Engines, Motors, and

Mobility
[ME F317]
BITS Pilani Dr. Saket Verma
Department of Mechanical Enginerring
Pilani Campus
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Lecture No.: 17-18

Combustion in CI Engines
Combustion phenomenon in
CI engine

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Air fuel mixture in Diesel
engines
• Only air is inducted inside the cylinder during intake stoke.
• Only air is compressed through a high compression ratio (16:1 to 22:1)
raising its temperature and pressure to a high value.
• In CI engines, for a given speed, irrespective of load, an approximately
constant supply of air enters the cylinder (unthrottled).
• Fuel is injected into the cylinders late in compression stroke through one or
more injectors into highly compressed air in the combustion chamber.
• With change in load, the quantity of fuel is changed, which changes the air:
fuel ratio. The overall air: fuel ratio may thus vary from about 80:1 at no load
to 18: 1 at full load.
• Combustion in a CI engine is an unsteady process occurring simultaneously
at many spots (no definite flame front) in a very non-homogeneous mixture
at a rate controlled by fuel injection.

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Combustion progress in CI
engine

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Temperature distribution
inside the cylinder

Temperature distribution inside the cylinder

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Air fuel mixture in Diesel
engines
• In addition to the swirl and turbulence of the air, a high injection velocity is
needed to spread the fuel throughout the cylinder and cause it to mix with the
air.
• The poor distribution of fuel and its limited intermixing with air results in
objectionable smoke if operated near chemically correct air: fuel ratio (14.5:
1) for diesel.
• Hence CI engines are operated with excess air (air: fuel ratio 18:1 to 23: 1 i.e.
excess air 15 to 50%). So, diesel engines are also termed as lean burn
engines.

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 Air fuel mixture in Diesel
engines
Fig.: figure below shows fuel jet of a CI
showing air-fuel vapor zones around the
inner liquid core zone

(A) too rich to burn

(B) rich combustible
(C) stoichiometric
(D) Lean Combustible Fig.: Effect of A/F ratio on
(E) Too lean to burn power output of a CI engine.

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combustion process in C.I.
engine

Fig.: Actual P-θ diagram of a CI engine

showing four-stages of combustion

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Stages of combustion in C.I.
engine
First Stage: Ignition Delay period during which some fuel has
been admitted but has not yet been ignited. The ignition delay
is counted from the start of injection to the point where P-θ
curve separates from motoring curve.
Second Stage: Premixed or Uncontrolled combustion: In this
second stage, the pressure rise is rapid because during the
delay period the fuel droplet have had time to spread
themselves over a wide area and they are well mixed with the
air. It is counted from the end of Delay period to the Point of
Maximum pressure on the P-θ diagram.
About one-third of the heat is evolved during this period.

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Stages of combustion in C.I.
engine

Third Stage: Diffusion or Controlled Combustion: At the end of

second stage, the temperature and pressure are so high that the
fuel droplets injected during the third stage burn almost as they
enter and any further pressure rise can be controlled by Injection
rate. It is counted from the point of maximum pressure to
maximum cycle temperature.
About 70 to 80 % of the total heat of the fuel is evolved during
this period.

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Stages of combustion in C.I.
engine.

• Fourth Stage: Afterburning: Because of poor

distribution of the fuel particles, combustion continues
during part of the remainder of the expansion stroke. This
after-burning can be called the fourth stage of
combustion. The duration of after-burning phase may
correspond to 70-80 degrees of crank travel from TDC.
Total heat evolved by the end of the combustion process
is 95 to 97 % and 3 to 5% of heat goes as unburnt fuel in
exhaust.

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Ignition Delay period in C.I.
Engine
Ignition delay is the period during which some fuel has been admitted
but has not yet been ignited. It is counted from the start of injection to
the point where P-θ curve separates from pure air compression curve.
The ignition delay can be roughly divided into two parts: Physical
delay and chemical delay.
Physical Delay: The period of physical delay is the time between the
beginning of injection and the attainment of chemical reaction
conditions. In the physical delay period, the fuel is atomized,
vaporized, mixed with air , and raised in temperature.
Chemical Delay: in this period, pre-flame reactions start slowly and
then accelerate until local inflammation or ignition takes place. At
high temperatures, chemical reaction is quicker and physical delay is
longer than chemical delay.

