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THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF KENYA

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY


SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL AND PROCESS ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE AND AVIATION ENGINEERING

APPLICATION OF THE SIX STROKE CYCLE IN AIRCRAFT INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES

BY: AUSTINE WERE OTIATO

PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE AWARD OF A BACHELOR OF


ENGINEERING IN AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

@ Copyright The Technical University of Kenya

The report is the intellectual property of the University and no part or the whole of it shall be
reproduced, disseminated of used in any manner electronic or hard copy without the written
permission of the university. Any products arising from the work contained in this report are the
intellectual property of the author.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
In recent times, there has been exponential increase in fuel consumption due to the everincreasing number of machines such as in the automobile and aviation industry. It is therefore
important to seek means to utilize the limited fuel available in the most efficient way possible.
Many of the machines in use today utilize the conventional internal combustion engine based on
the Otto cycle.
Internal combustion engines operate on the principle of combustion of fuel/air mixture occurring
in the cylinder after the mixture has been compressed. This results in the mixture expanding and
pushing the piston. The piston converts this energy into 180 rotation of the crankshaft.
The Otto cycle takes place in 4 strokes namely intake, compression, combustion/expansion and
exhaust. The thermal efficiency of the four stroke internal combustion engine is low; about 30%.
This means that approximately 70% of the total fuel energy is lost to either cylinder components
or lost to the atmosphere through the exhaust.

CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM STATEMENT


In the aviation industry, application of piston engines is increasingly reducing. This is due to
their high levels of inefficiency especially compared to alternative propeller power plant systems
such as the turboprop engine.
The specific fuel consumption of piston engines is high and also there tends to be very high
cylinder head temperatures caused by combustion.
The emissions from piston engines are not environment-friendly and thus these engines pose a
major pollution concern.

CHAPTER 3: PURPOSE OF THE STUDY


This study is aimed at investigating how the performance of general aircraft piston engines can
be improved by adopting a six stroke cycle as opposed to the conventional four stroke Otto cycle
which has been the dominant application.

CHAPTER 4: OBJECTIVES
To investigate the viability of application of the six stroke engine to general aviation aircraft.
To investigate the improvement in thermal efficiency of the six stroke engine as compared to the
four stroke Otto cycle engine.
To design a water injection system to be used in the six stroke engine.
To design an on-board water purification system for the six stroke engine.
To analyze how the six stroke engine can help achieve reduction in harmful emissions for
purposes of environment conservation.

CHAPTER 5: LITERATURE REVIEW


Over the years, various technologies have been adopted to help utilize the high amounts of heat
present in exhaust gases after combustion.

i.

EXHAUST TURBO-CHARGING

Exhaust turbo-charging uses internal combustion engine exhaust gas energy to drive the
compressor through exhaust turbocharger. It is a means of recovering some of the exhaust gas
energy. It has more advantages than the mechanical supercharging engine such as a higher
thermal efficiency because the compressor power comes from the exhaust gas energy rather than
from the engine effective work output. However, it has a low recovery proportion compared to
the energy that is still lost to the surroundings.

ii.

THERMOELECTRIC GENERATOR

This technology is used to convert the thermal energy from the exhaust gases into electrical
energy. It is compact and environmentally friendly as it has no moving parts. However, the
quantity of heat recovered is still quite low. This limitation is mainly caused by thermoelectric
materials.

Therefore, to effectively recycle the exhaust energy, the six stroke engine was proposed. It is
based on the Rankine cycle.
The principle of operation is a s follows:

1st stroke

Figure 1Intake valve opens and the air/fuel mixture enters the cylinder

The intake valve opens and air-fuel mixture is sucked into the combustion chamber due to the
piston movement from top dead center (TDC) to bottom dead center (BDC). The movement of
piston from TDC to BDC creates negative pressure in the cylinder, which sucks in more air-fuel
mixture.

2nd stroke

Figure 2: Intake valve closes and the mixture is compressed

In the compression stroke, all 4 valves will remain closed. The air-fuel mixture is trapped inside
the combustion chamber. Now the piston starts moving from BDC to TDC and compresses the
air-fuel mixture inside the combustion chamber.

3rd stroke

Figure 3: The compressed mixture is ignited and explodes

Just before the piston reaches the TDC in the combustion chamber, a spark plug ignites the
compressed air-fuel mixture. This generates a lot of heat and the piston is forced to move down
from TDC to BDC. The expansion of gases releases energy which is used to rotate the
crankshaft.

4th stroke

Figure 4: The exhaust valve opens and burnt mixture is pushed out

The exhaust valve opens and the movement of piston from BDC to TDC pushes the exhaust
gases out through the exhaust valve.

5th stroke

Figure 5: Exhaust valve closes and water is injected into the cylinder

Water is injected in this stroke. The high temperature inside the combustion chamber heats the
water and this leads to expansion which forces the piston to move down from TDC to BDC to
provide an additional power stroke.

6th stroke

Figure 6: Exhaust valve opens and steam is let out

The air exhaust valve opens and as the piston moves up from BDC to TDC, the expanded steam
is sent out through the exhaust.

ADVANTAGES OF SIX STROKE ENGINES OVER FOUR STROKE ENGINES

1. Six stroke engines consume less fuel (about 40% less) than the four stroke engine to
produce the same amount of power.
2. Six stroke engines have 2 power strokes per cycle as opposed to the 1 power stroke
offered by the four stroke engine.
3. Six stroke engines have a higher thermal efficiency since it utilizes some of the heat
energy present after the first exhaust stroke as opposed to the four stroke engines where
all the exhaust heat is lost.
4. Six stroke engines have better cooling mechanisms due to the injection of water.

CHAPTER 6: METHODOLOGY
In this project, a case comparison of an ideal four stroke engine against an ideal six stroke engine
will be performed.
All calculations will be presented and complemented by graphs and relevant diagrams.

CHAPTER 7: TIMELINE
Month

Activity

January

Analysis and comparisons of current high performance internal combustion engine


used in aircraft.

February Perform full thermodynamic analysis of a four stroke engine and compare with
ideal Otto cycle engine
March

Perform full thermodynamic analysis of an ideal six stroke engine and compare
with four stroke engine

April

Findings and recommendations

REFERENCES
1. A new six stroke single cylinder diesel engine referring Rankine cycle - Hao Chen, Qi Guo, Lu
Yang, Shenghua Liu, Xuliang Xie, Zhaoyang Chen, Zengqiang Liu
2. A review on six stroke engine - Vikash, Prakash Kumar, Gopal Sahu, Ritesh Sharma, Shailendra
Bohidar
3. A Review: Six Stroke Internal Combustion Engine - Dheeraj Makheeja
4. International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology

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