ME 107: IC Engine Lab Background, UC Berkeley, Spring 2016

ME 107 Internal Combustion (IC) Engine

Objective
The objective of the IC engine lab is to investigate the performance of an IC engine using concepts
learned in thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and heat transfer. Additionally, students will learn how to
plan/design an experiment and effectively communicate their results.

Background
Engine Terminology and Operation
Figure 1 presents a schematic of mechanical components inside a typical internal combustion (IC)
engine including piston, connecting rod, crankshaft, and cylinder. The bore (B) is the diameter of the
cylinder and the stroke (L) is the distance traveled by the piston within the cylinder. When the piston is
at top dead center (TDC), the cylinder has the minimum volume, termed the clearance volume (Vc).
Conversely, when the piston is at bottom dead center (BDC), the cylinder contains the maximum
volume. The displacement volume (Vd) is defined as the volume swept by the piston as it travels from
TDC to BDC. Therefore the maximum cylinder volume, ie the volume at BDC, is Vc+Vd. The
compression ratio (r) is the ratio between the maximum cylinder volume and the minimum cylinder
volume; that is r= (Vc+Vd)/ Vc.
TDC

BDC

Figure 1 Schematic of a typical cylinder in an IC engine

When an engine is running, the reciprocating motion of the piston is converted to rotary motion by a
crank mechanism as sketched below the piston in Figure 1. A connecting rod of length l connects the
piston to the crankshaft, represented by a circle, in Figure 1. The distance from the center of the
crankshaft to the crank pin, where the connecting rod is connected, is termed the crank radius, a. Finally,
the angle formed between the crank radius and bore centerline is termed the crank angle, . As the piston
reciprocates, the crankshaft rotates in what is called the crank circle (a circle of radius a, called the crank
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ME 107: IC Engine Lab Background, UC Berkeley, Spring 2016

radius). Therefore, the crank angle can be correlated to the location of the piston in the cylinder. Since
the bore is known, the piston location can be used to determine the volume of the cylinder at a given
instant. Top dead center corresponds to a crank angle of 0, while bottom dead center corresponds to a
crank angle of 180. Therefore, for every full 360 rotation of the crankshaft, the piston executes two
strokes; one from 0 to 180 and another from 180 to 360.
The engine used in this lab is a four-stroke engine, meaning that the piston completes four strokes within
the cylinder in a thermodynamics cycle (the crankshaft goes through two rotations). Figure 2 presents a
typical pressure-volume diagram from a spark-ignited engine. Details of the four strokes are given
below:

Figure 2 Pressure-volume diagram for a four-stroke reciprocating IC engine

1. During the intake stroke, the piston moves toward BDC drawing a mixture of fuel and air into
the cylinder through intake valves.
2. Upon closure of the intake valves, the piston moves toward TDC undergoing a compression
stroke. The piston performs work on the combustible mixture inside the cylinder, raising
mixtures temperature and pressure. Near the end of the compression stroke, a spark initiates the
combustion process, resulting in a high-temperature, high-pressure gas mixture.
3. The burned gas mixture then expands during the power stroke. Work is done on the piston by the
gas mixture inside the cylinder.
4. After exhaust valves open, the piston moves toward TDC and pushes burned gases out of the
cylinder during the exhaust stroke.
Since in an engine the gas mixture is introduced at one composition during the intake stroke and purged
at another composition during the exhaust stroke, the above sequence of processes does not begin and
end at the same thermodynamic state. Strictly speaking, the above four strokes only constitute a
mechanical cycle, not a thermodynamic cycle. It is easy to see that performing a detailed
thermodynamic analysis including the composition changes of a real internal combustion engine can be
extremely complicated. However, a simplified ideal thermodynamic analysis of IC engines still provides
valuable insight into their performance.

ME 107: IC Engine Lab Background, UC Berkeley, Spring 2016

Air-Standard Otto Cycle

Employing an air-standard analysis greatly simplifies the thermodynamic analysis of IC engines. An
air-standard analysis is conducted on the basis of the following four assumptions:
1. The working fluid is a fixed amount of air modeled as an ideal gas.
2. The combustion process is replaced by an external heat transfer process.
3. The exhaust and intake processes are replaced by a constant volume heat transfer process at
bottom dead center.
4. All processes are internally reversible (there are no irreversibilities within the system).
The above air-standard analysis can be further simplified to a cold air-standard analysis by assuming
that specific heats are constant at their ambient temperature values. A cold air-standard analysis can be
performed for many IC cycles including Otto, Diesel, and dual cycles. Since the engine used in this lab
is spark-ignited, the following analysis will focus on the Otto cycle with the goal of determining the
thermal efficiency.
The air-standard Otto cycle is an ideal cycle that models combustion as an instantaneous heat addition
when the piston is at top dead center.

