‫ قسم الهندسة الميكانيكية‬/ ‫ كلية الهندسة‬/ ‫جامعة الموصل‬

Department of Mechanical
Engineering

Subject: Internal Combustion Engines

Engine Classifications
Class: Third year
Lecture First lecture: ‫ عبدالرحمن حبو محمد الحبو‬.‫د‬ Instructor: ‫ أحمد فؤاد النعمة‬.‫د‬

Engine Classifications
Internal combustion engines can be classified in a number of different
ways:
1- Type of Ignition
(a) Spark ignition (SI) engine: combustion process occurs by spark
plug.
(b) Compression ignition (CI) engine: the combustion process starts
when the air-fuel mixture self-ignites due to high temperature
caused by high compression.
2- Engine Cycle
(a) Four-stroke cycle: A four-stroke cycle has four piston movements
over two engine revolutions for each cycle.
(b) Two-stroke cycle: A two-stroke cycle has two piston movements
over one revolution for each cycle.
3- Valve Location (See Fig. 1)
(a) Valves in head (overhead valve), also called I Head engine.
(b) Valves in block (flat head), also called L Head engine. Some
historic engines with valves in block had the intake valve on one
side of the cylinder and the exhaust valve on the other side. These
were called T Head engines.
(c) One valve in head (usually intake) and one in block, also called
F Head engine; this is much less common.

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Fig. (1): Engine Classification by Valve Location.

(a) Valve in block, L head. Older automobiles and some small engines.
(b) Valve in head, I head. Standard on modern automobiles.
(c) One valve in head and one valve in block, F head. Older, less common automobiles.
(d) Valves in block on opposite sides of cylinder, T head. Some historic automobile engines.

4- Basic Design
(a) Reciprocating engine: Engine has one or more cylinders in which
pistons reciprocate back and forth. The combustion chamber is
located in the closed end of each cylinder. Power is delivered to a
rotating output crankshaft by mechanical linkage with the pistons.
(b) Rotary engine: Engine is made of a block (stator) built around a large
nonconcentric rotor and crankshaft. The combustion chambers are
built into the nonrotating block.

5- Position and Number of Cylinders of Reciprocating Engines (See

Fig. 2)
(a) Single cylinder: Engine has one cylinder and piston connected to
the crankshaft.
(b) In-line: Cylinders are positioned in a straight line, one behind the
other along the length of the crankshaft. They can consist of
2 to 11 cylinders or possibly more. In-line four-cylinder
engines are very common for automobile and other
applications. In-line six and eight cylinders are historically

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common automobile engines. In-line engines are
sometimes called straight (e.g., straight six or straight eight).
(c) V-Engine: Two banks of cylinders at an angle with each other along
a single crankshaft, allowing for a shorter engine block.
The angle between the banks of cylinders can be
anywhere from 15° to 120°, with 60°–90° being common.
V engines usually have even numbers of cylinders from 2
to 20 or more.
(d) Opposed cylinder engine: Two banks of cylinders opposite each
other on a single crankshaft (a V engine with a 180°
V).These are common on small aircraft and some
automobiles with an even number of cylinders from two to
eight or more. These engines are often called flat engines
(e.g., flat four).
(e) W-Engine: Engines of two different cylinder arrangements have
been classified as W engines in the technical literature.
One type is the same as a V engine except with three
banks of cylinders on the same crankshaft.
(f) Opposed Piston Engine: Two pistons in each cylinder with the
combustion chamber in the center between the pistons. A
single combustion process causes two power strokes at
the same time, with each piston being pushed away from
the center and delivering power to a separate crankshaft
at each end of the cylinder.
(g) Radial Engine: Engine with pistons positioned in a circular plane
around a central crankshaft. The connecting rods of the
pistons are connected to a master rod which, in turn, is
connected to the crankshaft. A bank of cylinders on a
radial engine almost always has an odd number of
cylinders ranging from 3 to 13 or more.

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Fig. (2): Engine Classification by Cylinder Arrangement. (a) Single cylinder. (b) In-line, or straight.
(c) V engine. (d) Opposed cylinder. (e) W engine. (f) Opposed piston. (g) Radial.

6- Air Intake Process

(a) Naturally Aspirated: No intake air pressure boost system.
(b) Supercharged: Intake air pressure increased with the compressor
driven off of the engine crankshaft (Fig. 3).
(c) Turbocharged: Intake air pressure increased with the turbine–
compressor driven by the engine exhaust gases (Fig. 4).
(d) Crankcase compressed: Two-stroke cycle engine which uses the
crankcase as the intake air compressor.