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Factors affecting Ignition
Delay period
Fuel: Lower self-ignition temperature means a lower delay period.
Higher Cetane number means a lower delay period and smooth
engine operation.
Intake Temperature: Increase in intake temperature would result in
increase in compressed air temperature which would reduce the
delay period.
Compression ratio: Increase in compression ratio reduces delay period
as it raises both temperature and density.
Type of combustion chamber: A pre-combustion chamber gives
shorter delay compared to an open type of combustion chamber.
Injection advance: Delay period increases with increase in injection
advance angle. (with increase in injection angle, pressure and
temperature are lower when injection begins)

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Factors Affecting The Delay
Period

Fig.: Effect of Cetane number, inlet air pressure and temperature on

ignition delay versus load

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Diesel Knock

• If the Ignition delay period is long, a large

amount of fuel will be injected and
accumulated in the chamber. The auto-ignition
of this large amount of fuel may cause high
rate of pressure rise and high maximum
pressure which may cause Knocking in diesel
engines.
• A long delay period not only increases the
amount of fuel injected by the moment of
ignition, but also improves the homogeneity of
the fuel- air mixture and its chemical
preparedness for explosion type of self-ignition
similar to detonation in SI engines.

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Ignition delay

Fig,: Effect of ignition delay on the rate of pressure rise in CI engine

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Knocking in SI and CI engine

• In SI engine,
knocking occurs
near the end of
combustion
• In CI engine,
knocking occurs
near the
beginning of
combustion.

Fig,: Knocking combustion in SI and ci engine

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Methods of controlling Diesel Knock

The diesel knock can be controlled by reducing delay period. The

delay is reduced by the following.
1. High charge temperature
2. High compression ratio
3. High injection pressure
4. Reduced injection timing advance
5. Engine load
6. High Cetane number fuel
7. Type of Combustion Chamber

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Detonation and Knocking
Comparison
S.N. Detonation in SI Engine
1 Detonation occurs near the end of
combustion
2 Detonation in SI Engine is of a
homogeneous charge causing very
heavy rate of pressure rise and high
maximum pressure.
3 Pre-ignition may occur.
Knock in CI Engine
Knocking occurs near the beginning of
combustion. i.e. at the end of first stage of
combustion.
Knocking in C I engine is of imperfectly
mixed charged and hence the rate of
pressure rise is normally lower than that in
the detonation in S I Engine.
Fuel is injected into the cylinder only at the
end of the compression stroke and there is
no question of pre- ignition or premature
ignition.
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Detonation and Knocking
Comparison
S.N. Detonation in SI Engine
4 Detonation is easily distinguished
from normal combustion.
5 Larger cylinder promotes detonation
6 Compression ratio in S.I. engine is
limited by Detonation
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Knock in CI Engine
Knocking is not easy to distinguish from
normal combustion.
Diesel knock is reduced with increase in size
of cylinder.
In C.I. engines, higher compression ratio
causes lesser ignition delay and hence lesser
possibility of diesel knock.
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Classification of Combustion
chambers in C.I. engine

C.I. Engine
Combustion
Chambers

Direct Injection or Indirect Injection or

Open Chamber Divided Chamber

High Pre- Air Cell

Medium Swirl Compressi
Low Swirl combustion Energy
Swirl on Swirl
M Type Chamber Cell

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 Direct and indirect
injection

In an indirect injection

(abbreviated IDI) diesel engine,
fuel is injected into a small
prechamber, which is connected
to the cylinder by a narrow
opening.
The initial combustion takes
place in this prechamber.
This has the effect of slowing
the rate of combustion, which
tends to reduce noise.

Direct injection Indirect injection

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Classification of Combustion
chambers in C.I. engine
Direct-Injection (DI)
• This type of combustion chamber is also called an open
combustion chamber.
• In this type the entire volume of the combustion chamber is
located in the main cylinder and the fuel is injected into this
volume.
• The method of swirl used in this type of combustion chamber
is induction swirl. In induction swirl, flow of air is directed
towards the cylinders during its entry.

