INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

2. INTRODUCTION
Internal combustion engines (IC engines) are basically energy converters. They
convert the chemical energy of the fuel to mechanical energy.
There are 2 types of IC engines :
1. SPARK IGNITION ENGINES ( SI engines).
2. COMPRESSION IGNITION ENGINES ( CI engines).
All IC engines operate on a thermodynamic cycle which includes ;
1. The induction of air or air/fuel mixture (charge).
2. The compression of the induced charge.
3. The combustion of the fuel in air towards the end of compression and
during the beginning of expansion.
4. The expansion of the products of combustion.
5. The exhaust of the products of combustion.
This cycle is repeated over and over.
There are RECIPROCATING and ROTARY IC engines. They both operate on
the above mentioned thermodynamic cycle. The majority of IC engines are of
the reciprocating type.

A reciprocating IC engine consists of ;

1. Engine block.
2. Cylinder head.
3. Piston(s) and piston pin(s).
4. Connecting rod(s).
5. Crankshaft.
6. Flywheel.
7. Valves and valve mechanisms and camshaft(s)
There will be one or more cylinders in the engine block. For water cooled IC
engines these cylinders will be surrounded by an outer shell. Between the outer
shell and the cylinders there will be water passages for cooling the engine. For
air cooled IC engines the cylinders will be surrounded by fins for air cooling.
For multiple cylinder engines the cylinders will be arranged side by side in a row.
They may be grouped and groups of cylinders in a row may be arranged
opposite to each other or in a V-form or in a radial star form.
In each cylinder there will be a piston which will move from TOP DEAD
CENTER (TDC, nearest position to the cylinder head) and BOTTOM DEAD
CENTER (BDC, farthest position to the cylinder head). One full movement of the
piston from TDC to BDC or vice versa is called a STROKE.

Each piston is connected by a piston pin to a connecting rod which in turn is

connected to the related crankpin of the crankshaft. The crankshaft which is
placed in the crankcase of the engine block is supported by journal bearings.

The back end of the crankshaft is coupled to a flywheel. The flywheel acts to
absorb the fluctuations in the speed of the crankshaft which is mainly due to
uneven distribution, both spatially and time wise, of the cyclic thermodynamic
events among the cylinders.
The crankshaft of an IC engine may then be coupled to a gear box as in the
case of transport vehicles or to the shaft of a water pump or to the shaft of an
electric generator or to the shaft of a ships propeller or to the shaft of the
propeller of an airplane or even to the shaft of the propeller of a model airplane
(you can hold the engine in the palm of your hand).

3. THEORY
3.1. OPERATING MODES OF IC ENGINES
IC engines may operate on a 4 stroke cycle or a 2 stroke cycle. In a 4 stroke
cycle the piston has to go through 4 strokes in order to complete the above
mentioned cyclic thermodynamic processes. In the 2 stroke cycle the piston
goes through only 2 strokes to complete the cycle. This seems to make the 2
stroke cycle more advantageous. However, if the engine speed is high then the
gas exchange processes are not as efficient as in the 4 stroke cycle engines
and so the 2 stroke cycle is applied more to marine type slow and large CI
engines . On the other hand there are 2 stroke cycle CI engines in the power
range of 200-500 kW and operating at speeds of up to approximately 2000 rpm.
In the two stroke engine, the inlet and exhaust valves are eliminated by using
the piston to cover and uncover ports or passages in the cylinder and
crankcase. Beginning the cycle with the piston about the half-way through its
compression stroke, all three ports are covered. The upward movement of the
piston compresses a fresh charge of mixture in the combustion chamber. At the
same time the pressure in the crankcase is reduced below atmospheric
pressure. Near the top of the stroke the lower edge of the piston uncovers the
inlet port, allowing the pressure of the atmosphere to fill the crankcase of the
engine with fresh mixture from the carburetor.
The mixture in the combustion chamber is ignited in the same way as in the four
stroke engine near the top of the stroke. The high pressure of the burned gases
drives the piston down the cylinder. Just below TDC the piston covers the inlet
port, and further downward movement compresses the mixture in the