Fig. (3): Supercharger used to increase inlet air pressure
to engine. Compressor is driven off engine
crankshaft, which gives fast response to speed
changes but adds parasitic load to engine.
Fig. (4): Turbocharger used to increase inlet air pressure
to engine. Turbine that drives compressor is
powered by exhaust flow from engine. This
adds no load to the engine but results in turbo
lag, a slower response to engine speed changes.

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7- Method of Fuel Input for Spark Ignition (SI) Engines
(a) Carburetted
(b) Multipoint port fuel injection: One or more injectors at each cylinder
intake.
(c) Throttle body fuel injection: Injectors upstream in intake manifold.
(d) Gasoline Direct Injection: Injectors mounted in combustion
chambers with injection directly into
cylinders.

8- Fuel Used
(a) Gasoline
(b) Diesel oil or fuel oil
(c) Gas, Natural gas, Methane
(d) LPG
(e) Alcohol – Ethyl, Methyl

9- Type of Cooling
(a) Air cooled
(b) Water cooled

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The Performance Characteristics of Internal Combustion Engines

The performance of internal combustion engines is characterized with

several geometric and thermodynamic parameters. For any one cylinder,
the crankshaft, connecting rod, piston and head assembly can be
represented by mechanism shown in figure (5).

TDC: Top dead center.

BDC: Bottom dead center. TDC

Y
L: Stroke length.
L
S: Connecting rod length.
a: Crankshaft radius. S
BDC
l
B: Bore.
a
θ: Crank angle.

Fig. (5): The basic geometry of a reciprocating engine.

1- Compression ratio (𝑟𝑐 ): may be defined as the ratio of total volume of

engine cylinder to clearance volume.
𝑉𝐵𝐷𝐶 𝑉𝑡
𝑟𝑐 = =
𝑉𝑇𝐷𝐶 𝑉𝑐

As the compression ratio goes up,

the thermal efficiency goes up as
seen in Fig. 6. This efficiency is the
indicated thermal efficiency, as the
heat transfer values are those to and
from the air within the combustion
chamber.

Fig. (6): Indicated thermal efficiency as a function of

compression ratio for SI engines operating at wide-open
throttle (WOT) on air-standard Otto cycle (k = 1.35).

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2- Displacement volume (𝑉𝑑 ): may be defined as the difference between
the maximum and minimum volume for a single cylinder.
𝜋
𝑉𝑑 = 𝑉𝑡 − 𝑉𝑐 = 𝐵 2 𝐿
4
Also we have 𝐿 = 2𝑎
For multi cylinder engine, the total displacement volume is given as:
𝜋
𝑉𝑑 = 𝐵 2 𝐿𝑛𝑐
4
Where 𝑛𝑐 : is the number of cylinders
The instantaneous volume at any crank angle is
𝜋
𝑉(𝜃) = 𝑉𝑐 + 𝐵 2 𝑌
4
Where 𝑌: is the instantaneous stroke which can be obtained as:
1
𝑌 = 𝑆 + 𝑎 − [(𝑆 2 − 𝑎 2 𝑠𝑖𝑛2 𝜃)2 + 𝑎𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃]

3- Mean piston speed ( ̅̅̅̅

𝑆𝑃 ): the mean piston speed is an important
parameter in engine design since stresses and other factors scale with
piston speed rather than engine speed.
̅̅̅̅
𝑆𝑃 = 2𝐿𝑁
Where ̅̅̅̅
𝑆𝑃 is the mean piston speed (m/s)
𝑁: is the rotational speed of the crankshaft
𝐿: is the stroke length

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Criteria of Performance of Internal Combustion Engines
In order to make a comparison for different types of engines of the same
size or different size of engines of the same types, various operating
parameters must be defined and compared such as indicated power, mean
effective pressure (MEP), specific fuel consumption, mechanical efficiency
and volumetric efficiency etc..

1- Indicated Power Pi (kW)

Indicated power may be defined as the actual rate of work done by the
gas on the piston as evaluated from an indicated diagram. Or may be
defined as the higher than the power actually obtained from shaft of the
engine since no mechanical loss is considered.

Fig. (7): Examples of P-V diagrams illustrating the indicated work per cycle, for
(a) a two-stroke cycle engine; (b) a naturally-aspirated four-stroke cycle engine at
part load; (c) a turbocharged four-stroke cycle engine at high load.

