Thermodynamic Analysis of

Internal Combustion Engines

P M V SUBBARAO
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
IIT Delhi

Work on A Blue Print Before You Ride on an Actual Engine….

It is a Sign of Civilized Engineering….
 SI Engine Cycle

FUEL
A
I Ignition
R

Fuel/Air
Mixture Combustion
Products
Actual
Cycle

Intake Compression Power Exhaust

Stroke Stroke Stroke Stroke
 Actual SI Engine cycle

Total Time Available: 10 msec

Ignition
 Early CI Engine Cycle

Fuel injected
A at TC
I
R

Air Combustion
Products
Actual
Cycle

Intake Compression Power Exhaust

Stroke Stroke Stroke Stroke
 Modern CI Engine Cycle

Fuel injected
A at 15o bTC
I
R

Air Combustion
Products
Actual
Cycle

Intake Compression Power Exhaust

Stroke Stroke Stroke Stroke
 Thermodynamic Cycles for CI engines

• In early CI engines the fuel was injected when the piston reached TC
and thus combustion lasted well into the expansion stroke.

• In modern engines the fuel is injected before TC (about 15 o)

Fuel injection starts

Fuel injection starts

Early CI engine Modern CI engine

• The combustion process in the early CI engines is best approximated by

a constant pressure heat addition process  Diesel Cycle

• The combustion process in the modern CI engines is best approximated

by a combination of constant volume and constant pressure  Dual Cycle
 Thermodynamic Modeling

• The thermal operation of an IC engine is a transient cyclic process.

• Even at constant load and speed, the value of thermodynamic
parameters at any location vary with time.
• Each event may get repeated again and again.
• So, an IC engine operation is a transient process which gets
completed in a known or required Cycle time.
• Higher the speed of the engine, lower will be the Cycle time.
• Modeling of IC engine process can be carried out in many ways.
• Multidimensional, Transient Flow and heat transfer Model.
• Thermodynamic Transient Model USUF.
• Fuel-air Thermodynamic Mode.
• Air standard Thermodynamic Model.
 Ideal Thermodynamic Cycles

• Air-standard analysis is used to perform elementary analyses

of IC engine cycles.

• Simplifications to the real cycle include:

1) Fixed amount of air (ideal gas) for working fluid
2) Combustion process not considered
3) Intake and exhaust processes not considered
4) Engine friction and heat losses not considered
5) Specific heats independent of temperature

• The two types of reciprocating engine cycles analyzed are:

1) Spark ignition – Otto cycle
2) Compression ignition – Diesel cycle
 FUEL
A
I
Otto Cycle Ignition
R

Fuel/Air
Mixture Combustion
Products
Actual
Cycle

Intake Compression Power Exhaust

Stroke Stroke Stroke Stroke
Qin Qout

Air
Otto TC
Cycle

BC

Compression Const volume Expansion Const volume

Process heat addition Process heat rejection
Process Process
 Air-Standard Otto cycle
Process 1 2 Isentropic compression
Process 2  3 Constant volume heat addition
Process 3  4 Isentropic expansion
Process 4  1 Constant volume heat rejection

Compression ratio:
v1 v4
r 
v 2 v3
Qin

Qout

v2 v1
TC BC
TC BC
 First Law Analysis of Otto Cycle

12 Isentropic Compression AIR

Q W
(u 2  u1 )   ( in )
m m
Win
 (u2  u1 )  cv (T2  T1 )
m
k 1
T2  v1  P2 T2 v1
   r k 1  
T1  v2  P1 T1 v2

23 Constant Volume Heat Addition

Qin W
(u3  u 2 )  ( ) Qin
m m AIR
TC
Qin
 (u3  u2 )  cv (T3  T2 )
m
P3 T3

P2 T2
3  4 Isentropic Expansion
Q W
(u 4  u3 )   (  out ) AIR
m m
Wout
 (u3  u4 )  cv (T3  T4 )
m
k 1
T4  v3  1 P4 T4 v3
     
T3  v4  r k 1 P3 T3 v4

4  1 Constant Volume Heat Removal

Qout W
(u1  u 4 )  ( )
m m AIR Qout
Qout
 (u4  u1 )  cv (T4  T1 ) BC
m
P4 P1

T4 T1
 First Law Analysis Parameters

Net cycle work:

Wcycle  Wout  Win  m u3  u4   m u2  u1 

Cycle thermal efficiency:

Wcycle  u3  u4    u2  u1    u3  u2    u4  u1   1  u4  u1
th  
Qin  u3  u 2  u3  u 2 u3  u 2
cv (T4  T1 ) T 1
 1  1  1  1  k 1
cv (T3  T2 ) T2 r

Indicated mean effective pressure is:

