CHAPTER 5

INTERNAL
COMBUSTION ENGINES
CO1: Ability to analyze and evaluate mixtures of gases and
vapours, combustion processes and internal combustion
engines.
1

Contents
1)

Introduction

2)

ICE-Terminology

3)

Four-Stroke Cycle

4)

Two-Stroke Cycle

5)

Valve Timing

6)

Performance Criteria of ICE

7)

Factors Influencing Performance

2

Introduction

Theoretical power cycles have been considered in

Chapter 3.
In the theoretical cycles there is no chemical change in
the working fluid (air) and the heat exchanges in the
cycle are made externally to the working fluid.
In the practical cycle the heat supply is obtained from
the combustion of a fuel in air and thus the air charge is
consumed during combustion and the combustion
products must be exhausted from the cylinder before a
fresh charge of air can be induced for the next cycle.
The practical cycle consists of the exhaust and
induction processes together with the compression and
expansion processes as in the theoretical cycle.
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Introduction

Combustion engines may be divided into two types:

External combustion engines.
Internal combustion engines.
ECE Combustion of fuel

occurs outside the cylinder.

e.g. steam engines and
turbines where the working
fluids is steam.

ICE Combustion of fuel

occurs inside the cylinder.
e.g. petrol, oil and gas
engines where the working
fluids is air.

Introduction

ICE work on an open cycle where the working fluid is

renewed at the end of each cycle.

The following four requirements are to be fulfilled by

any ICE:
i. The fuel and air in the correct ratio must be supplied
to the engine.
ii. They must be compressed before or after mixing.
iii. The compressed mixture needs to be burnt and
combustion products expand, at the same time
actuating the engine mechanism.
iv. Combustion products are disposed off to receive
new supply of charge.
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ICE - Terminology
Top dead centre (TDC) the
position of piston when it forms
the smallest volume in the
cylinder.
Bottom dead centre (BDC) the
position of piston when it forms
the largest volume in the cylinder.
Stroke, L the largest distance
that the piston can travel in one
direction.
Bore, d the diameter of the
piston.
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ICE - Terminology
Intake valve the valve where air or air-fuel mixture is
drawn into the cylinder.
Exhaust valve the valve where combustion products are
expelled from cylinder.
Clearance volume, Vc minimum
volume formed in the cylinder
when the piston at TDC.
Displacement or swept volume, Vs
volume displaced by the piston
as it moves between TDC and BDC.

ICE - Terminology

Compression ratio, r the ratio of maximum volume to

the minimum (clearance) volume.

Mean effective pressure (mep) the work done per unit

displacement volume. Can be used as a parameter to
compare performance of reciprocating engines of equal
size. The engine with larger value mep will deliver more
net work per cycle and thus will perform better.

Wnett = MEP X Piston area X Stroke = MEP X Displacement

volume
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Four-Stroke Cycle

In 4-stroke engine, the cycle is completed in four

strokes of a piston or two revolutions of the crankshaft.
In petrol and gas engines:
The mixing of fuel and air takes place outside the
cylinder.
This mixture is injected into the cylinder.
Then, it is compressed and fired by spark plugs.
In oil and diesel engines:
Only air is sucked in and then compressed.
Subsequently, fuel is injected into the cylinder
causing it to ignite.
For this reason, these engines do not need spark
plugs or ignition system.
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Four-Stroke Cycle

The working principles of a typical 4-stroke cycle are

as follows:

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Four-Stroke Cycle
INTAKE / INDUCTION STROKE
This stroke starts with piston at TDC and ends at
BDC. During the intake stroke, the piston moves
down. The intake valve is open. The charges flow
through the intake valve and into the cylinder. These
charges comprise of air-fuel mixture in petrol engine
or air only in diesel engine. Next, as the piston passes
through BDC (bottom dead centre), the intake valve
closes.

COMPRESSION STROKE
After the piston passes BDC, it starts moving up. Both
valves are closed. Near or at TDC, the charges are
ignited either by spark plugs in petrol engines or by
fuel injection in compressed air which has reached
firing temperature in diesel engines. Combustion
causes the temperature and pressure of fluid in the
cylinder to increase.

