1 INTRODUCTION TO IC ENGINES

1
1.1
1.1.1

Introduction to IC Engines
Engine Cycles
The 4-Stroke Cycle

a.k.a. SUCK-SQUEEZE-BANG-BLOW With reference to Figure 1, the 4-Stroke operating cycle is as follows:1. Induction, or intake (SUCK): The inlet valves are open and the piston travels down the cylinder, drawing in a fresh charge of air (or air-fuel mixture). 2. Compression (SQUEEZE): The inlet and exhaust valves are closed. The piston travels up the cylinder compressing (and heating) the charge. As the piston approaches the top of its travel the combustion is initiated (either by a spark or by the auto-ignition of injected fuel) 3. Expansion, or power stroke (BANG): Combustion propagates throughout the charge, raising pressure and temperature and forcing the piston down. At the end of the power stroke the exhaust valve opens. 4. Exhaust (BLOW): The exhaust valve(s) is open. The piston travels upwards forcing the burned gas out the cylinder.

Figure 1: 4-Stroke cycle (Image: http://bestsyntheticoil.com/dealers/amsoil/images/4-cycleschematic.gif, downloaded 17 September 2004.) Note that there are two crankshaft revolutions per 4-stroke engine cycle. MECH 578 1 M.H.Davy, September 21, 2004

1.1 Engine Cycles

1 INTRODUCTION TO IC ENGINES

1.1.2

The 2-Stroke Cycle

Figure 2: 2-Stroke cycle (Image: http://bestsyntheticoil.com/dealers/amsoil/images/2-cycleschematic.gif, downloaded 17 Sept. 04) The 2-stroke engine cycle eliminates the separate induction and exhaust strokes. Thus, we have only a compression and power stroke. With reference to gure 2, the 2-stroke cycle for a loop scavenged engine is described below:1. Compression, 1 : The piston travels up the cylinder compressing the trapped charge within it. Combustion is initiated just before the top of the pistons stroke (again either by sparkigniting a pre-mixed charge or by the auto-ignition of injected fuel). While this compression process is happening, the rising piston is simultaneously drawing a fresh charge into the engine crankcase (typically through a one-way valve arrangement). MECH 578 2 M.H.Davy, September 21, 2004

1.2 Operational Parameters and Performance Criteria 1 INTRODUCTION TO IC ENGINES

2. Power stroke, 2,3,4 : The burning charge raises the temperature and pressure within the cylinder and forces the piston down. The downward motion of the piston compresses the charge in the crankcase. As the piston approaches the end of the stroke it uncovers the exhaust port and the burned gases, which are still above atmospheric pressure, are released. A short time later, as the piston reaches BDC a connecting port (the transfer port) between the crankcase and the cylinder is uncovered allowing the pressurized gases within the crankcase to enter the cylinder displacing some of the remaining burned mixture in the process. The piston now reverses covering rstly the transfer port and secondly the exhaust port and the cycle is repeated. Note that we now have only one crankshaft revolution per engine cycle. Thus for a given engine size and speed, the 2-stroke engine will be more powerful than the 4-stroke engine (the 2-stroke has twice as many power strokes per unit time). However, 2-stroke eciency is low and emissions can be dicult to control.

1.2
1.2.1

Operational Parameters and Performance Criteria

Mean Eective Pressure

Mean eective pressure (MEP) is used to compare the performance of dierent IC engines, with dierent displacements. There are two key types of MEP based either on the work done by the gas on the piston or the work available as output from the engine. Consider the P-V digram shown in Figure 3. The shaded area enclosed by the trace is a measure of dierence in the work done by piston on the gas during compression and by the gas on the piston during expansion, i.e. the positive work output. We can determine a constant pressure value that that would enclose the same area as the engine cycle when operating over the same swept volume (V1 -V2 ). This is the mean eective pressure, dened as: work output per cylinder per cycle (Nm) swept volume per cylinder (m3 )

MEP (N/m2 ) =

(1.1)