𝑃𝑖 = (area power loop – area of pumping loop)

𝑃𝑖 = 𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑝 × 𝑉𝑆̇ × 100 (𝑘𝑊 )
𝑃𝑖 = 𝑚̇𝑓 × 𝐿𝐶𝑉 × 𝜂𝑖𝑡ℎ (𝑘𝑊 )

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2- Mean Effective pressure

May be defined as a constant pressure which would have to act upon
the piston for one stroke (power stroke) to give an equal work output
for a complete cycle. Two types of mean effective pressure:-
a) Brake mean effective pressure (bmep)
b) Indicated mean effective pressure (imep)

3- Brake Power Pb (kW)

The actual power output produced by the engine and its available on
the engine shaft is called brake power.
2𝜋𝑁𝑇
𝑃𝑏 = (𝑘𝑊 )
60 × 1000
where
N: rotational speed (rpm)
T: torque (N.m)
Also brake power can be obtained using the following formula:
𝑃𝑏 = 𝑏𝑚𝑒𝑝 × 𝑉𝑆̇ × 100 (𝑘𝑊 )
𝑃𝑏 = 𝑚̇𝑓 × 𝐿𝐶𝑉 × 𝜂𝑏𝑡ℎ (𝑘𝑊 )
where
𝑏𝑚𝑒𝑝: brake mean effective pressure
𝑚̇𝑓 : mass flow rate of fuel (kg/s)
𝐿𝐶𝑉: lower calorific value of fuel (kJ/kg)
𝑉𝑆̇ : swept volume (m3/s)
The swept volume can be calculated as follows:
𝜋
𝑉𝑠 = 𝐵 2 𝐿𝑛𝐶
4
𝜋 𝑁
̇𝑉𝑆 = 𝐵 2 𝐿𝑛𝐶 ×
4 60𝑛𝑅

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Where 𝑛𝑅 : is the number of crankshaft revolution for complete cycle
𝑛𝑅 = 2 for four-stroke cycle
𝑛𝑅 = 1 for two-stroke cycle
A major goal in the design of a modern automobile engine is to flatten the
torque-versus-speed curve as shown in Fig. 8, and to have high torque at
both high and low speed. CI engines generally have higher torque than SI
engines. Large engines often have very high torque values with maximum
brake torque (MBT) at relatively low speed.

Fig. (8): Brake power and torque of a typical automobile reciprocating engine as a function
of engine speed and displacement volume.

Dynamometers are used to measure torque and power over the engine
operating ranges of speed and load. They do this by using various
methods to absorb the energy output of the engine, all of which eventually
ends up as heat.

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Some dynamometers absorb energy in a mechanical friction brake (prony
brake). These are the simplest dynamometers but are not as flexible and
accurate as others at higher energy levels.
Various type of dynamometers are available such as:-
1- Friction dynamometer
2- Fluid or Hydraulic dynamometer
3- Electric dynamometer
4- Eddy current dynamometer

Fluid or hydraulic dynamometers absorb engine energy in water or oil

pumped through orifices or dissipated with viscous losses in a rotor–stator
combination. Large amounts of energy can be absorbed in this manner,
making this an attractive type of dynamometer for the largest of engines.
Eddy current dynamometers use a disk, driven by the engine being
tested, rotating in a magnetic field of controlled strength. The rotating disk
acts as an electrical conductor cutting the lines of magnetic flux and
producing eddy currents in the disk. With no external circuit, the energy
from the induced currents is absorbed in the disk.
One of the best types of dynamometer is the electric dynamometer,
which absorbs energy with electrical output from a connected generator.
In addition to having an accurate way of measuring the energy absorbed,
the load is easily varied by changing the amount of resistance in the circuit
connected to the generator output. Many electric dynamometers can also
be operated in reverse, with the generator used as a motor to drive (or
motor) an unfired engine. This allows the engine to be tested for
mechanical friction losses and air pumping losses, quantities that are hard
to measure on a running fired engine.

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4- Friction Power
The differences between the indicated power and brake power is the
power lost in mechanical friction 𝑃𝑓
𝑃𝑓 = 𝑃𝑖 − 𝑃𝑏
Friction power can be measured directly by recording torque required to
run the engine with dynamometer acting as motor.
2𝜋𝑁𝑇𝑓
𝑃𝑓 =
60 × 1000
Where 𝑇𝑓 : is the friction torque (N.m)

5- Mechanical efficiency
The mechanical efficiency can be defined as the ratio of brake power
to indicated power
𝑃𝑏
𝜂𝑀 =
𝑃𝑖
𝑃𝑏 𝑏𝑚𝑒𝑝 𝜂𝑏𝑡ℎ
𝐴𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝜂𝑀 = = =
𝑃𝑖 𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑝 𝜂𝑖𝑡ℎ
The mechanical efficiency of an engine is on the order of 55% to 60%
at high engine operating speed. It then slowly increases as engine
speed is decreased to the order of 85–95% (see Fig. 9).

Fig. (9): Mechanical efficiency of reciprocating internal combustion engines as a function

of average piston speed.

