Internal Combustion Engine
Engine Cycles
This chapter studies the basic cycles used in reciprocating internal combustion engines, both
four stroke and two stroke. The most common four-stroke SI and CI cycles are analyzed in
detail using air-standard analysis. Lesser used cycles, including some historic, are analyzed in
less detail.
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Real cycle is approximated with an ideal air-standard cycle which differs from the actual
by the following:
1- The gas mixture in the cylinder is treated as air for the entire cycle, and property values
of air are used in the analysis. This is a good approximation during the first half of the
cycle, when most of the gas in the cylinder is air with only up to about 7% fuel vapor. Even
in the second half of the cycle, when the gas composition is mostly CO2, H20, and N2,
using air properties does not create large errors in the analysis.
2- The real open cycle is changed into a closed cycle by assuming that the gases being
exhausted are fed back into the intake system. This works with ideal air standard cycles, as
both intake gases and exhaust gases are air. Closing the cycle simplifies the analysis.
3- The combustion process is replaced with a heat addition term Q in of equal energy value.
Air alone cannot combust.
4- The open exhaust process, which carries a large amount of enthalpy out of the system,
is replaced with a closed system heat rejection process Qout of equal energy value
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Ideal gas equations
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CHV
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OTTO CYCLE
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REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES
Major differences between the standard cycles and Real cycles include:
1- Real engines operate on an open cycle with changing composition. Not only does the
inlet gas composition differ from what exits, but often the mass flow rate is not the same.
Those engines which add fuel into the cylinders after air induction is complete (CI engines
and some SI engines) change the amount of mass in the gas composition part way through
the cycle.
2- Air-standard analysis treats the fluid flow through the entire engine as air and
approximates air as an ideal gas. In a real engine inlet flow may be all air, or it may be air
mixed with up to 7% fuel, either gaseous or as liquid droplets, or both. During combustion
the composition is then changed to a gas mixture of mostly COz, HzO, and Nz, with lesser
amounts of CO and hydrocarbon vapor.
3- There are heat losses during the cycle of a real engine which are neglected in air-
standard analysis.
4- Combustion requires a short but finite time to occur, and heat addition is not instantaneous
at TDC, as approximated in an Otto cycle.
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5- The blowdown process requires a finite real time and a finite cycle time, and does not
occur at constant volume as in air-standard analysis. For this reason, the exhaust valve
must open 40° to 60° bBDC, and output work at the latter end of expansion is lost.
6- In an actual engine, the intake valve is not closed until after bottom-dead-center at the end
of the intake stroke. Because of the flow restriction of the valve, air is still entering the
cylinder at BDC, and volumetric efficiency would be lower if the valve closed here. Because of
this, however, actual compression does not start at BDC but only after the inlet valve closes.
7- Engine valves require a finite time to actuate. Ideally, valves would open and close
instantaneously, but this is not possible when using a camshaft.
Indicated thermal efficiency of a real four-stroke SI engine is always somewhat less than what
air-standard Otto cycle analysis predicts. This is caused by the heat losses,. friction, ignition
timing, valve timing, finite time of combustion and blowdown, and deviation from ideal gas
behavior of the real engine.
the indicated thermal efficiency of an actual SI four-stroke cycle engine can be approximated
by;
Efficiency)actual =(0.85) efficiency) otto
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ENGINE CYCLE AT PART THROTTLE
When a four-stroke cycle SI engine is run at less than WOT conditions, air-fuel input is reduced
by partially closing the throttle (butterfly valve) in the intake system. This creates a flow
restriction and consequent pressure drop in the incoming air. Fuel input is then also reduced
to match the reduction of air.
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If an engine is equipped with a supercharger
or turbocharger the air-standard
cycle is shown in Fig. 3-5, with intake pressure
higher than atmospheric pressure.
This results in more air and fuel in the
combustion chamber during the cycle, and
the resulting net indicated work is increased.
Higher intake pressure increases all
pressures though the cycle, and increased air
and fuel give greater Qin in process
2-3. When air is compressed to a higher
pressure by a supercharger or turbocharger,
the temperature is also increased due to
compressive heating.
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DIESEL CYCLE
Early CI engines injected fuel into the combustion chamber very late in the
compression stroke, resulting in the indicator diagram shown in Fig. 3-7. Due to
ignition delay and the finite time required to inject the fuel, combustion lasted into
the expansion stroke. This kept the pressure at peak levels well past TDC. This
combustion process is best approximated as a constant-pressure heat input in an
air-standard cycle, resulting in the Diesel cycle shown in Fig. 3-8. The rest of the
cycle is similar to the air-standard Otto cycle. The diesel cycle is sometimes called
a Constant· Pressure cycle.
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DUAL CYCLE
If Eqs. (3-31) and (3-73) are compared, it can be seen that to have the best of both
worlds, an engine ideally would be compression ignition but would operate on the
Otto cycle. Compression ignition would operate on the more efficient higher
compression ratios, while constant-volume combustion of the Otto cycle would give
higher efficiency for a given compression ratio. The modern high-speed CI engine
accomplishes this in part by a simple operating change from early diesel engines.
Instead of injecting the fuel late in the compression stroke near TDC, as was done
in early engines, modern CI engines start to inject the fuel much earlier in the cycle,
somewhere around 20° bTDC. The first fuel then ignites late in the compression
stroke, and some of the combustion occurs almost at constant volume at TDC,
much like the Otto cycle.
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COMPARISON OF OTTO, DIESEL, AND DUAL CYCLES
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3.3
3.4
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3.5
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