Figure 3 Pressure-Volume and Temperature-Entropy diagrams of the air-standard Otto cycle

As sketched in Figure 3, there are four internally reversible processes in the Otto cycle:
1. Process 1-2 is an isentropic compression of air (the piston moves from bottom dead center to top
dead center).
2. Process 2-3 is a constant volume heat addition to the air from an external source at top dead
center.
3. Process 3-4 is an isentropic expansion representing the power stroke (the piston moves from top
dead center to bottom dead center).
4. Process 4-1 is a constant volume process in which heat contained in the cylinder is rejected to the
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ME 107: IC Engine Lab Background, UC Berkeley, Spring 2016

surroundings at bottom dead center.

The ultimate goal is to determine the thermal efficiency of the Otto cycle as
=

net work done W 34 W 12

=
heat added
Q23

(1)

Performing an energy balance on each process (neglecting kinetic and potential energy) leads to
(2)

W12 = m(u2 u1 )

(3)

Q23 = m(u3 u2 )
W34 = m(u3 u4 )

(4)

Q41 = m(u4 u1 )

(5)

Therefore, the thermal efficiency of the Otto cycle can be expressed as

W34 W12 m(u3 u 4 ) m(u 2 u1 ) (u3 u 4 ) (u 2 u1 )

u u
=
=
=1 4 1 .
Q23
m(u3 u 2 )
(u3 u 2 )
u3 u 2

(5)

In order to calculate the thermal efficiency, the specific internal energy values need to be determined.
For an ideal gas, the specific internal energy is only a function of temperature. With constant specific
heats, the following temperature relationships can be used for the isentropic processes during the
compression and expansion strokes:

T2 V1
=
T1 V2
T4 V3
=
T3 V4

k 1

k 1

= r k 1
1
r k 1

(6)

(7)

where k = cp/cv and r is the compression ratio. Since V3 = V2 and V4 = V1, r = V1/V2 = V4/V3. Therefore,
using the cold air-standard analysis, the efficiency of the Otto cycle is:

=1

cv T4 T 1
T
1
= 1 1 = 1 k 1
cv (T3 T2 )
T2
r

(8)

Although elementary, the above analysis provides fundamental insight into the performance of IC
engines. However, in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of IC engine performance,
combustion must be considered.
Combustion
Combustion occurs through a series of chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidizer that result in
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ME 107: IC Engine Lab Background, UC Berkeley, Spring 2016

the production of heat and chemical products.

fuel + oxidizer products + heat

(9)

A fuel is a combustible substance. IC engines typically use hydrocarbon fuels that contain molecules
consisting of hydrogen and carbon atoms only. Hence, a given hydrocarbon fuel can be specified by the
number of carbon and hydrogen atoms in the fuels molecular structure. For instance, the hydrocarbon
fuel used in most spark-ignited engines is gasoline that consists of numerous chemical species. For ease
of analysis, isooctane, whose molecular formula is C8H18, is used as a surrogate representation of
gasoline. Another common hydrocarbon fuel is diesel fuel. For the same reason, dodecane, C12H26, is
commonly used to represent diesel fuel. With isooctane as fuel, Eq. (9) can be written as

C8 H18 + oxidizer products + heat

(10)

In the context of combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, an oxidizer is a chemical compound that supplies
oxygen atoms. In IC engines, air is the free oxidizer. Dry air contains a number of components;
however, its primary components are oxygen and nitrogen. More precisely, on a molar basis, dry air is
composed of 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen. Therefore, for every mole of oxygen, there are 3.76 moles
of nitrogen. With air as the oxidizer, Eq. (10) becomes

C8 H18 + a(O2 + 3.76 N 2 ) products + heat

(11)

The amount of power generated by an IC engine is directly related to the amounts of air and fuel
entering the engine. One common parameter for quantifying the amounts of air and fuel in a combustible
mixture is the air-fuel ratio. The air-fuel ratio is the ratio of the amount of air to the amount of fuel in a
mixture. Equation (12) presents two ways to define air-fuel ratio:

AF =

moles of air M air

M
mass of air
=
= AF air ,
mass of fuel moles of fuel M fuel
M fuel

(12)

where AF is the air-fuel ratio on a mass basis, AF is the air-fuel ratio on a molar basis, and Mair and
Mfuel are the molecular masses of air and fuel, respectively.
In an ideal, complete, combustion process, all of the fuel is combusted. The only reaction products are
carbon dioxide (b moles), water (c moles), and nitrogen (d moles).