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Four-Stroke Cycle
POWER STROKE
The high temperature causes very high pressure which
pushes down the piston to BDC. The downward
movement of the piston is transmitted through the
connecting rod to the crankshaft which turns to move
the drive wheels.

EXHAUST STROKE
As the piston approaches BDC on the power stroke,
the exhaust valve opens. After passing through BDC,
the piston moves up again. The burnt gases escape
through the open exhaust port. When the piston passes
through TDC and starts moving down again, the
exhaust valve closes. Another intake stroke begins and
the whole cycle repeats.
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Two-Stroke Cycle

In the two-stroke cycle, all four processes are carried

out in only two stroke of the piston movement and one
crank revolution. This can be done on two ways:

By compressing air in a compressor outside the

cylinder so that air can be forced into the cylinder.
This compressor usually is part of the engine and is
driven by it, or
By designing the crank casing so that it acts as a
compressor

The working principles of a typical 2-stroke cycle are

as follows:
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Two-Stroke Cycle
STROKE 1 COMPRESSION & INTAKE
The piston moves upwards. The stroke starts from BDC and ends at
TDC. Before the stroke commences, the suction valve opens,
allowing fresh charge to come into the crank casing, where it is being
compressed. The charge then enters the cylinder through hole T thus
pushing out the remaining exhaust gases through hole E. When the
cylinder is full of fresh charge both holes are closed and the
compression begins until TDC. Just before TDC, the mixture is
ignited.

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Two-Stroke Cycle
STROKE 2 POWER & EXHAUST
The piston moves down. This stroke, which is from the TDC to the
BDC is the power stroke. Energetic combustion gases expand and
approximately 80% of the stroke, the piston no longer closes the
exhaust hole, and the gases are discharged to the atmosphere. The
intake of fresh charge helps the discharge process.

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Valve Timing

The timing of the opening and closing of inlet and

exhaust valves as well as the exact point of ignition are
very important .
This is to make sure a successful running of the engine.
The main factors that affect the timing of valves are the
high velocity of the charge at the entry to the cylinder
and the high velocity of the exhaust gases at the exit
from the cylinder.
Note that, different engines apply different valve
timing.
The angular positions shown is refer to the crank angle
position in relation to the TDC and BDC positions of
the piston.
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Valve Timing

Valve timing diagram

for 4-stroke SI engine

IO

Inlet valve opens.

The actual position is between 10deg before
TDC and 15deg after TDC

IC

Inlet valve closes.

This occurs 20deg to 40deg after BDC.

Spark occurs.
This is 20 to 40deg before TDC when the
ignition is fully advanced, and is at TDC when
ignition is fully retarded.

EO

Exhaust valve opens.

At about 50deg before BDC.

EC

Exhaust valve closes.

This occurs 0deg to 10deg after TDC

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Valve Timing

Valve timing diagram

for 4-stroke CI engine

IO

Inlet valve opens.

Up to 30deg before TDC

IC

Inlet valve closes.

Up to 50deg after BDC.

Injection

Injection of fuel occurs.

About 15deg before TDC.

EO

Exhaust valve opens.

About 45deg before BDC.

EC

Exhaust valve closes.

About 30deg after TDC.

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Valve Timing

Valve timing diagram for 2-stroke engine

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20

21

Performance Criteria of ICE

An engine is selected to suit a particular application.

The main consideration being its power/speed
characteristics.
Important additional factors are initial capital cost and
running cost.
Different types of engine can be compared to each other
using a number of performance criteria.
These include indicated power, brake power, friction
power, mechanical efficiency, brake mean effective
pressure, thermal efficiency, fuel consumption, and
volumetric efficiency.

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Performance Criteria of ICE

a)

Indicated Power (ip)

It is defined as the rate of work done by the gas on the
piston as evaluated from an indicator diagram (shown in
Fig.) obtained from the engine.
The area of the indicator diagram represents the
magnitude of the net work done by the system in one
engine cycle.
Net work done per cycle (area of power loop area
of pumping loop)
Therefore, indicated mean effective pressure, Pi, is
defined in the following way:
pi

net area of diagram

constant
length of diagram

The constant depends on

the scales of the recorder
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Performance Criteria of ICE

Power loop

Pumping loop

Indicator diagram for an engine

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Performance Criteria of ICE

Considering one engine cylinder.

