THERMODYNAMICS

DIESEL CYLCE: THE IDEAL CYCLE FOR

COMPRESSION-IGNATION ENGINES
STIRLING AND ERICSSON CYCLES
 CONTENTS

• DIESEL CYLCE: THE IDEAL CYCLE FOR

COMPRESSION-IGNATION ENGINES
• STIRLING AND ERICSSON CYCLES
 DIESEL CYLCE: THE IDEAL CYCLE FOR
COMPRESSION-IGNATION ENGINES

• The Air Standard Diesel cycle is the ideal cycle for Compression-

Ignition (CI) reciprocating engines
• the four-stroke diesel cycle operation including a short history of
Rudolf Diesel. The four-stroke diesel engine is usually used in motor
vehicle systems, whereas larger marine systems usually use
the two-stroke diesel cycle. 
• The actual CI cycle is extremely complex, thus in initial analysis we
use an ideal "air-standard" assumption, in which the working fluid is
a fixed mass of air undergoing the complete cycle which is treated
throughout as an ideal gas.
• All processes are ideal, combustion is replaced by heat addition to
the air, and exhaust is replaced by a heat rejection process which
restores the air to the initial state.
• The fuel injection process in diesel engines starts when the piston
approaches TDC and continues during the first part of the power
stroke.Therefore, the combustion process in these engines takes
place over a longer interval. Because of this longer duration, the
combustion process in the ideal Diesel cycle is approximated as a
constant-pressure heat-addition process. In fact, this is the only
process where the Otto and the Diesel cycles differ. The remaining
three processes are the same for both ideal cycles. That is, process
1-2 is isentropic compression, 2-3 is constant-pressure heat
addition, 3-4 is isentropic expansion, and 4-1 is constant-volume
heat rejection.
• Noting that the Diesel cycle is executed in a piston–cylinder device,
which forms a closed system, the amount of heat transferred to the
working fluid at constant pressure and rejected from it at constant
volume can be expressed as

A
And
• Then the thermal efficiency of the ideal Diesel cycle under the cold-
airstandard assumptions becomes

• the cutoff ratio rc, as the ratio of the cylinder volumes after and
before the combustion process:

• Utilizing this definition and the isentropic ideal-gas relations for

processes 1-2 and 3-4, we see that the thermal efficiency relation
reduces to
• where r is the compression ratio defined by Eq. 9–9. Looking at Eq.
9–12 carefully, one would notice that under the cold-air-standard
assumptions, the efficiency of a Diesel cycle differs from the
efficiency of an Otto cycle by the quantity in the brackets. This
quantity is always greater than 1. Therefore,
• the dual cycle and P-v diagram for it is given in Fig. 9–23. The
relative amounts of heat transferred during each process can be
adjusted to approximate the actual cycle more closely.
• The ideal air-standard diesel engine undergoes 4 distinct processes
• Two of the four processes of the cycle are adiabatic processes
(adiabatic = no transfer of heat), thus before we can continue we
need to develop equations for an ideal gas adiabatic process as
follows:
The Adiabatic Process of an Ideal Gas (Q = 0)
• The analysis results in the following three general forms
representing an adiabatic process:

where k is the ratio of heat capacities and has a nominal value of 1.4
at 300K for air.
• Process 1-2 is the adiabatic compression process. Thus the
temperature of the air increases during the compression process,
and with a large compression ratio (usually > 16:1) it will reach the
ignition temperature of the injected fuel. Thus given the conditions at
state 1 and the compression ratio of the engine, in order to
determine the pressure and temperature at state 2 (at the end of the
adiabatic compression process) we have:
• Work W1-2 required to compress the gas is shown as the area under
the P-V curve, and is evaluated as follows.
• An alternative approach using the energy equation takes advantage
of the adiabatic process (Q1-2 = 0) results in a much simpler process:

• During process 2-3 the fuel is injected and combusted and this is
represented by a constant pressure expansion process. At state 3
("fuel cutoff") the expansion process continues adiabatically with the
temperature decreasing until the expansion is complete.
• Process 3-4 is thus the adiabatic expansion process. The total
expansion work is Wexp = (W2-3 + W3-4) and is shown as the area
under the P-V diagram and is analysed as follows:
• Finally, process 4-1 represents the constant volume heat rejection
process. In an actual Diesel engine the gas is simply exhausted
from the cylinder and a fresh charge of air is introduced.
• The net work Wnet done over the cycle is given by: Wnet = (Wexp + W1-
2), where as before the compression work W 1-2 is negative (work
done on the system).
• In the Air-Standard Diesel cycle engine the heat input Qin occurs by
combusting the fuel which is injected in a controlled manner, ideally
resulting in a constant pressure expansion process 2-3 as shown
below. At maximum volume (bottom dead center) the burnt gasses
are simply exhausted and replaced by a fresh charge of air. This is
represented by the equivalent constant volume heat rejection
process Qout = -Q4-1. Both processes are analyzed as follows:
• At this stage we can conveniently determine the engine efficiency in
terms of the heat flow as follows:
 Example 1
• The Diesel Cycle (as shown in figure 2), works at a compression
ratio of 20. Working at an initial pressure of 95 kPa and an initial
temperature of 20 0C. While the maximum temperature cannot
exceed 2200 K, Determine:
• a. Cycle thermal efficiency
• b. MEP cycle
SOLUTION
SOLUTION
 Example 2
The Diesel cycle works under pressure and conditions Initial
temperatures are 200 kPa and 380 K and the ratio compression 20. If
heat is added at 900 kJ / kg. Determine:
a. Maximum temperature
b. Cut-off ratio
c. Net cycle work
d. Cycle thermal efficiency
e. MEP cycle
SOLUTION
SOLUTION
SOLUTION
 STIRLING AND ERICSSON CYCLES