MEP is a measure of specic work output. i.e. MEP is independent of engine size. if the MEP is calculated from a P-V or indicator diagram then it is referred to as the indicated mean eective pressure (IMEP), denoted by pi if the MEP is measured by a dynamometer or brake then it is referred to as the brake mean eective pressure (BMEP), denoted by pp Note that particular care must be taken with the use of IMEP. As discussed by Stone [1], conventions vary as to the denition of IMEP, which may or may not account for pumping losses (for a MECH 578 3 M.H.Davy, September 21, 2004

1.2 Operational Parameters and Performance Criteria 1 INTRODUCTION TO IC ENGINES

Figure 3: Gross indicated MEP 4-stroke engine, the indicator diagram has a small -ve loop that accounts for the pumping work required during the exhaust and intake strokes). In North America it is the convention to refer to gross and net IMEP.

The indicated pumping work (-ve) can be used to dene a pumping mean eective pressure, PMEP

P MEP (N/m2 ) = pp =

pumping work output per cylinder per cycle (Nm) swept volume per cylinder (m3 )

(1.2)

leading to the denition of net IMEP

net IMEP = gross IMEP P MEP

(1.3)

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1.2 Operational Parameters and Performance Criteria 1 INTRODUCTION TO IC ENGINES

1.2.2

Power & Torque

The power output (work per unit time), W , of an engine is related to the MEP by the geometric arrangement of the engine as follows W (W ) = MEP (N/m2 ) piston area (m2 ) stroke (m) N n where: n is the number of cylinders, and N is the number of combustion events per cylinder per cycle for a 2-stroke engine; N = engine revolutions per second for a 4-stroke engine; N = engine revolutions per second/2 (1.4)

Thus, INDICATED POWER, Wi , is given by Wi = pi ALNn = pi Vs N where: Vs is the engines swept volume (m3 ); A is the piston area; and L is the stroke length (1.5)

The BRAKE POWER is given by Wb = pb ALNn = pb Vs N (1.6)

The dierence between the indicated power and the brake power represents work lost to mechanical friction and is termed the FRICTION POWER, Wf , such that Wf = Wi Wb (1.7)

The brake power and TORQUE are related by Wb = 2Nb for a 2-stroke engine N = engine revolutions per second for a 4-stroke engine N = engine revolutions per second/2 (1.8)

1.2.3

Brake Specic Fuel Consumption

The brake specic fuel consumption (bsfc) is the mass ow rate of fuel into the engine, mf , divided by the engines brake power bsf c = mf Wb (1.9)

MECH 578

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1.3 Mechanical Design

1 INTRODUCTION TO IC ENGINES

1.2.4

Mechanical Eciency

The mechanical eciency of an engine,m , is dened as m = Wb Wi (1.10)

1.3
1.3.1

Mechanical Design
Requirements & Considerations

Application transportation stationary use Duty cycle xed speed & load variable speed & load Fuel type gasoline diesel other? Performance requirements power torque eciency size ( 80,000 kW - see gure4(a)) weight cost

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1.4 Design Options

1 INTRODUCTION TO IC ENGINES

(a) 14-cylinder Sulzer RTA96C 2-stroke 80 080kW diesel

(b) Sulzer RTA96C crankshaft

Figure 4: Large(st) current marine diesel engine? (Photos courtesy Wrtsil) a a

1.4

Design Options
4-stroke 2-stroke simple for small engines lower cylinder pressures for larger engines naturally aspirated boosted air cooled water cooled number & arrangement of cylinders inline long but cheap & simple to produce v conguration compact but more expensive to produce opposed cylinders low center of gravity opposed pistons air cooled 2-strokes