Work done per cycle p i A L

where A is the area of piston and L the length of stroke
Power output = work done per cycle x cycles per
minute
Or ip = piAL x (cycles/unit time)

The number of cycles per unit time depends on the type

of engine; for four-stroke engines the number of cycles
per unit time is N/2, and for two strokes the number of
cycles per unit time is N, where N is engine speed
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Performance Criteria of ICE

The formula for ip then becomes for four-stroke

engines.

p i ALNn
ip
2

For two-stroke engines

ip p i ALNn
Where n is the number of cylinders.

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Performance Criteria of ICE

b)

Brake Power (bp)

It is the measured output of the engine.
Measurement of the brake power involves the
determination of the torque and the angular speed of the
engine output shaft.
The torque can be measured using a dynamometer that
is connected to the engine. The torque is given by:

Torque, T = net load, W x radius from axis of rotation, R

T = WR
The brake power, bp is then given by:
bp = 2NT
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Performance Criteria of ICE

c)

Friction power (fp) and mechanical efficiency, M

The difference between the ip and the bp is the friction power,

(fp), and is that power required to overcome the frictional
resistance of the engine parts.
fp = ip bp
The mechanical efficiency of the engine is defined as:

bp

ip

M usually lies between 80% and 90%

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Performance Criteria of ICE

d)

Brake mean effective pressure (Pb)

From mechanical efficiency equation, we get; bp = M x ip

For four-stroke engine:
bp =
Since M and pi are difficult to obtain, they may be combined
and replaced with pb,
bp =
(where pb = M x pi)

pb also can be written as:

(where K is a constant)

The Pb may be thought of as that mean

effective pressure acting on the pistons
which would give the measured bp if the
engine were frictionless

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Performance Criteria of ICE

e)

Thermal efficiency and specific fuel consumption

The overall efficiency of the engine is given by the brake

thermal efficiency, BT,

(where mf is the mass of fuel consumed per unit time, and Qnet,v
is the net calorific value of the fuel)
The indicated thermal efficiency, IT, is defined the similar way
to BT.

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Performance Criteria of ICE

Next, dividing these equations gives:

The specific fuel consumption (sfc), is the mass flow rate of fuel
consumed per unit power output, and is a criterion of economical
power production.

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Performance Criteria of ICE

f)

Volumetric efficiency (V)

Volumetric efficiency can be defined as the ratio of volume of air

induced, measured at the free air conditions to the swept volume
of the cylinder.

where V = volume of air induced

Vs = swept volume

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Examples

Try Example 13.1 and Example 13.2 in the textbook

(Eastop and McConkey)

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Factors Influencing Performance

a)

SI engines
The thermal efficiency of the Otto cycle depends on
compression ratio.
A graph of air standard thermal efficiency against
compression ratio is shown below:

This

graph indicates the form engine development

should take, and over the early years increases in
compression ratio were made.
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Factors Influencing Performance

The

ability to use higher ratios has depended on the

provision of better-quality fuels and of improved
designs of combustion chamber.
The main features of the combustion chamber are the
distances to be travelled by the flame after initiation of
combustion, and the gas flow pattern established.
It is evident that if a petrolair mixture is compressed
sufficiently it will ignite spontaneously.
This suggests one limit to the compression ratio if
controlled combustion is to be obtained from spark
ignition.
However, before this limit is reached for the whole
charge, spontaneous ignition can occur in the unburnt
charge after combustion has commenced normally. 35

Factors Influencing Performance

The

unburnt gas, compressed by the advancing flame

front, is raised in temperature and may reach the point
of self ignition.
This produces an uncontrolled combustion and its
occurrence may be heard as a knocking sound.
A critical condition can be reached which is called
detonation, or heavy knock.
The advancing flame front is suddenly accelerated by
the occurrence of a high-pressure wave and the flame
front and the shock wave traverse the cylinder together.
The detonation wave suffers successive reflections,
and a high-frequency noise is created.
These combustion phenomena are usually referred to
collectively as knock.
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Factors Influencing Performance