• The Stirling cycle is a thermodynamic cycle that describes the

general class of Stirling devices. This includes the original 
Stirling engine that was invented, developed and patented in 1816
by Robert Stirling with help from his brother, an engineer.
• Stirling Cycle is comprised of four processes
• Process 1-2
It is isothermal heat addition process. Volume of the system increases
due to isothermal heat addition. A little drop in pressure also happens
in this process.
• Process 2-3
It is isochoric heat removal process. Both temperature and pressure of
the system decreases due to isochoric heat removal.
• Process 3-4
It is isothermal heat removal process. It is a compression process
hence pressure of the system increases and volume decreases.
• Process 4-1
It is isochoric heat addition process. Both temperature and pressure of
the system increases due to isochoric heat addition.
 Efficiency of Stirling Cycle
Efficiency of the Stirling Cycle is the ratio of work output to the heat
input. Work output = [RT1 ln(V2/V1) + CV(T1-T4)] – [CV(T2-T3) +
RT3 ln(V3/V4)]
Heat Input = RT1 ln(V2/V1) + CV(T1-T4)
Efficiency = Work Output/Heat Input
After putting values of heat input and work output in the above formula, we
get
η = 1 – [(CV(T2-T3) + RT3 ln(V3/V4))/(RT1 ln(V2/V1) + CV(T1-T4))] … (1)
Since, Stirling cycle is a regenerative cycle hence heat rejected in process 2-3
is used for heat addition in process 4-1.
It means CV(T2-T3) gets cancelled by CV(T1-T4) hence, we can replace these
values by zero in equation (1).
Also, V3/V4 = V2/V1
Hence, new thermal efficiency (after solving equation (1))
η = 1 – (T3/T1)
 Ericsson cycle
• The Ericsson cycle is named after inventor John Ericsson who
designed and built many unique heat engines based on various 
thermodynamic cycles. He is credited with inventing two unique heat
engine cycles and developing practical engines based on these
cycles. His first cycle is now known as the closed Brayton cycle,
while his second cycle is what is now called the Ericsson cycle.
Ericsson is one of the few who built open-cycle engines
 Ideal Ericsson
The following is a list of the four processes that occur between the four
stages of the ideal Ericsson cycle:

•Process 1 -> 2: Isothermal compression. The compression space is

assumed to be intercooled, so the gas undergoes isothermal
compression. The compressed air flows into a storage tank at constant
pressure. In the ideal cycle, there is no heat transfer across the tank
walls.
•Process 2 -> 3: Isobaric heat addition. From the tank, the compressed
air flows through the regenerator and picks up heat at a high constant-
pressure on the way to the heated power-cylinder.
•Process 3 -> 4: Isothermal expansion. The power-cylinder expansion-
space is heated externally, and the gas undergoes isothermal
expansion.
•Process 4 -> 1: Isobaric heat removal. Before the air is released as
exhaust, it is passed back through the regenerator, thus cooling the
gas at a low constant pressure, and heating the regenerator for the
next cycle.
 Efficiency of Ericsson Cycle
• Efficiency of the Ericsson Cycle is the ratio of work output to the
heat input.
Work output = [RT1 ln(V2/V1) + CP(T1-T4)] – [CP(T2-T3) + RT3 ln(V3/V4)]
Heat Input = RT1 ln(V2/V1) + CP(T1-T4)
Efficiency = Work Output/Heat Input
After putting values of heat input and work output in the above formula,
we get
η = 1 – [(CP(T2-T3) + RT3 ln(V3/V4))/(RT1 ln(V2/V1) + CP(T1-T4))] … (1)
Since, Ericsson cycle is a regenerative cycle hence heat rejected in
process 2-3 is used for heat addition in process 4-1. It means CP(T2-T3)
gets cancelled by CP(T1-T4) hence, we can replace these values by
zero in equation (1).
Also, V3/V4 = V2/V1
Hence, new thermal efficiency (after solving equation (1))
η = 1 – (T3/T1)
 SOAL ERICSSON
• Using an ideal gas as the working fluid, find the thermal efficiency of
an ericsson cycle with p1 = 100 kPa . qin 1400 kJ/kg, T1 = 750K
and T3 = 300K

= 1-300/750
= 1- 0.4
= 0.6 = 60%