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Shallow Depth Chamber
• The depth of cavity provided in the piston is quite small.
• Usually adopted for large engines running at low speeds.
• Since the cavity diameter is very large, the squish is negligible.

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Hemispherical Chamber
• The combustion chamber cavity is in hemispherical shape.
• This design also has smaller squish generation.
• However, the depth to the diameter ratio can be varied. so that the
squish can be controlled to attain better performance.

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Cylindrical Chamber
• This type of combustion chambers was implemented in a few modern diesel engines.
• The shape of the combustion chamber is truncated cone with the base angle of 30°.
• The swirl can be produced by masking the valve for nearly 180°of the circumference.
• Squash also can be controlled by varying the depth.

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Toroidal Chamber
• This Toroidal chamber design is mainly focused to provide the powerful
Squish along with the air moment.
• As the more Squish, the mask needed on the inlet valve is small and there
is better utilization of air.

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Advantages and
disadvantages of direct C.C.
The main advantages of this type of chambers are:
– Minimum heat loss during compression because of lower surface
area to volume ratio and hence, better efficiency.
– No cold starting problems.
– Fine atomization because of multi hole nozzle.
The drawbacks of these combustion chambers are:
– High fuel-injection pressure required and hence complex design of
fuel-injection pump.
– Necessity of accurate metering of fuel by the injection system,
particularly for small engines.

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Indirect-Injection (IDI) Type

• In this type of combustion chambers, the combustion space is

divided into two parts, one part in the main cylinder and the other
part in the cylinder head.
• The fuel will be injected into the part which is located in the
cylinder head.

Glow plug

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BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Swirl Chamber

• It consists of the Prechamber located in the

cylinder head connected to the main chamber.
• This Prechamber volume accounts for 40% of the
total combustion space.
• During the compression stroke, the air will be
injected into the Prechamber, and hence
compression swirl is generated.
• The combustion will be initiated in it. But the bulk
combustion will be taken place in the main
chamber only. About 80% of the energy will be
released in the main combustion chamber.
• The rate of pressure rise and the maximum
pressure attain during the combustion process is
comparatively low than the open combustion
chambers.

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 Pre-combustion chamber

• The type of swirl used is combustion induced

swirl.
• A pre-combustion chamber consists of pre-
combustion chamber or anti-chamber connected to
the main chamber through a number of very small
holes.
• Pre-combustion chamber contains 20 to 30 % of
clearance volume.
• Pre-combustion chamber has multi-fuel capability
without any modification in the injection system
in the type of swirl used. i.e. combustion inducted
swirl,
• swirl turbulence is created by use of initial
pressure rise due to partial combustion.

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 Air-Cell Chamber

• The type of swirl used in this combustion chamber

is combustion induced swirl. Here there is no
organized air swirl. The advantage for this type of
combustion chamber are:
• The maximum pressure on the main chamber is
fairly low and hence it gives smooth running and
easy starting.
• This type of combustion chamber is most suitable
for comparatively small engines of medium duty
where a relatively high fuel consumption can be
tolerated.

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Advantages and disadvantages
of indirect injection C.C.
The main advantages of the indirect-injection combustion
chambers are:
– Injection pressure required is low
– Direction of spraying is not very important.
These chambers have the following serious drawbacks
– Poor cold starting performance requiring heater plugs.
– Specific fuel consumption is high because there is a loss of pressure
due to air motion through the duct and heat loss due to large heat
transfer area.

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Direct and indirect
injection
Direct injection engine Indirect injection engine
• Combustion chamber not
divided
• Direct injection on
combustion chamber
• Require high injection
pressure
• Superior efficiency
• Lower emissions
• Bigger valves, higher
volumetric efficiency
• Combustion chamber divided
• Excellent mixing, turbulence
characteristics
• Low noise level
• Lower injection pressure
• Low production costs
• More fuel consumption (10–15
%)
• Very high temperature/pressure
in injection chamber
• Higher emissions, especially
NOx
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 BITS Pilani
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