One of the results of knock is that local hot spots can

be created which remain at a sufficiently high
temperature to ignite the next charge before the spark
occurs.
This is called pre-ignition, and can help to promote
further knocking.
These result is a noisy, overheated, and inefficient
engine, and perhaps eventual mechanical failure.
The compression ratio which can be utilized depends
on the fuel to be used and a scale has been developed
against which the knock tendency of a fuel can be rated.
The rating is given as an octane number.
The fuel under test is compared with a mixture of isooctane (high rating) and normal heptane (low rating), by
37

Factors Influencing Performance

The

octane number of the fuel is the percentage of

octane in the reference mixture which knocks under the
same conditions as the fuel.
The number obtained depends on the conditions of the
test and the two main methods in use (the research and
the motor methods) give different ratings for the same
fuel.
Fuels have been developed which have a higher antiknock rating than iso-octane and this has led to an
extension of the octane scale.
Aviation conditions of operation lead to another scale
which gives a better indication of the detonation
characteristic: this is the performance number (PN).
The relationship between octane number (ON), above
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100 and performance number is given by

Factors Influencing Performance

PN 100
ON above100 100
3
With

higher compression ratio engines, other

phenomena are observed.
From compression ratios of 9.5/1 upwards there are
high rates of pressure rise which have their origin in the
additional flame fronts started from surface deposits in
the cylinder.
At about 9.5/1 compression ratio the low-frequency
engine vibrations produced are called rumble or
pounding.
At compression ratios of 12/1 the pressure rise is about
8.3 bar per degree crank angle with a peak pressure of
83 bar.
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Factors Influencing Performance

The

a)

engine noises produced are known as thud or

pressure rap; surface ignition is not present and fuel
characteristics have little influence.
CI engines
The effect of compression ratio in the CI engine is
somewhat simpler than in the Si engine.
The efficiency of the cycle increases with higher
values of compression ratio and the limit is a
mechanical one imposed by the high pressures
developed in the cylinder, a factor which adversely
affects the power-weight ratio.
The normal range of compression ratios is 13/1 to
17/1, but may be anything up to 25/1.
The main factor is the delay period.
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Factors Influencing Performance

A

long delay period means more combustible mixture

has had time to form, and so more charge will be
involved in the initial combustion.
As the speed increases the rate of pressure rise in this
phase also increases.
This is because the delay period is a function of time if
surrounding conditions remain constant, and at the
higher engine speeds more mixture will be formed in
the delay period.
The initial rapid combustion can give rise to rough
running and a characteristic noise called diesel knock.
It has been stated that the delay period depends on the
nature of the fuel, and a fuel with a short delay period,
or high ignitability, is required.
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Factors Influencing Performance

The

ignitability of a fuel oil is indicated by its cetane

number, and the procedure for obtaining it is similar to
that for obtaining the octane number of petrols.
Engines are affected in performance by the atmosphere
in which they operate and some allowance must be
made in performance figures quoted for variations in
pressure, temperature, and relative humidity.
The variations in performance can be represented
graphically, but the normal values quoted apply up to 30
oC and 150 m altitude from sea-level, for normally
aspirated engines.
The reduction in output per 300 m of altitude above
150 m is about 3%, and for every 5 K for above 30 oC
the reduction is also about 3%.
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THE END

43

C: Crankshaft
E: Exhaust camshaft
I: Inlet camshaft
P: Piston
R: Connecting rod
S: Spark plug
V: Valves. Red: exhaust, Blue:
intake
W: Cooling water ducts

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46

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48

Engine Torque and Power

Torque is measured using a dynamometer.
b
Stator

Force F

Rotor
N
Load cell

The torque exerted by the engine is: T = F b with units: J

The power P delivered by the engine turning at a speed N and
absorbed by the dynamometer is:
P

= T = (2 N) T

w/units: (rad/rev)(rev/s)(J) = Watt

Note: is the shaft angular velocity with units: rad/s

49