ADVANCES IN IC

ENGINES
SANKAR RAM T. , MIDHUN ANTONY JOSEPH
Jyothi engineering college, Cheruthuruthy, Thrissur.

Introduction to IC engines

Invented in early 1680

First attempt by Christian Huygens
Converts heat energy produced by
burning of fuel to mechanical output.
Basically consists of a piston-cylinder
arrangement.
The expansion of air due to the heat
produced moves the piston inside the
cylinder.

Classification of IC engines

Two main classifications:

Based on combustion
Spark

Ignition [SI engines] (Eg: Petrol

Engine)
Compression Ignition [CI engines] (Eg:
Diesel Engine)

Based on Number of strokes

Two

stroke
Four Stroke
Six Stroke

Major areas of
advancement

The vision behind evolving of IC engine

was to extract maximum power from the
fuel while reducing emissions and
pollution from the engine.
The main areas of advancement are:

Engine Design
Material Selection
Timing Controls
Fuel Injection And Combustion

The advances moves almost parallel and

most companies have their own versions
of the advances discussed here.

Engine Design

The early designs involved a single

cylinder. This caused a large amount of
fluctuations in power output.
So more number of cylinders were added
to reduce output fluctuations and size of
engine
There are four types of engine designs
used.

Inline
V Type
Flat Type
Radial Engines

Engine Design
Inline Engine
V Type Engine

Flat Engine
Radial Engine

Material selection

When selecting materials for engine,

following factors are considered

Weight of material
Melting point
Coefficient of expansion
Heat transmission power
Vibration and sound damping

The main metals used in engine

manufacture are

Grey Cast Iron

Aluminium
Magnesium

Use of Sodium in engines

A part of engine is hollowed and is filled

with sodium
When temperature of the part becomes
1600C sodium melts
This molten state has better heat
transfer that solid metal
Sodium is mainly used in:

Sodium Valves (Exhaust Valves)

Piston Skirts

Timing controls

The Efficiency of engine is decided by

the timing of its sequential operation.

Timing of inlet and exhaust valves

Timing of the spark in SI engines
Timing of fuel injection in CI engines
Sequential operation of each cylinders in multi cylinder
engine

In normal cases these timings are a

design parameter set at time of
manufacture.
The goal of timing control is to change
the timings of engine while its

Variable Valve Timing (VVT)

At low rpm, the timing is adjusted for

maximum efficiency.
At high rpm, time the valve remains
opened is reduced while increasing the
opening size.
This helps to pump more charge to
cylinder without creating backpressure
or scavenching.
An electronic system uses a
microcontroller to adjust the solenoid
valve.

Variable Valve Timing (VVT)

In a mechanical system, the input from

crank is given to a gear which is locked
to the cam using a pin.
When adjustment is needed, the pin is
removed magnetically and a stepper
motor adjusts the cam.
Used in many cars in various names
BMW Valvetronic, VANOS
Fiat Twin Cam VIS
General Motors VVT, DCVCP
Honda VTEC, i-VTEC

Variable Valve Timing (VVT)

Active Valve Train

In active valve train, there will be two

cams designed for specific road
conditions.
When the microprocessor detects a
rough terrain, the cam used will be the
one for more power.
But during cruising, the cam is switched
to a low power, high efficient cam using
a cam tapper.
Introduced first by Lotus Motors and
later developed by Nissan Motors.

Cylinder Deactivation

Cylinder deactivation is a derived form of

active cam switching.
In this method, while cruising a part of
cylinders are switched off by switching
to a cam without lobes.
This method is successful because of
following

Lesser fuel consumption

Less heat generation
Less power lost in managing other cylinders

This is mostly employed in V Type

Cylinder Deactivation

The cylinder is deactivated by

Keeping the inlet valve closed so that there

is no fuel flow
Keeping the exhaust valve open so there is
no work done in compression.

Some Companies using cylinder

deactivation are
General Motors V8-6-4 (Cadillac)
General Motors Active Fuel Management
DaimlerChrysler Active Cylinder Control (ACC) (for
Mercedes-Benz)
Honda Variable Cylinder Management (VCM)

Fuels and Fuel Injection

The fuels and its input to the engine

highly influences the emissions from the
engines.
In SI engines a air-fuel mixture called
charge is introduced to the cylinder
before compression
In CI engines the fuel is injected after the
compression stroke to the cylinder. This
helps in attaining higher compression
ratios.
In SI engines it is not possible because

Direct Injection

With direct injection, the advantages of

CI engines can be obtained in SI engines
also.
In direct injection, first the air is filled in
the cylinder. Then half way through the
compression stroke, a small amount of
fuel is injected to the cylinder to create a
lean mixture.
At the end of compression, just before
the spark the rest of fuel is injected to
the head of spark plug.

Direct Injection

Direct injection has many advantages

such as
No

need of carburetor
Easy design of manifold
Better compression is achievable
No case of knocking in engines
Lower NOx emissions
Due to stratified combustion leaner mixture
can be used which reduces the fuel
consumption.

Direct Injection

Superchargers

Consists of a compressor coupled to the

engine using a belt.
The output is directly connected to the
engine.
As the engine rotates, the air is sucked
in and compressed which is then fed to
the cylinders.
Increases the amount of oxygen given to
engine thus helps in better burning.
Is a must in aircrafts flying at high
altitudes were air is less dense.

Turbochargers

Is a derived form of supercharger

Consists of a turbine and a compressor
coupled in a shaft.
Instead of using the power from engine
to turn the compressor, the exhaust is
used to turn the turbine which rotates
the compressor.
Turbochargers can only act at high
velocity exhaust so they need some time
to start up in cold start. This time is
called as turbo lag.

Six Stroke Engines

The invention of six stroke engines was

for the following reasons:
Less

weight to power ratio

Less scavenching
Less moving parts
More power and fuel economy
Obtain freedom in designing
Better cooling

Six stroke engines are developed in two

different ways

Air/Water injection to
Cylinder

In this method air or water is injected to

the cylinder at the end of exhaust stroke.
The fluid absorbs the heat and expands
providing another power stroke. An
exhaust stroke is provided to removed
the fluid from cylinder.
Three recognized names in this section
are:

Bajulaz six stroke engine (Preheating of air)

Velozeta six stroke engine (Injection of air)
Crower six stroke engine (Injection of

Opposed Piston Engines

This model uses two pistons working in

and cylinder.
The pistons are used to open and close
ports just like a two stroke engine.
The working of opposed pistons provide
better compression.
The pistons have either a change in
speed or have a phase shift between
them.
Some engines in this section are:

Beare Head Engine

References

en.wikipedia.org
www.greencar.com
www.mitsubishi-motors.com
www.bmw.com/com/en/insights
Elements of IC Engines, Rogowsky,
Tata McGraw hill
Internal Combustion Engines,
Mathur & Metha, Vol I&II Pergamon
Press

Thank You For Your Time !

Questions ?