ME 354 Tutorial #5 Otto Cycle

Winter 2001
An ideal Otto cycle has a compression ratio of 8. At the beginning of
the compression process air is at 95 kPa and 27C. 750 kJ/kg of heat is
transferred to the air during the constant volume heat-addition
process. Assume constant specific heats at room temperature.
Determine:

a) The pressure and temperature at the end of the heat-addition

process
b) The net work output
c) The thermal efficiency of the cycle

Step 1: Draw a process diagram to represent the system

To better visualize what is happening during the cycle we can draw a P-
v process diagram.

Step 2: Prepare a property table

T (K) P (kPa)
1 300 95
2
3
4

Step 3: State your assumptions

Assumptions:
1) ke, pe 0
2) air-standard assumption are applicable
 3) air is an ideal gas with constant specific heats

Step 4: Calculations
Part a)
In order to find the pressure and temperature at state 3 we need to
find the temperature and pressure of an adjacent state (2 or 3) so we
can use some relation between that state and state 3. We will find P 2
and T2.

Referring to our process diagram, we see that from state 1 to 2 we

have an isentropic compression process. Referring to our ideal gas
relations for isentropic processes, the ratio of the temperatures of the
two states are related to the ratio of their specific volumes by Eq1.
k 1
T2 v1
(Eq1)
T1 v 2

Noting that the ratio v1/v2 (equivalent to Vmax/Vmin) is the compression

ratio, r, and the value of k for air is 1.4, we can solve for the
temperature at state 2.
k 1
v
(300) 8
1.4 1
T2 T1 1 = 689.2 K
v2

Writing the 1st law for the constant heat-addition process from state 2
to 3 we can relate state 2 to state 3 as seen in Equation 2. Note: we
have used the assumption that ke & pe are approximately zero here.

q in u 3 u 2 (Eq2)

For an ideal gas with constant specific heats we have a relation for the
change in internal energy in terms of the change in temperature as
shown in Eq3.

u 3 u 2 cv T3 T2 (Eq3)

Since we are given the value of q in in the problem statement we can

substitute Eq3 into Eq2 and rearrange to solve for the temperature at
state 3.
 kJ
750
q kg
qin cv (T3 T2 ) T3 in T2 689.2 K = 1733.8K
cv kJ
0.718
kg K
answer a)

To find the pressure at state 2 we can use the ideal gas law as shown in
Eq4.

P1v1 P2 v 2 v T2
R P2 P1 1 (Eq4)
T1 T2 v2 T1

Noting again, that v1/v2 is the compression ratio we can solve for the
pressure at state 2.

v T 689.2[ K ]
P2 P1 1 2 (95[kPa])(8) =1746 kPa
v2 T1 300[ K ]

Using the ideal gas to relate state 3 to state 2 we obtain Eq5.

P3 v3 P2 v 2 v T
R P3 P2 2 3 (Eq5)
T3 T2 v3 T2

Noting that v2 = v3, we can solve for the pressure at state 3.

v T 1733.8 K
P3 P2 2 3 (1746[kPa])1 = 4392.4kPa answer
v3 T2 689.2 K
a)

Part b)
To find an expression for the net work output we can perform an overall
energy balance on the cycle as shown in Eq6.

qin win qout wout wnet wout win qin qout (Eq6)

We are given qin in the problem statement so the problem reduces to

finding qout. Writing a first law balance (similar to what we did for q in)
we can find qout in terms of the temperature difference between state 4
and 1as shown in Eq7.
 q out u 4 u1 c v T4 T1 (Eq7)

To find the temperature at state 4 we make use of the fact that the
expansion from state 3 to state 4 is isentropic so we can use the
relation shown in Eq1 again.
k 1
v
T4 T3 3 (Eq8)
v4

Noting that v3/v4 is the inverse of the compression ratio we can

determine the temperature at state 4.
1.4 1
1
T4 (1733.8[ K ]) 754.7 K
8

Substituting this result into Eq7 we can determine qout.

kJ
q out c v T4 T1 0.718 754.7[ K ] 300[ K ] 326.5 kJ/kg
kg K

Using this result with the given qin =750kJ/kg and Eq6 we can solve for
the net work output.

kJ
wnet qin q out (750 326.5) 423.5 kJ/kg answer b)
kg

Part c)
To calculate the thermal efficiency we can use our general expression
(benefit/cost).

benefit wnet 423.5

th 0.565 answer c)
cos t qin 750

We could have also used the expression for the Otto cycle thermal
efficiency in terms of the compression ratio.

1 1
th 1 k 1
1 0.565 answer c)
r 8 0 .4

Step 5: Concluding Remarks & Discussion

a) The pressure and temperature at the end of the heat-addition
process were found to be 4392.4kPa and 1733.8 K respectively.
b) The net work output was found to be 423.5 kJ/kg.
c) The thermal efficiency of the cycle was found to be 0.565.