Chapter 4_ Part 2

Air-Standard Diesel Cycle

The air-standard Diesel cycle is the ideal cycle that approximates the Diesel
combustion engine

Process Description
1-2 Isentropic compression
2-3 Constant pressure heat addition
3-4 Isentropic expansion
4-1 Constant volume heat rejection

The P-v and T-s diagrams are

2
3
Thermal efficiency of the Diesel cycle

Wnet Qout
 th , Diesel   1
Qin Qin
Now to find Qin and Qout.

Apply the first law closed system to process 2-3, P = constant.

Thus, for constant specific heats

Qnet , 23  U 23  P2 (V3  V2 )
Qnet , 23  Qin  mCv (T3  T2 )  mR (T3  T2 )
Qin  mC p (T3  T2 ) 4
 Apply the first law closed system to process 4-1, V = constant (just as we did for the
Otto cycle)

Thus, for constant specific heats

Qnet , 41  U 41
Qnet , 41  Qout  mCv (T1  T4 )
Qout  mCv (T1  T4 )  mCv (T4  T1 )
The thermal efficiency becomes
Qout
 th , Diesel  1
Qin
mCv (T4  T1 )
 1
mC p (T3  T2 ) 5
 Cv (T4  T1 )
 th , Diesel  1
C p (T3  T2 )
1 T1 (T4 / T1  1)
 1
What is T3/T2 ?
k T2 (T3 / T2  1)

PV PV
3 3
 2 2 where P3  P2
T3 T2
T3 V3
  rc
T2 V2
where rc is called the cutoff ratio, defined as V3 /V2, and is a measure of the
duration of the heat addition at constant pressure. Since the fuel is injected
directly into the cylinder, the cutoff ratio can be related to the number of degrees
that the crank rotated during the fuel injection into the cylinder.

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 What is T4/T1 ?
PV PV
4 4
 1 1 where V4  V1
T4 T1
T4 P4

T1 P1
Recall processes 1-2 and 3-4 are isentropic, so

PV  PV
1 1
k
2 2
k
and PV  PV4 4
k
3 3
k

Since V4 = V1 and P3 = P2, we divide the second equation by the first equation and
obtain

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 1 T1 (T4 / T1  1)
 th , Diesel  1
Therefore, k T2 (T3 / T2  1)
1 T1 rck  1
 1
k T2 (rc  1)
1 r 1
k
 1 k 1
c
r k (rc  1)
What happens as rc goes to 1? Sketch the P-v diagram for the Diesel cycle and
show rc approaching 1 in the limit.
P

v
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When rc > 1 for a fixed r,  th , Diesel   th , Otto .

But, since rDiesel  rOtto ,  th, Diesel   th, Otto .