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6- Specific Fuel Consumption
A useful criterion of economic power is the specific fuel consumption.
Two types of specific fuel consumption can be defined.
a) Indicated specific fuel consumption isfc (kg/kW.hr)
𝑚̇𝑓
𝑖𝑠𝑓𝑐 = (𝑘𝑔/𝑘𝑊 ℎ𝑟)
𝑃𝑖
b) brake specific fuel consumption bsfc (kg/kW.hr)
𝑚̇𝑓
𝑏𝑠𝑓𝑐 = (𝑘𝑔/𝑘𝑊 ℎ𝑟)
𝑃𝑏
Typical values of specific fuel consumption lies between 0.25-0.35
(kg/kW.hr).
Brake specific fuel consumption decreases as engine speed increases
due to the shorter time for heat loss during each cycle (Fig. 10). At higher
engine speeds fuel consumption again increases because of high friction
losses. As compression ratio is increased fuel consumption decreases
due to greater thermal efficiency.

Fig. (10): Brake specific fuel consumption as a function of engine speed with compression
ratio of 8 and 10.

Figure 11 shows how bsfc also depends on compression ratio and fuel
equivalence ratio. It decreases with higher compression ratio due to
higher thermal efficiency. It is lowest when combustion occurs in a
mixture with a fuel equivalence ratio near one, The further from

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stoichiometric combustion, either rich or lean, the higher will be the fuel
consumption.

Fig. (11): Brake specific fuel consumption as a function of fuel equivalence ratio with
compression ratio of 8 and 10.

Generally, average brake specific fuel consumption is less with larger

engines, being best (lowest) for very large engines (see Fig. 12). One
reason for this is less heat loss due to the higher volume-to-surface-area
ratio of the combustion chamber in a large engine. Also, larger engines
operate at lower speeds which reduces friction losses.

Fig. (12): Brake specific fuel consumption as a function of engine displacement.

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7- Volumetric Efficiency
The power output of an engine depend on the amount of fresh charge
(air + fuel) that would be inducted into the cylinder. In practice, the
engine does not a complete cylinder full of air on each intake stroke,
hence the volumetric efficiency can be defined as:-
(𝑚̇𝑎𝑖𝑟 )𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙
𝜂𝑉 =
(𝑚̇𝑎𝑖𝑟 )𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙
(𝑚̇𝑎𝑖𝑟 )𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙
𝜂𝑉 =
𝜌𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑉𝑆̇
Typical values of volumetric efficiency 0.8-0.9 in naturally aspirated
engine. In turbo and supercharger volumetric efficiency may exceed
100%.

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Example 1:
A spark ignition engine of four cylinder four-stroke cycle is running at a
stoichiometric air-fuel ratio of C7H18 of lower calorific value of 44000 kJ/kg. Its
bore is 90 mm and its stroke length is 93 mm. The engine produce a torque of
250 N.m at a mean piston speed of 10 m/s. the air flow rate is measured to be
60 g/s, find
1- The brake power
2- The brake mean effective pressure
3- The brake specific fuel consumption
4- The volumetric efficiency if the ambient conditions are 1.013 bar and 30 oC.

Example 2:
A single cylinder four-stroke cycle compression ignition engine of 12.9 cm bore
and 15 cm stroke, running at 800 rpm and consumed 0.113 kg of fuel in 4
minutes, develops a torque of 76 N.m, the air-fuel ratio 0f 30:1, the lower
calorific value of the used fuel is 42000 kJ/kg, calculate :-
1- The brake power
2- The brake thermal efficiency
3- The brake specific fuel consumption
4- The volumetric efficiency if the ambient conditions are 1.013 bar and 35 oC.

Example 3:
A 1.6-liter for-stroke cycle, four-cylinder spark ignition engine operating at 3000
rpm, produce 28 kW of brake power. The volumetric efficiency is 92%, the air-
fuel ratio is 20:1, lower calorific value of fuel is 44000 kJ/kg and the atmospheric
conditions are 1.0 bar and 25 ºC, find

1- The brake specific fuel consumption;

2- The brake thermal efficiency;
3- The brake mean effective pressure.

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Homework:
Q 1:
A four-cylinder, 2.4-liter engine operates on a four-stroke cycle at 3200 rpm.
The compression ratio is 9.4:1, the connecting rod length is 18 cm, and the bore
and stroke are related as L = 1.06 B. Calculate:
(a) Clearance volume of one cylinder.
(b) Bore and stroke.
(c) Average piston speed.

Q 2:
A five-cylinder, 3.5-liter SI engine operates on a four-stroke cycle at 2500 rpm.
At this condition, the mechanical efficiency of the engine is 62% and 1000 J of
indicated work are produced each cycle in each cylinder. Calculate:
(a) Indicated mean effective pressure.
(b) Brake mean effective pressure.
(c) Friction mean effective pressure.
(d) Brake power.
(e) Torque.

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