The IC Engine: Why…

By: Matthew King

 Outline
 A Short History
 Background
 Why…
 How do we compare engines and their cycles?
 History
 The internal combustion
engine was first conceived and
developed in the late 1800’s
 The man who is considered the
inventor of the modern IC
engine and the founder of the
industry is pictured to the
right….Nikolaus Otto (1832-
1891).
 Otto developed a four-stroke
engine in 1876, most often
referred to as a Spark Ignition,
since a spark is needed to
ignite the fuel air mixture.
 History
 The impact on society is quite obvious, all most
all travel and transportation is powered by the IC
engine: trains, automobiles, airplanes are just a
few.
 The IC engine largely replaced the steam engine
at the turn of the century (1900’s)
 Another important cycle is the Diesel cycle
developed by Rudolph Diesel in 1897. This cycle
is also known as a compression ignition engine.
 Background on IC Engines
 “An internal combustion is defined as an
engine in which the chemical energy of the
fuel is released inside the engine and used
directly for mechanical work, as opposed to an
external combustion engine in which a
separate combustor is used to burn the fuel.” 1
 “IC engines can deliver power in the range
from 0.01 kW to 20x10^3 kW, depending on
their displacement.”2
 Background on the Otto Cycle
 The Otto Cycle has four basic steps
or strokes:
 1. An intake stroke that draws a
combustible mixture of fuel and air
into the cylinder
 2. A compression stroke with the
valves closed which raises the
temperature of the mixture. A spark
ignites the mixture towards the end
of this stroke.
 3. An expansion or power stroke.
Resulting from combustion.
 4. An Exhaust stroke the pushes the
burned contents out of the cylinder.
 To the right is an idealized
representation of the Otto cycle on
a PV diagram.
 http://www.rawbw.com/~xmwang/j
avappl/ottoCyc.html
 Why…
The Otto cycle IC engine has remained fundamentally
unchanged, besides slight improvements, for over 100
years. Its’ popularity has continually increased
because…
 Relatively low cost
 Favorable power to weight ratio
 High Efficiency
 Relative simple and robust operating characteristics
 Improvements are mainly lower emissions and higher
fuel efficiency
 Comparing Engines….
 mep= work done per unit displacement volume
 Or average pressure that results in the same amount
of indicated or brake work produced by the engine
 Scales out effect of engine size

 Two useful types: imep and bmep

 imep: indicated mean effective pressure
 -the net work per unit displacement volume done by the gas
during compression and expansion
 bmep: brake mean effective pressure
 -the external shaft work per unit volume done by the engine
 4   
bmep 
Vd

BMEP
 Based on torque:

4   
bmep  (4 stroke)
Vd

2   
bmep  (2
stroke)
Vd
 Compare…
 Brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc)
 Measure of engine efficiency
 They are in fact inversely related, so a lower bsfc
means a better engine
 Often used over thermal efficiency because an
accepted universal definition of thermal efficiency
does not exist
m f m f
bsfc  
Wb 2     N

 m f m f
bsfc  
W b 2     N

bsfc
 bsfc is the fuel flow rate divided by the brake
power
m f m f
bsfc  
W b 2     N
 We can also derive the brake thermal
efficiency if we give an energy to the fuel
called heat of combustion or,
 qc
Wb 1
 
m f  qc bsfc  qc
 Compare…
 Volumetric Efficiency, ev
 The mass of fuel and air inducted into the cylinder
divided by the mass that would occupy the displaced
volume at the density ρi in the intake manifold
 Note it’s a mass ratio and for a 4 stroke engine

2(m a  m f )
ev 
iVdN
 For a direct injection engine m
f 0
 Other comparisons…
 First law analysis- energy conservation
 For a system open to the transfer of enthalpy, mass,
work, and heat, the net energy crossing the control
surface is stored into or depleted from the control
volume
 Second Law Analysis – entropy conservation
 This approach takes into account the irreversibility
that occurs in each process
 Another outcome of this analysis is the development
of the usefulness of each type of energy (exergy)
 References
1. Internal Combustion Engines, Colin R.
Ferguson, John Wiley & Sons, 2001
2. Engines An Introduction, John L. Lumley,
Cambridge University Press, 1999