Engine type

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1.4 Design Options

1 INTRODUCTION TO IC ENGINES

no cylinder heads stroke-bore ratio

1.4.1

Bore/Stroke Ratio

The choice of bore/stroke ratio is an important design decision. For a xed engine displacement, the bore/stroke ratio will aect many factors including: Engine height & weight Mean piston speed (limits max. rpm) Mechanical vibration Compression ratio (heavily inuences thermal eciency) Cylinder surface area/volume ratio (aects heat transfer loss mechanism) Generally, a short stroke engine is preferable. In all respects the engine will be more compact, it will have a lower piston speed and the level of vibration will be less. Moreover, for a four-stroke engine, the larger bore will provide more room for inlet and exhaust valves. However, the bore/stroke ratio will also eect the performance characteristic and driveability of the engine. Consider the following: Combining (1.6) and (1.8) we obtain the following denitions of torque b = 1 pb V s 4 1 b = pb V s 2 (4-stroke) (1.11) (2-stroke)

Combining (1.6) and (1.13) we can obtain the following denitions of power 1 Wb = pb AUp 4 1 Wb = pb AUp 2 (4-stroke) (1.12) (2-stroke)

thus, for a xed level of stress (b , Up ), the engine power is dependent on the piston area, i.e. p the bore, and once the bore is xed, the torque will depend on the stroke length.

MECH 578

M.H.Davy, September 21, 2004

1.5 Practical Constraints

1 INTRODUCTION TO IC ENGINES

1.5
1.5.1

Practical Constraints
Mean Piston Speed

The mean piston speed is of major importance to engine design. Mechanical stresses and many other factors scale with piston speed rather than engine speed. Under normal circumstances, it is the maximum allowable or achievable mean piston speed that which determines the maximum rotational speed of the engine. Mean piston speed, Up , is dened as Up = 2LN where: N is crankshaft revolutions per sec, and L is the stroke length (1.13)

Piston speed / bmep relationship for various market sectors 28 26 Mean piston speed (m/s) 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Bmep at rated speed (bar)
Passenger car gasoline US top10 gasoline Motorcycles Passenger car diesel TCC Passeger car diesel 1999 Passcar diesel future HD diesel 0.8-1.2 litres/cyl F1. Mercedes/ Ilmor

Figure 5: Mean piston BMEP relationship by engine class (Courtesy Ian Middlemiss & Perkins Engine Co. Ltd.) Note that g(5) shows relatively tight groupings that are dependent on engine type. These groupings, and their upper bounds, can be explained as follows: Medium duty diesel (10-11.5 m/s): This is essentially a limitation on peak inlet port gas speed that applies irrespective of bore and stroke. The data includes 400 kW on-highway truck engines and 4000 kW generating set prime movers. MECH 578 9 M.H.Davy, September 21, 2004

REFERENCES

REFERENCES

Light duty diesel (13-14 m/s): Typically, limited by fuel system response (Electronic fuel systems are restricted to 4500 rev/min by the speed of the control solenoids and the pressures required to inject fuel into the cylinder in a short time period). Gasoline engine (15-20 m/s): Higher mean piston speed c.f. diesel engines reects more ecient inlet ow process of the gasoline engine (at W.O.T.). Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines run slightly higher mean piston speed than the port injected gasoline engine as the air consumption of the GDI is higher as the inlet system has only to pump air as opposed to a mixture of air and fuel. Formula 1 engine (26 m/s): Heavy use of expensive lightweight materials to reduce stresses, engine speed is typically limited by valvetrain stresses and combustion speed.

Using these limiting values of mean piston speed and some typical stroke lengths for each class of engine, we can determine the typical maximum engine speed of each group. Table 1: Typical maximum engine speed by class Displacement litres 25300 6.7 1.9 2.0 0.6 3.0 Stroke Mean Piston Speed mm m2 2500 8.5 127 11 98 13 90 18 45 18 44 26 rpm 102 2600 4060 6000 12000 17750 Class HD diesel (2-stroke) MD diesel (4-stroke) Passenger car diesel(4-stroke) Passenger car gasoline (4-stroke) Sports motorcycle gasoline( 4-stroke) Racing (4-stroke)

References
[1] Stone R. Introduction to Internal Combustion Engines. Macmillian Press, 3rd edition, 1999.

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