C8 H18 + a(O2 + 3.76 N 2 ) bCO2 + cH 2O + dN 2 + heat

(13)

The amount of air required for a complete combustion process is called the stoichiometric amount of air,
and the corresponding air-fuel ratio is denoted by AFstoich.
In a real combustion process, the burned gases may contain more reaction products than the ones
outlined for an ideal, complete combustion process. These additional reaction products strongly depend
on the air-fuel ratio of the actual combustion process, AFactual. As the value of AFactual varies with the
type of fuel used, AFactual is often related to AFstoich through the equivalence ratio, , as

ME 107: IC Engine Lab Background, UC Berkeley, Spring 2016

1 /AF actual 1 /AF actual

=
1/ AF stoich 1 /AF stoich

(14)

The reactants are said to be in a lean mixture when < 1, and in a rich mixture when > 1. In a
lean mixture, AFactual > AFstoich, and the mixture contains more air than stoichiometrically required
to combust all of the fuel. Conversely, in a rich mixture, AFactual < AFstoich, and there is insufficient
air to combust all of the fuel. Consequently, in addition to the products from a complete
combustion process, carbon monoxide (e moles), oxygen (f moles), unburned hydrocarbons (g
moles), and nitrous oxides (h moles) are also present in the combustion products. Including these
additional products into Eq. (13), one obtains

C8 H18 + a(O2 + 3.76 N 2 ) bCO2 + cH 2O + dN 2 + eCO + fO2 + gT .HC + heat (15)

For an actual combustion process, the amounts of reaction products can only be determined
experimentally. Typically, the concentrations of product species can be measured by using gas
analyzers. Once the amounts of combustion products are known, the coefficients in Eq. (15) can be
determining by balanced atomic species on both reactant and product sides.
Emissions
In an IC engine, the residence time is insufficient for complete chemical reactions. Hence, the exhaust
gases from an engine will always contain small traces of harmful emissions, namely, CO, unburned
hydrocarbons, and NOx. Fortunately, there are methods to reduce emissions, including spark timing
adjustment, equivalence ratio adjustment, and catalytic converters.
In a spark-ignited engine, spark timing is referred to as the moment when the spark plug ignites the airfuel mixture in the cylinder. An air-fuel mixture is always ignited before the piston reaches top dead
center to allow ample time for the peak pressure to develop in the cylinder, resulting in the maximum
work. Advanced timing occurs when an air-fuel mixture is ignited when the piston is far from top dead
center. Advanced timing gives the air-fuel mixture more time to undergo a complete combustion,
reducing emissions, and typically resulting in more power output from the engine. However, because an
advanced ignition occurs far from top dead center, knocking can occur. Knocking occurs when an
unburned portion of the air-fuel mixture autoignites before the arrival of flame front. This unintended
combustion creates a shockwave, which can result in excessive cylinder pressure, damaging the engine.
By retarding the ignition timing, the air-fuel mixture combusts closer to top dead center, substantially
reducing the likelihood of knocking. However, retarded timing gives the air-fuel mixture less time to
undergo a complete combustion, increasing emissions, and typically results in less power output from
the engine.
Modern engines have computers that control the fuel injection into an engine. Therefore, if the amount
of oxygen leaving the engine is known, the engine computer can adjust the equivalence ratio of the airfuel mixture entering the engine. The amount of oxygen leaving an engine can be determined with
oxygen sensors and the engine computer can optimize the equivalence ratio of the air-fuel mixture
entering the engine to decrease emissions and maximize performance.
A catalytic converter is a device that converts harmful combustion products to less toxic substances with
a catalyst. Modern catalytic converters are three-way catalytic converters. Using Platinum, Palladium,
and Rhodium catalysts, a three-way catalytic converter perform the following three tasks:
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ME 107: IC Engine Lab Background, UC Berkeley, Spring 2016

