Fig.1 Both the petrol and diesel engines have the common 4 strokes
On the other hand, diesel being a less volatile fuel does not properly mix with air. You can
note from Fig.2 that diesel has such a high flash point value. However, if atomized diesel is
sprayed into high-temperature air, spontaneous combustion will occur.
Difference between Petrol and Diesel Engine
This means that in petrol engines, the fuel and air should be pre-mixed, while in diesel engines,
mixing happens only during the combustion. Due to this reason diesel engines use a fuel injector
while petrol engines use a spark plug.
Fig.3 In diesel engines fuel and air comes into contact only during the combustion; In Petrol it is already mixed
Many people have a misconception that in the modern petrol engine technology, gasoline direct
injection (GDI), the combustion happens during the fuel injection process. This is wrong; even for a
direct injection engine a spark plug is needed. The direct injection technology is just an another way
of producing a fine petrol-air mixture. Instead using a carburetor to mix air and fuel these
technologies use a fuel injector. The biggest advantage of direct injection method is that the fuel to
be sprayed can be controlled very accurately. This will result in great fuel savings.
Fig.5 Combustion is smooth and well propagating in petrol engine, but in diesel it is highly unpredictable
For this reason, to reduce the excessive vibration and noise problem, diesel engines require a
more rugged structural design than petrol engines. To normalize the heavy unbalanced power
production of diesel engines a heavy fly wheel is often required. This is why petrol engines are
always preferred for light-weight applications, such as in 2-wheeler or portable devices.
Why Diesel Engines are More Fuel Economical ?
Since the diesel engine is compressing only the air, it can achieve a good compression ratio without
risk of self-ignition. But, in a pre-mixed petrol engine, such a high compression ratio is not possible.
As we increase compression ratio of petrol engine the mixture becomes more prone to self ignition.
This is known as knocking. Over the period of operation knocking badly damages the engine.
The reason why your diesel car gives more mileage than a petrol car is due to the difference in the
compression ratio. The higher the compression ratio, the better is the efficiency of the cycle. A
qualitative efficiency variation is shown in the graph of Fig.6. This is the reason why diesel engines
have better fuel economy as compared to petrol engines.