Combustion in SI Engines

Presented by
Dr. Kamal Kishore Khatri

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Combustion: Introduction
It is a chemical reaction in which certain elements of
the fuel like hydrogen & carbon combine with oxygen
liberating heat energy and causing an increase in
temperature of the gases.

The conditions necessary for combustion are:

– The presence of a combustible mixture;
– Some means of initiation combustion, &
– Stabilization & propagation of flame in the
combustion chamber.

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 Combustion: Introduction Cont.
• A chemical reaction equation for C8H18 (isooctane) is
given as:
C8H18 +12.5 (O2+3.76N2) = 8CO2+9H2O
+12.53.76N2 + Heat.

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Stages of combustion in SI Engines

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 Actual Stages of combustion

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Flame front propagation:
The two factors which determine the rate of movement
of the flame front are:-
1. Reaction Rate: Chemical reaction
2. Transposition Rate: Physical movement

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 Flame travel

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Effect of Engine variables on Ignition
lag
• Fuel: higher the self ignition temperature, longer the
ignition lag.
• Mixture ratio:-

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 Effect of Engine variables on Ignition
lag cont.
• Intake temperature & pressure: T, P ignition lag .
• Turbulence: It is directly proportional to engine
speed, so ignition lag increases with speed if
measured in crank angles.
• Electrode gap:- Compression Ratio  Gap 

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Factors influencing the flame speed:
Turbulence:
Turbulence  Flame speed 
– Turbulence accelerates chemical reaction by
intimate mixing of fuel and O2.
– It increases the heat flow to cylinder wall and
may extinguish the flame.
– Insufficient turbulence lowers the efficiency due
to incomplete combustion.
– Excessive turbulence results in more rapid
pressure rise, resulting in rough & noisy running
of the engine.

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Factors influencing the flame speed cont.
Fuel –Air Ratio:
The highest flame velocities are obtained with
somewhat richer mixture.

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Factors influencing the flame speed cont.

• Intake Temperature & pressure:-

T,P  Flame speed 
• Compression Ratio (C.R.):-
C.R.  Flame speed
Higher compression Ratio increases P and T of the
working mixture & decreases the concentration of residual
gases.
• Engine load or output:-
With increase in engine load the cycle pressures
increases, hence the flame speed increases.

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Factors influencing the flame speed
cont.
Engine speed:-
Speed  Flame speed
The higher the engine speed, greater then turbulence
so flame speed increases.
With increase in engine speed ignition must be advanced.
The crank angle required for combustion is constant (=wt)

Engine size:-
The size of engine does not have much effect.
The number of crank degree required for flame travel will
be about the same.

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The phenomenon of knock in SI
Engines
• Combustion spreads across the mixture.
• A definite flame front travels from S.P. (spark plug)to
the other end of chamber.
• Heat release increases T& P of burned mixture above
those of unburned mixture.
• The burned mixture will expand & compress the
unburned mixture adiabatically increasing P & T.
• If the Temperature of unburnt gases exceeds the self-
ignition temperature of the fuel & remains at or
above this, during ignition lag, spontaneous ignition
or auto ignition occurs. This is knocking.

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 Combustion with Knocking

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Effect of Engine variables on knock:
Density Factors:
Any factor which reduces the density of the charge
tends to reduce knocking by providing lower energy
release. The factors are:
(1) Compression Ratio (C.R.):- C.R.  knocking  the
overall increase in density due to higher C.R. increases
the preflame reactions in the end charge thereby
increasing the knocking.
(2). Mass of inducted charge (Mic): Mic T& 
Knocking ( density)
(3). Inlet temperature of mixture (Ti): Ti  Tcompression
 knocking 
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 Effect of Engine variables on knock
cont.
(4). Temperature of combustion chamber walls:-In
order to prevent knocking the hot spots in chamber
should be avoided.
(5). Retarding the spark Timing :- Retarding reduces the
knocking due to lower peak pressure.
(6). Power output of engine: - power output
Temperature & P  knocking.