crankcase. Near the bottom of the stroke the top edge of the piston uncovers
the exhaust port, allowing the burned gases to flow out of the cylinder under
their own pressure.
Slightly further down, the piston uncovers the transfer port and the compressed
mixture in the crankcase flows into the cylinder above the piston. The shaped
piston deflects the mixture upwards, preventing it flowing straight across the
cylinder and out through the exhaust port. Some engines use shaped transfer
ports instead of a deflecting piston. As the piston rise on its next stroke the
transfer and exhaust ports are covered and cycles of operations begins again.
3.2. OPERATION OF IC ENGINES
3.2.1 SPARK IGNITION ENGINES
Spark ignition engines are mainly used in automotive vehicles such as
automobiles and motorcycles. These engines cannot be very big in size
because of auto ignition (abnormal combustion) problems of flame propagated
combustion of premixed mixtures. They induce a mixture of air and fuel during
the induction process and then compress the induced charge to a pressure of
approximately 12-15 atmospheres and a temperature of 500-600 K during the
compression process and towards the end of the compression process the hot
and compressed mixture is ignited by a spark produced by the electrical ignition
system of the engine across the points of spark plug situated in the cylinder (1020 degrees before TDC). Then the pressure and temperature of the gas inside
the cylinder rapidly rise to a maximum of approximately 70-80 atmospheres and
a temperature of 2400-2600 K during the combustion process. A flame, starting
at the spark plug location, sweeps across the combustion chamber (volume

between the cylinder head and piston top) at mean speeds which may reach 1020 m/s, such that the movement of the piston towards TDC and away from TDC
is negligibly low as this happens. Therefore for most practical calculations this
type of combustion process is considered to happen at constant volume.
The products of combustion then push the piston away from TDC and the
expansion of these gases during the expansion process goes on until the piston
nearly arrives at BDC. At about 40-50 degrees crank angles away from BDC the
exhaust valve is opened by the valve mechanism which is synchronized to the
motion of the crankshaft through the camshaft. Even though the piston
continues to travel towards BDC the pressure inside the cylinder rapidly
decreases from about 4 atmospheres when the exhaust valve opens to about
1.1 to 1.25 atmospheres, as the gases rush out of the exhaust valve into the
exhaust port and from there into the exhaust manifold and exhaust pipe.
The piston then returns towards TDC and starts pushing out the remaining
gases out forcefully during the exhaust process. This motion of the piston
requires outside work which will be supplied by one of the other pistons (which
will be going through the expansion process) or in the case of a single cylinder
engine it will be supplied by the flywheel.
Towards the end of the exhaust process the inlet valve opens and mixture of air
and fuel vapor enters the cylinder even though there will still be some exhaust
gases going out of the exhaust valve which will normally be closed after TDC.
This overlapping of the inlet and exhaust valves occurs for almost all IC engines.
How many degrees crankangle this overlap should be depends on the engine
type and operating speeds. Inertia effects on the gases is important in

determining the valve timing of IC engines and this timing is usually done by
testing the performance of the engine in order to arrive at optimum values.
3.2.2 COMPRESSION IGNITION ENGINES
Compression ignition engines have a much more broader field of application. Its
possible to produce approximately 2000 kW per cylinder as well as 0.2 kW per
cylinder with this type of engine. Since they can operate at much higher powers
than SI engines they are more suitable for commercial applications. These
engines induce only air (except the dual fuel engines) during the induction
process. For naturally aspirated engines, the air is compressed to approximately
40 atmospheres and 900 K during the compression process. Liquid fuel is
injected into the cylinder towards the end of compression (10-20 degrees before
TDC) and the fuel spray atomizes into small droplets, evaporates and mixes
with hot air, forms pockets of local combustible mixtures and then autoignites
after having gone through a series of preliminary (slow rate) reactions in these
pockets. Once combustion starts, the remaining fuel rapidly evaporates and
enters the combustion reaction. During all this the injection of fuel is still
continuing. After the initially fast spontaneous burning of the fuel which entered
first into the combustion chamber the continued injection of fuel results in a
diffusive type of burning, since this fuel has to diffuse through the products of
combustion in order to meet with the oxygen molecules. This kind of combustion
of course takes more time than the flame propagation in SI engines. Therefore
CI engines cannot normally operate as fast as SI engines. On the other hand
they can have cylinder bores up to approximately one meter whereas SI engine
cylinder bores are normally limited to 0.15 m The expansion and exhaust
processes of 4 stroke cycle CI engines are exactly the same as in 4 stroke cycle
SI engines.