Air standard cycles

These are close approximation of reciprocating I.C

engine cycles
Assumption
Working fluid is air (perfect gas), homogeneous in
composition and undergoes no chemical changes
throughout the cycle - follows PV=mRT.
The compression and expansion process are
internally reversible and adiabatic.
The combustion process is replaced by a
reversible heat addition process and exhaust
process by a reversible heat rejection process.
Change in KE and PE of the working fluid is
negligible.
The operation of the engine is frictionless.
0

Fig.2.1. Ideal air standard Otto cycle

Fig.2.2 Effect of r and k on Thermal efficiency in Otto
cycle
 It is clear from the above graph that th increases as CR
increases but we cannot go for higher CR because
a. Knocking limits CR to about 10 depending on octane
number b. Heat transfer increase as CR increases.
c. When higher CR is used, the temperature of the air-
fuel mixture may rise above the auto ignition
temperature of the fuel during the compression process,
and will cause an early and rapid burning before the
sparking results in loss of power and also results in
knocking
d. Engine knock: Engine knock in spark-ignition engine
cannot be tolerated since it hurts performance and can
cause engine damage.
Thus there is an upper limit of compression ratio for SI
engines called as HUCR, highest useful compression
ratio.
Diesel engine
Efficiency of a Diesel cycle differs from the
efficiency of an Otto cycle by the quantity shown
in the bracket. This quantity is always greater
than 1.
When both cycles operate on the same
compression ratio, as the cutoff ratio decreases,
the efficiency of the Diesel cycle increases.
For the limiting case of rc =1, the quantity in the
brackets becomes unity and the efficiencies of
Comparison
Otto and Dieselbetween Otto identical.
cycles become and Diesel
Cycle
In actual practice diesel engines operate at
much higher compression ratio than Petrol
engines. Hence Diesel engines are more
efficient than the gasoline engines.
The diesel engines also burn the fuel more
completely since they usually operate at lower
revolutions per minute and the airfuel mass
ratio is much higher than spark-ignition engines.
Thermal efficiencies of large diesel engines
range from about 35 to 40 percent.
 Fuel air cycles
The air cycle, an approximation of air
standard theory was highly simplified
approximations, gives an estimate of engine
performance, which is much greater than the
actual performance. This large divergence is
partly due to
1.No instantaneous burning,
2.Valve operation
3.Incomplete combustion etc.
But the main reason of divergence is the
over simplification in using the values of the
properties of the working fluid for the cycle
analysis.
In the air cycle approximation it was assumed
that the working fluid is nothing but air and,
this air was a perfect gas and had constant
specific heats.
However in actual engine the working fluid is
not air, but a mixture of air fuel and residual
gases.
Further the specific heats of working fluid are
not constant but increase as temperature rises
The products of combustion are subjected to
dissociation at high temperatures.
Fuel air cycle definition: - The theoretical cycle based
on the actual properties of the cylinder gases is called as
fuel-air cycle
Points considered in fuel air cycle analysis are:
The actual composition of the cylinder gas is the mixture
of fuel + air + water vapor + residual gas.
The fuel air ratio varies as load changes, which changes
the products of combustion and thus changes the
characteristics of working substance.
Specific heat varies with temperature ( increases) hence
value of changes (decreases)with temperature.
Air fuel mixture does not completely combine chemically
at high temperatures and that C0, H 2, H and 02 may be
present at equilibrium condition.
The variation in the number of molecules present in the
cylinder as the pressure and temperature change
Assumption in Fuel air cycles
1. There is no chemical change in either fuel or
air prior to combustion.
2. Subsequent to combustion the charge is
always in chemical equilibrium.
3. No heat exchange between the gases and
cylinder walls in any process(adiabatic).
4. The compression and expansion are
considered to be frictionless.
5. Incase of reciprocating engines the changes in
velocities are negligibly small.
 Comparison between Air standard cycles
and fuel air cycles
1. Loss due to variation of specific heat:
1-21- 31-4-1
represents the Otto
cycle with Constant
specific heats.
1-2- 3-4-1
represents the Otto
cycle with variable
specific heats
 2. Dissociation or chemical
Disintegration of burnt gases at high temperature.
equilibrium loss:
During dissociation a considerable amount of heat is
absorbed; this heat will be liberated when the elements
recombine as the temperatures falls.
The dissociation lowers the temperatures and pressure at
the beginning of the stroke, thus loss of power and
efficiency.
At higher temperatures some of the combustion products
will dissociate, this disturbs the chemical equilibrium.
mainly CO2 into CO and O2.
Dissociation has a more pronounced effecting SI engines.
In CI engines, the heterogeneous mixture of air and fuel
tend to lower the temperature and hence the dissociation
effect is less
Thermal efficiency and fuel consumption: - The
simple air standard theory predicts no variation of
thermal efficiency with mixture strength.
Fuel air cycle analysis suggests that the thermal
efficiency will deteriorate as the mixture supplied to the
engine is enriched towards the chemically correct
mixture.
Enrichment beyond the chemically correct ratio results in
the supply of unusable excess fuel and thermal
efficiency drops rapidly.
Thermal efficiency will increases as the mixture is
weakened.
However, beyond a certain weakening the combustion
becomes erratic with loss of efficiency. Thus maximum
efficiency is within the weak zone near chemically
correct ratio
 ACTUAL CYCLES
Actual cycle efficiency of internal combustion engine is much
lower than air standard efficiency due to various losses occurring in
the actual engine operation. The losses are as follows;
(1)Losses due to variation of specific
heats with temperature. Considered in fuel air
(2) Chemical equilibrium losses cycle analysis
or dissociation losses.
(3) Time losses.
(4) Losses due to incomplete combustion.
(5) Direct heat losses.
(6) Exhaust blow down losses.
(7) Pumping losses.
The actual cycles for IC engines differ from theoretical
cycles in many respects. These differences are
mainly due to
The working substance is the mixture of air and fuel
vapor or finely atomized liquid fuel in air combined
with products of combustion left from the previous
cycle.
The change in chemical composition of working
substance.
Variation of specific heats with temperature.
Progressive combustion rather than instantaneous
combustion.
Heat transfer to and from the working substance.

Most of them can be considered in the following three

factors.
(1) Time loss factor (Including incomplete combustion
loss): - Due to insufficient time available for mixing and
combustion.
(2) Heat Loss factor: -
(3) Exhaust blow down factors: - Factors which
accounts for loss of work during the expansion process
when the exhaust valve is opened early.
Time loss factors: - In theoretical cycles burning is
considered instantaneous but in actual cycles it takes
some finite interval of time.
During combustion some change in volume takes place
and crankshaft may turn about 400 between the time
spark occurs and the time the charge is completely burnt
(maximum pressure in the cycle).
losses.
Time loss factors
The effect of finite time of combustion
1. Maximum pressure is not reached when the
volume is minimum, but it occurs some time after
the TDC.
2. The spark is produced at a than at 2.
3. During the first part of combustion pressure
rises along a- b and then along b-c.
The point 3I represents state of gas at the end
of combustion if the combustion was instantaneous
and an additional amount of work would have been
done which is represented by hatched area. This
loss of work reduces the efficiency and is called as
burning time loss or merely time losses.
Incomplete combustion: -
This also comes under time losses.
Perfect homogeneity of mixture not possible
In SI engine only 95 % of the energy is
released with stoichiometric fuel air ratio.
Slightly lean mixture is better to avoid
wastage of fuel ( maximum efficiency)
while rich mixture is required to utilize all the
oxygen.
Too lean mixture will not burn at all - wastage
of fuel.