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• Time Factors: Increasing the flame speed or
increasing the duration of the ignition lag will tend to
reduce knocking. The factors are:
• Turbulence: Engine speed Turbulence Flame
speed  knocking
• Flame travel distance: The knocking is reduced by
shortening the time required for flame front to
traverse the chamber. It depends on the chamber
size & spark plug position.
• Engine size: - A larger engine has a greater tendency
for knocking than a smaller engine since there is
more time of the end gas to auto ignite.
• Combustion chamber shape: The more compact
chamber gives better antiknock characteristics.
• location of spark plug:- The spark plug is centrally
located to minimize flame travel.
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Composition Factors:
• Fuel Air Ratio: The flame speeds are effected by the
ratio. Maximum flame temperature is at   1.1 to
1.2 whereas minimum reaction time is at  = 1.
• Octane value of the Fuel: A higher self ignition
temperature & low pre flame reactivity would reduce
the knocking. Paraffin series of hydrocarbon have the
maximum & aromatic series the minimum tendency
to knock.

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Combustion Chambers for SI Engines:
The design of chambers has influence on the engine
performance & it’s knocking.

The requirement are to provided:-

• High power output with minimum octane
requirement.
• High thermal efficiency &
• Smooth engine operation.

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Smooth Engine Operation:-
• Moderate Rate of pressure Rise
• Reducing the possibility of knocking

High power output & thermal efficiency:

• A high degree of turbulence
• High volumetric efficiency
• Any design that improves anti knocking; it
permits the use of higher compression ratio.
• A compact combustion chamber. It reduces the
heat losses during combustion and increases the
thermal efficiency.
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Types of combustion chambers:-

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Fuel Knock Scale
• To provide a standard measure of a fuel’s ability to
resist knock, a scale has been devised by which fuels
are assigned an octane number ON.
• The octane number determines whether or not a
fuel will knock in a given engine under given
operating conditions.
• By definition, normal heptane (n-C7H16) has an
octane value of zero and isooctane (C8H18) has a
value of 100.
• The higher the octane number, the higher the
resistance to knock.

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• Blends of these two hydrocarbons define the knock
resistance of intermediate
• octane numbers: e.g., a blend of 10% n-heptane and
90% isooctane has an octane number of 90.
• A fuel’s octane number is determined by measuring
what blend of these two hydrocarbons matches the
test fuel’s knock resistance.

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Octane Number Measurement
• Two methods have been developed to measure ON
using a standardized single-cylinder engine
developed under the auspices of the Cooperative
Fuel Research (CFR) Committee in 1931.
• The CFR engine is 4-stroke with 3.25” bore and 4.5”
stroke, compression ratio can be varied from 3 to 30.

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 Research Motor
Inlet temperature (oC) 52 149
Speed (rpm) 600 900
Spark advance (oBTC) 13 19-26
(varies with r)
Coolant temperature (oC) 100
Inlet pressure (atm) 1.0
Humidity (kg water/kg dry air) 0.0036 - 0.0072

Note: In 1931 iso-octane was the most knock resistant

HC, now there are fuels that are more knock resistant
than isooctane
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Testing procedure:
• Run the CFR engine on the test fuel at both research
and motor conditions.
• Slowly increase the compression ratio until a
standard amount of knock occurs as measured by a
magnetostriction knock detector.
• At that compression ratio run the engines on blends
of n-heptane and isooctane.
• ON is the % by volume of octane in the blend that
produces the stand. Knock
RON  MON
Antiknock index 
2
• The antiknock index which is displayed at the fuel
pump is the average of the research and motor
octane numbers:
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Note the motor octane number is always lower because it uses more severe
operating conditions: higher inlet temperature and more spark advance.

The automobile manufacturer will specify the minimum fuel ON that will resist
knock throughout the engine’s operating speed and load range.

