Statements and Reasoning:

1. Spark timing is advanced more for lean mixtures in SI engines.

Lean mixture in SIE tends to produce more knocking due to slow flame speed. Spark time is
more advanced to give the flame enough time to propagate before auto ignition occurs.
2. Spark timing is advanced more at higher engine speeds in SI engines.
Engine has very small amount of time to burn the air fuel mixture at high speed. To give more
time to ensure proper burning, spark timing is advanced at higher engine speeds.
3. Higher values of volumetric efficiency is always desirable.
Volumetric efficiency is the ratio of the engines capability to intake air to its maximum capacity.
More air means the engine can take additional fuels and burn it completely and thus can
produce more power. So, overall engine efficiency is also proportional to volumetric efficiency.
That’s why, higher value of volumetric efficiency is always desirable.
4. Knocking more likely to occur with lean mixtures in SI engine.
During lean burning, the flame speed is very low. The flame then takes more time to reach the
furthest corner. In the mean time, the remote charges cross its delay period and ignite. Thus,
the possibility of knocking increases.
5. A good SIE fuel is a bad CIE fuel.
The main distinguishing feature of a good CIE fuel is low SIT. However, low SIT can cause
excessive knocking in SIE and thus fuel with high SIT is considered to be good fuel for SIE.
With good SIE fuel, it will be very difficult to start combustion in CIE due to its higher SIT and
there’ll be a huge possibility that it won’t ignite. Moreover, the fuel may cause excessive
knocking, making it a very bad choice for CIE.
6. SI engines are high speed engines.
SI fuels have a very short ID (only Physical Delay) than that of CIE fuels (Physical delay +
Chemical delay) and so can complete cycle very quickly. As a result, SIE can run at very high
speeds.
7. SI engine exhaust temperatures are higher.
Most SIE will run at stoichiometric or almost stoichiometric condition whereas most CIE are
Lean burning engine. Maximum temperature of flame occurs when the mixture is in
stoichiometric or slightly rich condition. Therefore, exhaust of SIE will be higher than CIE.
8. Intake and exhaust valves are opened earlier and closed later.
It is not possible to open or close the valves instantaneously. Intake valve is opened earlier to
ensure that when induction begins, the valve is fully open and closed later to take full
advantage of air inertia. Exhaust valve is opened earlier to bleed off cylinder pressure before
piston changes its direction and begins exhaust stroke. It is closed later to take advantage of
the vacuum created by the exhaust by using it to draw more air form intake manifold.
9. Part load efficiencies of CI engines are higher.
In most SI engines, speed is controlled through throttling process. At part load, the volumetric
efficiency decreases rapidly due to the throttling process itself i.e. the pumping loss increases,
thereby reducing the overall efficiency too. On the other hand, in CIE the amount of fuel is
controlled directly during the injection and there is no throttling involved giving it a much better
part load efficiency.
10. Slightly higher brake power is available with slightly rich mixtures.
Due to dissociation at high temperatures following combustion, molecular oxygen is present in
the burned gases under stoichiometric conditions. Thus some additional fuel can be added i.e.
the mixture can be made rich and partially burned. This increases the temperature of the
burned gases in the cylinder. These effects increase the mean effective pressure and gives
higher brake power.
11. Lambda control is very important for proper functioning of catalytic-converters.
Catalytic converter works well only a very narrow range of air-fuel mixture. Outside this narrow
range, its effectiveness decreases rapidly. To ensure proper conversion in the converter, it's
required to control the air-fuel mixture. Lambda controller is used here to form a closed loop
feedback control that keeps the air-fuel mixture in the optimum zone.
12. Specific fuel consumptions of SI engines are higher.
Due to throttling process, part load efficiency of SIE is lower compared to CIE. This in turns
increases the specific fuel consumption in SIE at part load.
13. For a given cc of engine, CI engines develop less power.
CIE runs with roughly 20% excess air and so for a given cc, it does not burn as much fuel as
SIE because CIE usually burns lean mixture. As a result, the power developed is also lower
compared to that of SIE.
14. Indicated efficiency of SI engine is high for lean mixtures.
Indicated efficiency of an engine is a function of air-fuel ratio. With lean mixture, en¬gine can