Wcycle imep Qin  r  1  Qin / m   r 

imep     
 th      th
V1  V2 P1 P1V1  r  1  k  1  u1   r 1
 Effect of Compression Ratio on Thermal Efficiency

1
th  1
const cV r k 1

Typical SI
engines
9 < r < 11

k = 1.4

• Spark ignition engine compression ratio limited by T3 (autoignition)

and P3 (material strength), both ~rk

• For r = 8 the efficiency is 56% which is twice the actual indicated value
Effect of Specific Heat Ratio on Thermal Efficiency

1
th  1
const cV r k 1

Specific heat
ratio (k)

Cylinder temperatures vary between 20K and 2000K so 1.2 < k < 1.4
k = 1.3 most representative
 Factors Affecting Work per Cycle
The net cycle work of an engine can be increased by either:
i) Increasing the r (1’2)
ii) Increase Qin (23”)

Wcycle Qin  r 
3’’ imep     th
P V1  V2 V1  r  1 
3 (ii)
4’’
Qin 4
Wcycle
4’
2
(i)

1
1’

V2 V1
Effect of Compression Ratio on Thermal Efficiency and MEP

imep Qin  r   1
    1 k 
P1 P1V1  r  1   r 

k = 1.3
 Ideal Diesel Cycle

Qin Qout

Air

BC

Compression Const pressure Expansion Const volume

Process heat addition Process heat rejection
Process Process
 Air-Standard Diesel cycle

Process 1 2 Isentropic compression

Process 2  3 Constant pressure heat addition
Process 3  4 Isentropic expansion
Process 4  1 Constant volume heat rejection

Cut-off ratio:
Qin
v3
rc 
v2

Qout

v2 v1
TC
TC BC BC
 Thermal Efficiency

Qout m u4  u1
 Diesel  1  1
cycle Qin m h3  h2

For cold air-standard the above reduces to:

 Diesel  1  k 1  

1  1 rck  1   Otto  1 
1
const cV 
r  k rc  1  
 recall,
r k 1

Note the term in the square bracket is always larger than one so for the
same compression ratio, r, the Diesel cycle has a lower thermal efficiency
than the Otto cycle

Note: CI needs higher r compared to SI to ignite fuel

 Thermal Efficiency

Typical CI Engines
15 < r < 20

When rc (= v3/v2)1 the Diesel cycle efficiency approaches the

efficiency of the Otto cycle

Higher efficiency is obtained by adding less heat per cycle, Q in,

 run engine at higher speed to get the same power.
 Thermodynamic Dual Cycle

Qin Qin Qout

Air
Dual TC
Cycle

BC

Compression Const volume Const pressure Expansion Const volume

Process heat addition heat addition Process heat rejection
Process Process Process
 Dual Cycle
Process 1  2 Isentropic compression
Process 2  2.5 Constant volume heat addition
Process 2.5  3 Constant pressure heat addition
Process 3  4 Isentropic expansion
Process 4  1 Constant volume heat rejection

2.5 3 Qin
3

2 Qin
2.5

4
4 2

1
1 Qout

Qin
 (u2.5  u2 )  ( h3  h2.5 )  cv (T2.5  T2 )  c p (T3  T2.5 )
m
 Thermal Efficiency

Qout m u4  u1
 Dual  1   1
cycle Qin m (u2.5  u2 )  (h3  h2.5 )

1  rck  1 
 Dual  1  k 1 
const cv r  (  1)  k  rc  1 

v3 P3
where rc  and  
v2.5 P2

Note, the Otto cycle (rc=1) and the Diesel cycle (=1) are special cases:

Otto  1 
1  Diesel  1  k 1  

1  1 rck  1  
r k 1 const cV 
r  k rc  1  

The use of the Dual cycle requires information about either:
i) the fractions of constant volume and constant pressure heat addition
(common assumption is to equally split the heat addition), or
ii) maximum pressure P3.

Transformation of rc and  into more natural variables yields

k 1   Qin  1   1 1 P3
rc  1    k 1  
k  P V
 1 1 r k  1 
 r k P1

For the same inlet conditions P1, V1 and the same compression ratio:
Otto   Dual   Diesel

For the same inlet conditions P1, V1 and the same peak pressure P3
(actual design limitation in engines):
 Diesel   Dual   otto
 For the same inlet conditions P1, V1 For the same inlet conditions P1, V1
and the same compression ratio P2/P1: and the same peak pressure P3:

Pmax

Pressure, P
“x” →“2.5”
Pressure, P

Qout
th  1 
Po

Qin
Po
Specific Volume
1
Specific Volume 4 Tds
 1 3
2 Tds Tmax
tto
O al
Du
sel el
Dies

Temperature, T
Die
Temperature, T

al
Du
to
Ot

Entropy Entropy