Formula Name Critical r RON MON

CH4 Methane 12.6 120 120

C3H8 Propane 12.2 112 97
CH4O Methanol - 106 92
C2H6O Ethanol - 107 89
C8H18 Isooctane 7.3 100 100
Blend of HCs Regular gasoline 91 83
n-C7H16 n-heptane 0 0

For fuels with antiknock quality better than octane, the octane number is:

ON = 100 + 28.28T / [1.0 + 0.736T+(1.0 + 1.472T - 0.035216T2)1/2]

where T is milliliters of tetraethyl lead per U.S. gallon

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Fuel Additives
Chemical additives are used to raise the octane number of gasoline.

The most effective antiknock agents are lead alkyls;

(i) Tetraethyl lead (TEL), (C2H5)4Pb was introduced in 1923
(ii) Tetramethyl lead (TML), (CH3)4Pb was introduced in 1960

In 1959 a manganese antiknock compound known as MMT was introduced

tosupplement TEL (used in Canada since 1978).

About 1970 low-lead and unleaded gasoline were introduced over

toxicological concerns with lead alkyls (TEL contains 64% by weight lead).

Alcohols such as ethanol and methanol have high knock resistance.

Since 1970 another alcohol methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) has been
added to gasoline to increase octane number. MTBE is formed by reacting
methanol and isobutylene (not used in Canada).
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 Combustion in CI Engine

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Combustion in CI Engine: Introduction
In a CI engine the fuel is sprayed directly into the
cylinder and the vaporised
part of the fuel mixes with air and ignites
spontaneously.
These photos are taken in a RCM under CI engine
conditions with swirl

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 Combustion in CI Engine: Introduction

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In-Cylinder Measurements
This graph shows the fuel injection flow rate, net heat
release rate and cylinder pressure for a direct injection
CI engine.

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Combustion in CI Engine

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Combustion in CI Engine
The combustion process proceeds by the following stages:

Ignition delay (ab) - fuel is injected directly into the cylinder

towards the end of the compression stroke. The liquid fuel
atomizes into small drops and penetrates into the combustion
chamber. The fuel vaporizes and mixes with the high-
temperature high-pressure air.

Premixed combustion phase (bc) – combustion of the fuel which

has mixedwith the air to within the flammability limits (air at
high-temperature and high-pressure) during the ignition delay
period occurs rapidly in a few crank angles.
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Mixing controlled combustion phase (cd) – after
premixed gas consumed, the burning rate is controlled
by the rate at which mixture becomes available for
burning. The burning rate is controlled primarily by the
fuel-air mixing process.

Late combustion phase (de) – heat release may proceed

at a lower rate well into the expansion stroke (no
additional fuel injected during this phase).
Combustion of any unburned liquid fuel and soot is
responsible for this.

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Four Stages of Combustion in CI
Engines

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 Ignition Delay or Ignition Lag
• Is the time between the start of injection and start of
combustion.
• It extends for about 13 deg. movement of crank.
• This delay time decreases with increase in speed.
• If there is no delay, the fuel would burn at injector and
there would be oxygen deficiency around the injector,
which results in incomplete combustion.
• If the delay period is too long, amount of fuel availability
for simultaneous explosion , is too great , which results in
rapid pressure rise.
• The delay period should be as short as possible since long
delay period gives more rapid rise in pressure and thus
causes knocking.
Ignition Delay or Ignition Lag
 Component of Ignition Delay or
Ignition Lag
Physical delay:
• is the time between the beginning of injection and the
attainment of chemical reaction conditions.
• During this period, the fuel is atomized, vaporized,
mixed with air and raised to its self-ignition
temperature.
• depends on the type of fuel, i.e., for light fuel the
physical delay is small while for heavy viscous fuels the
physical delay is high.
• The physical delay is greatly reduced by using high
injection pressures and high turbulence to facilitate
breakup of the jet and improving evaporation.
 Component of Ignition Delay or
Ignition Lag Cont….
Chemical delay:
• During the chemical delay reactions start slowly and then
accelerate until inflammation or ignition takes place.
• Generally, the chemical delay is larger than the physical
delay.
• it depends on the temperature of the surroundings and at
high temperatures, the chemical reactions are faster and
the chemical delay is shorter than the physical delay
• Total delay period = Physical delay + Chemical delay
tt = tp + tc ,
In CI engine tp >> 0 ,
In SI engine tp ≈ 0
Combustion phenomenon in CI engine
V/s combustion in SI engine.
S. No. COMUSTION IN SI ENGINE COMBUSTION IN CI ENGINE