burn fuel and produce power with high efficiency. Rich mixture does not burn completely due to
lack of oxygen hence the efficiency also falls.
15. Indicated mean effective pressure in SI engine is high for stoichiometric
mixture.
Indicated mean effective pressure in SI increases as lean mixture becomes stoichiometric due
to increased temperature of stoichiometric burning and hence more power. This continues until
a maximum IMEP is achieved in slightly rich zone after which IMEP falls again due to incomplete
burning and poor heat release.
16. From knocking point of view, natural gas is a bad CI fuel.
Natural gas has a high SIT. It becomes very difficult to ignite pure natural gas by pure
compression. To run CIE on natural gas, additional arrangement is required e.g hot rod or spark
plug. Otherwise, even with very high compression ratio, it may cause excessive knocking,
making it a poor choice of fuel.
17. Wankel engines not widely available.
Manufacturing of Wankel engine is difficult due to the need of precise sealing, which is very
tough to acquire. Poor manufacturing results in bad fuel economy and HC emissions occurs
extensively as it leads to incomplete combustion of Air-Fuel charge. For clean emission, Wankel
engine requires Thermal Reactor which actually increases the Air-Fuel consumption.
Furthermore, the flame speed is low and thus is can’t run at higher speed. Even with added
difficulty, thermo-dynamic gain is not high enough. At high speed, the rate of volume expansion
of combustion chamber in the moments after ignition outpaces the expansion of the burning
fuel. So, less useful energy is extracted from the fuel. Due to these reasons, Wankel engines
are not widely available.
18. Injection pressure in case of direct injection CI engine is very high.
The compression ratio of CIE is in the range of 12-18. This results in very high cylinder pressure
when the engine is near the end of compression stroke. To inject fuel directly inside the cylinder
at this stage requires lots of pressure. Therefore, injection pressure of CIE is very high. CIE
injector injects at almost 200 atm.
19. CO2 is not considered as an engine pollutant.
CO2 is the obligatory product while burning the fuel and there’s no other way to prevent CO2
generation unlike other emissions (like CO, NOx, HC etc). Therefore, as though CO2 is bad for
environment but not considered as engine pollutant.
20. Automobiles produce most of the pollutants at the initial period of its travel.
Automobile engine produces net force to overcome friction and/or to accelerate the vehicle.
More power is required during the initial period of travel when the vehicle is accelerating and
hence rich mixture is burned. As a result, the engine produces more pollutants during this initial
period. In case of CIE, the starting procedure also produces excess pollutants during initial
phase.
21. Exhaust valves are smaller in size.
The temperature of intake is lower compared to that of exhaust. Therefore, intake valve chokes
at low gas speed compared to that of exhaust, i.e. the maximum mass flow rate in intake valve
is smaller than exhaust valve of same size. Therefore, for a give engine, exhaust valve can be
smaller and compared to intake valve.
22. Knock is always present in case of CI engines.
In SIE, air fuel mixture is ignited by a spark plug in an orderly manner. Due to this, there is a
flame front that spreads towards the unburned mixture. In CIE however, there is no fixed
ignition region as air fuel mixtures undergo local burning at different point and time inside the
cylinder. Due to this, there is always some knock present in CIE.
23. In SI engines, a rich/lean mixture is effective in reducing knock.
Rich/lean mixture increases the ignition delay of the mixture and reduce the temperature, both
of which acts favorably in reducing SI engine knocking.
24. Adiabatic flame temperature is highest at slightly rich condition.
Flame temperature is highest at slightly rich condition because of combined effect of heat
of combustion and decay of heat capacity of products. In rich zone, both heat of combustion
and heat capacity of products decreases. Up to a certain points, heat capacity decreases faster
than heat of combustion, giving the products a higher temperature. Beyond that point, the
flame temperature falls again.
25. Flame speed is not a fundamental parameter of an air-fuel mixture.
Flame Speed (SS) the sum of Laminar burning velocity (SL) and Gas expansion velocity (ug) .
Laminar burning velocity is an intrinsic property of flame, the gas velocity is not. Therefore, the
flame speed depends on various factors along with mixture quantity and quality and hence it's
not a fundamental parameter.
SS = SL + ug
 ASSIGNMENT
on
ME-401

Name: Rakibul Islam

Roll: 1210063
Sec: B

Submitted to:
Dr. Md. Zahurul Haq
Professor
Dept. of ME
BUET