustion takes place is
called combustion chamber.

Basic Components
Inlet maniford:
The part through which air and fuel enters the combustion chamber is
called the inlet manifold.
Exhaust manifold:
The part which allows the flue gas (combustion product after releasing
the thermal energy) to exit the combustion chamber.
Inlet and exhaust valves:
They allow one-directional motion so that the unburnt air-fuel mixture
is not exhausted and burnt flue gas does not come back to the
combustion chamber.
The timing of the opening of these vales are critical.

Basic Components
Spark plug:
It provides required spark in case of spark ignition.
It is located in the cylinder head at the top of the combustion chamber
Connecting rod:
It connects the piston and the crank to link the transmission of power
Crankshaft:
It converts the reciprocating motion to the useful rotary motion

Basic Components
Camshaft:
It holds the cam which is connected to the various valves to accurately
control the valve timings.
Flywheel:
It provides the necessary inertia to maintain an uniform torque at the
output.
It is essential as the torque imparted by the piston to the crankshaft
fluctuates during a complete cycle.

Important terms
Bore:
Inner diameter of the cylinder (in mm) designated with d
Piston area:
Also called bore area inner cross-sectional area (usually in cm2)
2
=
A
d

4
Stroke:
Piston movement distance between two successive reversal of direction
designated as L, - expressed in mm
Stroke to bore ratio:
As named, it is L/d.
d < L :under-square engine; d = L: square engine; d > L : over-square engine

Important terms
Dead Center:
Either end of a
stroke
Top dead center
(TDC) piston is
furthest from
crankshaft
bottom dead
center (BDC) piston is closest to
the crankshaft

Important terms
Displacement:
Also called swept volume designated as Vs usually in cc (cm3)
Swept volume, Vs = A L =
Cubic capacity:

d 2L

Total volume swept per stroke

If an engine has K cylinders, Cubic _ Capacity = Vs K
Clearance volume:
Nominal volume of the combustion chamber, at TDC, is called
clearance volume (VC)
Compression ratio:
Ratio of total volume (when piston is at BDC) and the clearance volume
r=

V
VT VC + VS
=
= 1+ S
VC
VC
VC

How 4-stroke SI engine works?

It is also called Otto engine, after its discoverers name
The cycle of operations is completed in four strokes or two revolutions of
the crankshaft.
During 4 strokes, five events are completed: suction, compression,
combustion, expansion and exhaust
With respect to the strokes, four strokes accomplish the following
operations in turn: 1. suction or intake stroke 2. compression stroke 3.
expansion or power stroke 4. exhaust stroke
Note, combustion is an instantaneous process and does not require any
separate stroke

Suction stroke

Suction stroke (0 1)
Starts when piston is at TDC and
about to move downward.
Inlet valve is opens at this
moment
Exhaust valve is closed
Due to suction of the piston,
charge (fuel-air mixture) comes
into the cylinder through the
intake manifold.
At BDC, the suction stroke ends
and inlet valve gets closed

Compression stroke
Compression stroke (12)
Starts when piston is at BDC and
about to move upward.
Both valves remain closed
Air-fuel mixture gets compressed up
to the clearance volume
At the end of the stroke combustion
happens

Compression stroke
Instantaneous combustion(23)
At the end of the compression
stroke, spark plug is actuated to
provide the spark for ignition
Ideally, the combustion should
happen at the TDC, instantaneously,
so that the heat addition process is
strictly isochoric
After combustion, the temperature
and pressure rises to a very high value
Both the valves remain closed

Expansion/power stroke

Expansion stroke(34)
High pressure burnt gas forces
piston to move down
The expansion stroke starts at TDC
Both the valves are still closed
Expansion stroke ends at BDC
Only this stroke produces power
The other strokes share the power
produced by the expansion stroke
You can imagine how the torque
changes during operation and how
important the flywheel is.

Exhaust stroke

Exhaust stroke (450)

Exhaust stroke starts at BDC
Exhaust valve now opens while inlet
valve still remains closed
With valve opening, pressure falls to
atmospheric (45)
The rest of the stroke pushes low
pressure burnt gas out of the cylinder
(50)
The residual gas gets trapped in the
clearance volume which gets mixed
with fresh charge in the next cycle

How 4-stroke CI engine works?

It is also called Diesel engine, after its discoverers name
As there is no spark involved, we need very high compression ratio to achieve
the self-ignition temperature
While SI engines work under comp. ratio 6-10, CI engines works under 16-20.
In CI engines, air, instead of fuel-air mixture is taken in
The air itself is compressed during the compression stroke and the end of which
fuel is injected
In the power stroke, fuel is injected and burnt; after the heat addition process,
the rest of the power stroke allows expansion of gases

Suction stroke

Suction stroke (0 1)
Starts when piston is at TDC and
about to move downward.
Inlet valve is opens at this
moment
Exhaust valve is closed
Due to suction of the piston, air
comes into the cylinder
At BDC, the suction stroke ends
and inlet valve gets closed

Compression stroke

Compression stroke (12)

Starts when piston is at BDC and
about to move upward.
Both inlet and exhaust valves are
closed at this moment
At TDC, the compression stroke ends
The air is compressed to the clearance
volume
Towards the end of this stroke fuel
injection starts
Note, you need a high pressure fuel
pump to inject fuel

Expansion stroke

Expansion stroke (234)

Starts when piston is at TDC and
about to move downward.
Both inlet and exhaust valves are
closed at this moment
At the initial part fuel injection
continues
The fuel injection rate is chosen such
that the expansion happens at constant
pressure
After a fraction of the stroke, fuel
injection stops (cut-off)

Expansion stroke
With cut-off, heat addition stops
The rest of stroke follows isentropic
expansion
The expansion stroke ends at the
BDC
During the full expansion stroke,
both the valves remain closed

Exhaust stroke

Exhaust stroke (450)

Starts when piston is at BDC and
about to move upward.
The exhaust valve opens the
pressure falls to atmospheric
instantaneously (45) following
constant volume process
As the stroke progresses the piston
pushes the burnt gas out of the cylinder
at constant pressure (50)
The stroke ends at TDC and the
exhaust valve closes at this point

Comparison between SI & CI

For similar power output, CI engines require higher peak pressure, hence,
it has to be sturdier and hence heavier
The highest temperature is also higher for CI engine which requires better
material
The thermal efficiency of CI engine is more (as we have seen earlier)
This is why diesel cars are expensive to buy but running cost is less.
A CI engine requires arrangement for injecting fuel at high pressure (a fuel
pump) but does not care about mixing of air and fuel.
An SI engine requires a carburettor (which prepares the air-fuel mixture)
and a spark plug for ignition. But it does not care about the high pressure
pump as intake happens at atmospheric pressure.

Comparison between SI & CI

SI engine uses petrol (gasoline) as fuel which is highly volatile (mixes well
with air at low pressure) - Self-ignition temperature is high (requires
external spark) the rate of combustion is very fast hence heat addition is
instantaneous.
For CI engine, fuel is diesel, a not-so-volatile fuel requires high pressure
to mix and react self-ignition temperature is low reaction rate is not so
fast.
The intake of fuel-air mixture is controlled in SI engine (for load control)
while in CI engine, air quantity is not controlled, only fuel quantity is
controlled

Comparison between SI & CI

SI engines are high speed engines due to light-weight and homogeneous
and fast combustion.
CI engines are low speed due to heavy-weight and slow combustion.