The Otto cycle is a set of processes used by spark ignition internal combustion engines (2-stroke or 4-stroke cycles).

These engines a) ingest a mixture of fuel and air, b) compress it, c) cause it to react, thus effecti ely adding heat through con erting chemical energy into thermal energy, d) expand the combustion products, and then e) e!ect the combustion products and replace them "ith a ne" charge of fuel and air. The different processes are sho"n in #igure $.%& '. (ntake stroke, gasoline apor and air dra"n into engine ( 2. )ompression stroke, , increase ( ). $. )ombustion (spark), short time, essentially constant olume ( heat absorbed from a series of reser oirs at temperatures 4. +o"er stroke& expansion ( ). ,. -al e exhaust& al e opens, gas escapes. .. ( to . ). ). *odel&

) *odel& re!ection of heat to series of reser oirs at temperatures

to

. /. 0xhaust stroke, piston pushes remaining combustion products out of chamber ( ). 1e model the processes as all acting on a fixed mass of air contained in a piston-cylinder arrangement, as sho"n in #igure $.'2.

The starting point is the general expression for the thermal efficiency of a cycle&

The con ention, as pre iously, is that heat exchange is positi e if heat is flo"ing into the system or engine, so is negati e. The heat absorbed occurs during combustion "hen

the spark occurs, roughly at constant olume. The heat absorbed can be related to the temperature change from state 2 to state $ as&

The heat re!ected is gi en by (for a perfect gas "ith constant specific heats) 3ubstituting the expressions for the heat absorbed and re!ected in the expression for thermal efficiency yields

1e can simplify the abo e expression using the fact that the processes from ' to 2 and from $ to 4 are isentropic&

The 4uantity is called the compression ratio. (n terms of compression ratio, the efficiency of an ideal Otto cycle is&