1. Homogeneous mixture of petrol Air alone is compressed through large

vapour and air is compressed ( CR Compression ratio (12:1 to 22:1)and
6:1 to 11:1) at the end of fuel is injected at high pressure of 110
compression stroke and is ignited at to 200 bar using fuel injector pump.
one place by spark plug.
2. Single definite flame front rogresses Fuel is not injected at once, but spread
through air fuel mixture and entire over a period of time. Initial droplets
mixture will be in combustible range meet air whose temperature is above
self ignition temperature and ignite
after ignition delay.
3. For effective combustion, turbulence is
required.
Turbulence which is required in SI
engine implies disordered air motion
with no general direction of
flow to break up the surface of flame
front and to distribute the shreds of
flame thought-out in
externally prepared homogeneous
combustible mixture
4. In SI Engine ignition occurs at one point
with a slow rise in pressure
For effective combustion, swirl is
required. Swirl which is required in
CI engine implies an orderly
movement of whole body of air with
a particular direction of flow, to
bring a continuous supply of fresh
air to each burning droplets and
sweep away the products of
combustion which otherwise
suffocate it.
In the CI engine, the ignition occurs
at many points simultaneously with
consequent rapid rise in pressure.
There is no definite flame front.
 EFFECT OF VARIOUS FACTORS ON
DELAY PERIOD IN CI ENGINE
Many design and operating factors affect the delay
period.
The important ones are:
1. Compression Ratio
2. Engine Speed
3. Output
4. Injection Timing
5. Quality Of The Fuel
6. Intake Temperature
7. Intake Pressure
 1. Compression Ratio. Cont…
• Minimum auto ignition temperature of a fuel decreases
due to increased density of the compressed air.
• This results in a closer contact between the molecules of
fuel and oxygen reducing the time of reaction.
• The increase in the compression temperature as well as
the decrease in the minimum auto ignition temperature
decrease the delay period.
• The maximum peak pressure during the combustion
process is only marginally affected by the compression
ratio (because delay period is shorter with higher
compression ratio and hence the pressure rise is lower).
 Why we do not use very high
compression ratio in CI?

One of the practical disadvantages of using a very high

compression ratio is that the mechanical efficiency
tends to decrease due to increase in weight of the
reciprocating parts. Therefore, engine designers always
try to use a lower compression ratio which helps in
easy cold starting and light load running at high speeds.
 2. Engine Speed
• The delay period could be given either in terms of absolute
time (in milliseconds) or in terms of crank angle degrees With
increase in engine speed.
• the loss of heat during compression decreases, resulting in
the rise of both the temperature and pressure of the
compressed air thus reducing the delay period in milliseconds.
• However, in degrees of crank travel the delay period
increases as the engine operates at a higher rpm.
• The fuel pump is geared to the engine, and hence the amount
of fuel injected during the delay period depends on crank
degrees and not on absolute time.
 2. Engine Speed cont..
Hence, at high speeds, there will be more fuel present in the
cylinder to take part in the second stage of uncontrolled
combustion resulting in high rate of pressure rise.
 3. Outputs