1. Reduces NOx to N2 and O2

2. Oxidizes CO to CO2
3. Oxidizes T.HC to CO2 and H2O
The effectiveness of the catalytic converter for species X is determined as:

effectiveness =

[ X ]before converter [ X ]after converter

[ X ]before converter

(16)

Fuel Efficiency
The fuel efficiency describes how efficiently an engine converts the chemical potential energy contained
in a fuel into power. Although there are numerous methods for measuring fuel efficiency, a common
method is the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). The brake specific fuel consumption is the rate of
fuel consumption (the mass flow rate of fuel, m! fuel ) divided by the power output of the engine
( W engine ):
BSFC =

m
fuel

W engine

(17)

BSFC is commonly expressed in units of g/kW-h. The primary advantage of brake specific fuel
consumption is that it allows the fuel efficiency of different reciprocating engines to be compared.
Turbochargers
A turbocharger is an energy recovery device consisting of a turbine and compressor on a shared shaft.
The energy from engine exhaust is converted into shaft work by the turbine. The shaft work is then used
to drive a compressor near the engine intake, increasing the pressure and density of the air entering the
engine. From a thermodynamic perspective, the main function of a turbocharger is to increase the mass
of the air entering the engine, resulting in greater power output.

Experimental Setup
The main components of the IC engine experimental setup are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1986 Pontiac engine (1.8 liter, 4 cylinder)

Garrett turbocharger
Volvo intercooler
Catalytic converter
Eddy current dynamometer

Adjustable Parameters
Engine Speed
The engine may be run between 2000 and 4000 revolutions per minute (RPM) (DO NOT RUN
OUTSIDE THESE PARAMETERS).
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ME 107: IC Engine Lab Background, UC Berkeley, Spring 2016

Throttle
The throttle may be set between 35% and 100% for controlling the amount of reacting mixture entering
the engine.
Timing
The ignition timing may be advanced or retarded from the baseline.
Catalytic Converter
Emissions measurements can be taken before or after the catalytic converter.
Turbocharger
The turbocharger may be bypassed (THIS MAY ONLY BE DONE BY THE LAB TECHNICIAN).
Measurable Quantities
Torque/Power
The dynamometer measures the torque of the engine (with a load cell). Using the measured torque, the
power output of the engine can be calculated at a specified engine speed.
Cylinder Pressure and Volume
A pressure transducer inside cylinder 2 measures the cylinder pressure every 0.1 radians of crank angle
rotation. The crank angle is used to calculate the cylinder volume, and a pressure-volume trace can be
constructed.
Temperature
16 thermocouples measure the following temperatures:
1. Dynamometer cooling water
2. Engine oil exiting the engine and entering the oil heat exchanger
3. Engine oil out of the oil heat exchanger
4. City water out of oil heat exchanger
5. City water entering the heat exchangers
6. City water exiting the coolant heat exchanger
7. Engine coolant exiting the engine and entering the heat exchanger
8. Engine coolant exiting the heat exchanger and entering the engine
9. Air entering the system
10. Air before the intercooler
11. Air after the intercooler
12. Inlet air manifold
13. Exhaust before the turbocharger
14. Exhaust after the turbocharger
15. Exhaust before the catalytic converter
16. Exhaust after the catalytic converter
Flow rates
4 flow rates are measured throughout the system:
1. Oil into the heat exchanger (volumetric)
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ME 107: IC Engine Lab Background, UC Berkeley, Spring 2016

2. City water into the heat exchanger (volumetric)

3. Fuel into the engine (mass)
4. Air into the engine (volumetric) the intake air flow rate is measured in two ways:
1. Square-edged orifice
2. Turbine flow meter
Intake manifold pressure
The gauge pressure at the intake manifold is measured. Pressures below atmospheric pressure are
measured in mm/Hg. Pressures above atmospheric pressure are measured in psi.
Exhaust gas species (emissions)
A Horiba exhaust gas analyzer is used for measuring exhaust gas species including:
1. Unburned hydrocarbon (UHC)
2. O2
3. CO
4. CO2
5. NOx (NO and NO2)

Other useful references

Pulkrabek, W., 2004, Engineering Fundamentals of the Internal Combustion Engine, 2nd ed., Pearson
Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.