• With an increase in engine output the air-fuel ratio

decreases, operating temperatures increase and hence
delay period decreases.
• The rate of pressure rise is unaffected but the peak
pressure reached may be high.
 4. Injection timing
• The effect of injection advance on the pressure variation is
shown in Fig. for three injection advance timings of 90°,
18°, and 27° before TDC.
 4. Injection timing cont…
• The injected quantity of fuel per cycle is constant.
• As the pressure and temperature at the beginning of
injection are lower for higher ignition advance, the
delay period increases with increase in injection
advance.
• The optimum angle of injection advance depends on
many factors but generally it is about 20°bTDC.
 5. Quality of Fuel used
• The physical and chemical properties of fuel play very important
role in delay period.
• The most important property of fuel which is responsible for
chemical delay is its selfignition temperature.
• Lower the self-ignition temperature, lower the delay period.
• The cetane number (CN) of the fuel is another important
parameter which is responsible for the delay period.
• A fuel of higher cetane number gives lower delay period and
provides smoother engine operation.
• The effect of cetane number on the indicator diagram when
injection timing is same is shown in adjacent figure.
• The delay period for a fuel having CN = 50 is lowest and pressure
rise is also smooth and maximum pressure rise is least as most of
the fuel burns during controlled combustion.
The other properties of fuel which affects the physical delay
period are volatility, latent heat, viscosity and surface tension.
The viscosity and surface tension are responsible for the better
atomization whereas latent heat and volatility are responsible
for the rapid evaporation of fuel.
 6. Intake Temperature
• The delay period is reduced either with increased temperature.
However, preheating of charge for this purpose is not desirable
because it reduces the density of charge and volumetric
efficiency and power output.
•
 7. Intake pressure
• Increase in intake pressure or supercharging reduces the auto
ignition temperature and hence reduces the delay period.
• The peak pressure will be higher since the compression pressure
will increase with intake pressure.
 EFFECT OF VARIABLE ON DELAY
PERIOD – SUMMARY
S.No. Increase in variables Effect on Delay period Reason
1. Cetane Number of fuel Reduce Reduces the self ignition
temperature
2. Injection pressure Reduce Reduces the physical
delay due to greater
surface to volume ratio
3. Injection timing advance Increase Reduces the pressure
and temperature when
the injection begins
4. Compression ratio Reduce Increases air
temperature and
pressure and reduces
auto ignition
temperature.

5. Intake temperature Reduce Increase air temperature

6. Jacket water Reduce Increase wall and hence air
temperature temperature
7. Fuel temperature Reduce Increases chemical reaction
due
to better vaporization
8. Intake pressure Reduce Increases the density and also
reduces the auto ignition
temperature
9. Speed Increase in terms of crank Reduce loss of heat
angle but reduces in
terms of milliseconds.
10. Load ( Fuel/air Decrease Increase the operating
ratio) temperature
11. Engine size Increase in terms of crank A Larger engines operate at
angle but little effect in normally slow speeds.
terms of milliseconds.
12. Type of Lower for engines with Due to compactness of the
combustion prepre-combustion chamber.
chamber chamber
PHENOMENON OF DIESEL KNOCK
 PHENOMENON OF DIESEL
KNOCK…cont..
• Knocking is violent gas vibration and audible sound
produced by extreme pressure differentials leading to the
very rapid rise during the early part of uncontrolled second
phase of combustion.
• In C.I. engines the injection process takes place over a
definite interval of time.
• Consequently, as the first few droplets injected are passing
through the ignition lag period, additional droplets are
being injected into the chamber.
• If the ignition delay is longer, the actual burning of the first
few droplets is delayed and a greater quantity of fuel
droplets gets accumulated in the chamber.
 PHENOMENON OF DIESEL
KNOCK…cont..
• When the actual burning commences, the additional fuel
can cause too rapid a rate of pressure rise,
• If the ignition delay is quite long, so much fuel can
accumulate that the rate of pressure rise is almost
instantaneous.
• Such, a situation produces extreme pressure differentials
and violent gas vibration known as knocking (diesel knock),
and is evidenced by audible knock.
• The phenomenon is similar to that in the SI engine.
However, in SI Engine knocking occurs near the end of
combustion whereas in CI engine, knocking the occurs near
the beginning of combustion.
CI Engine Types
Two basic categories of CI engines:

i)Direct-injection – have a single open combustion

chamber into which fuel
is injected directly

ii)Indirect-injection – chamber is divided into two

regions and the fuel is
injected into the “prechamber” which is connected to
the main chamber via a
nozzle, or one or more orifices.
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 •For very-large engines (stationary power generation)
which operate at low engine speeds the time available
for mixing is long so a direct injection quiescent
chamber type is used (open or shallow bowl in piston).

•As engine size decreases and engine speed increases,

increasing amounts of swirl are used to achieve fuel-air
mixing (deep bowl in piston)

•For small high-speed engines used in automobiles

chamber swirl is not sufficient, indirect injection is used
where high swirl or turbulence is generated in the pre-
chamber during compression and products/fuel
blowdown and mix with main chamber air.
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Types of CI Engines

Direct injection:
Direct injection:
quiescent chamber
swirl in chamber

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 Indirect injection: turbulent and swirl pre-chamber

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Combustion Characteristic
• Combustion occurs throughout the chamber over a
range of equivalence ratios dictated by the fuel-air
mixing before and during the combustion phase.
• In general most of the combustion occurs under very
rich conditions within the
• head of the jet, this produces a considerable amount
of solid carbon (soot).

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• Ignition delay is defined as the time (or crank angle interval)
from when the fuel injection starts to the onset of combustion.
• Both physical and chemical processes must take place before a
significantfraction of the fuel chemical energy is released.
• Physical processes are fuel spray atomization, evaporation and
mixing offuel vapour with cylinder air.
• Good atomization requires high fuel pressure, small injector hole
diameter,optimum fuel viscosity, high cylinder pressure (large
divergence angle).
• Rate of vaporization of the fuel droplets depends on droplet
diameter,velocity, fuel volatility, pressure and temperature of
the air.
• Chemical processes similar to that described for autoignition
phenomenonin premixed fuel-air, only more complex since
heterogeneous reactions (reactions occurring on the liquid fuel
drop surface) also occur.
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 The ignition characteristics of the fuel affect the
ignition delay.
The ignition quality of a fuel is defined by its cetane
number CN.
For low cetane fuels the ignition delay is long and most
of the fuel is injected before autoignition and rapid
combustion, under extreme cases this produces an
audible knocking sound referred to as “diesel knock”.
For high cetane fuels the ignition delay is short and
very little fuel is injected before autoignition, the heat
release rate is controlled by the rate of fuel injection
and fuel-air mixing – smoother engine operation.
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• The method used to determine the ignition quality in terms
of CN is analogousto that used for determining the
antiknock quality via the ON.
• The cetane number scale is defined by blends of two pure
hydrocarbon reference fuels.
• By definition, isocetane (heptamethylnonane, HMN) has a
cetane number of
• 15 and cetane (n-hexadecane, C16H34) has a value of 100.
• In the original procedures a-methylnaphtalene (C11H10)
with a cetane number of zero represented the bottom of
the scale. This has since been replaced by HMN which is a
more stable compound.

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The higher the CN the better the ignition quality,
i.e., shorter ignition delay.
The cetane number is given by:
CN = (% hexadecane) + 0.15 (% HMN)
The method employed to measure CN uses a
standardized single-cylinder
engine with variable compression ratio

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The operating condition is:

Inlet temperature (oC) 65.6

Speed (rpm) 900
Start of fuel injection (oBTC) 13
Coolant temperature (oC) 100
Injection pressure (MPa) 10.3

With the engine running at these conditions on the test fuel, the
compression
ratio is varied until combustion starts at TC ignition delay period of
13o.

The above procedure is repeated using blends of cetane and HMN. The
blend that gives a 13o ignition delay with the same compression ratio
is
used to calculate the test fuel cetane number.

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The octane number and cetane number of a fuel
are inversely correlated.

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 Gasoline is a poor diesel fuel and vice versa.
Injection timing – At normal engine conditions the minimum
delay occurs with the start of injection at about 10-15 BTC.
Earlier or later injection timing results in a lower air temperature
and pressure during the delay period increase in the ignition
delay time
Injection quantity – For a CI engine the air is not throttled so the
load is varied by changing the amount of fuel injected.
Increasing the load (bmep) increases the residual gas and wall
temperature which results in a higher charge temperature at
injection decrease in the ignition delay.
Intake air temperature and pressure – an increase in ether will
result in a decrease in the ignition delay, an increase in the
compression ratio has the same effect.
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Factors Affecting Ignition Delay

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