School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

(SMME)

Internal Combustion Engines

Course Code ME-439

IN-CYLINDER FLOW IN SI
&CI ENGINES
LECTURE 9
Engr Mohammad Ikhlaq Khattak
[email protected]
• Intake and Exhaust system for single cylinder engine
 Intake and Exhaust manifold for
multi-cylinder engine

The intake manifold is composed of a common chamber (plenum)

which supplies charge to each cylinder via tubes (runners)

The exhaust manifold is composed of multiple pipes, one from each

cylinder that unite at a common point and continue to the tailpipe
• Manifold pressure

3000 RPM 6000 RPM

Fluctuation in pressure is greater at higher RPM since air inertial

effects take greater significance as time scales per cycle get smaller
 Volumetric efficiency

By definition, volumetric efficiency is defined as the ratio of mass of the

air / fuel charge ingested by the engine to the product of swept volume and
density of air at ambient conditions
Pcy l
mch  ch ,cyl Vs ,cyl Tcyl  Vs ,cyl 
v     
 ch ,atm Vs  ch ,atm Vs Patm  Vs 
Tatm
Affected by:
1. Fuel evaporation
2. Mixture temperature
3. Intake pressure drop
4. Gas dynamic effects
5. Valve timing
 Factors affecting ηv

Fuel evaporation
• It will always be less than 100% for naturally-aspirated SI engines
(no turbo / supercharging). As the injected fuel is sprayed into
the manifold, it evaporates, taking place of the ingested air.
• If fuel is injected earlier, more fuel evaporates and takes space of
the air charge, and thus it reduces the VE
• Direct injection SI and diesel engines tend to have a better VE
since there is no fuel to evaporate and take place of the air
charge
 Factors affecting ηv

Heat transfer
• Intake systems are heated (either via coolant or via heat transfer
from the engine). This is done on purpose to increase drivability at
low temperature or right after start-up.
• Density of air entering cylinder is thus lower than that for ambient
air
• Effect amplified at low engine speeds since air flow rate is lower and
heat transfer raises temperature
 Factors affecting ηv

Fluid friction
• Air flows through a duct with bends, changing radii, filter, throttle
valve and intake valve
• Fluid (air) flowing through any duct will experience a pressure drop
• For a naturally aspirated engine, the cylinder pressure is thus always
lower than atmospheric
• Fluid friction is more significant at high flow velocity rates
 Factors affecting ηv

Fluid friction
Po = atmospheric pressure
ΔPair = pressure loss in the air cleaner
ΔPu = intake losses upstream
ΔPthr = loss across throttle
ΔPvalve = loss across intake valve

WOT
Part throttle
 Factors affecting ηv

Residual gas
• Space generally taken by air is taken up by residual gas
• Residual gas fraction may be given by
1
f rg  Pe P4 
1


• As Pe/P4 ~ Pe/Pi increases, or ρc decreases, the
c
fraction of
cylinder volume occupied by the residual gas increases and thus
volumetric efficiency decreases

TDC
BDC
 Factors affecting ηv

Opening intake before BDC on exhaust stroke (overlap)

• The longer the valve overlap, the more the exhaust gases will
rush into the intake manifold at each intake process
• Most problematic at idle (part throttle and lower engine speeds)
– low intake pressure and more time for exhaust gases to back
up into intake

TDC BDC
 Factors affecting ηv

Closing intake after TDC on compression stroke (backflow)

• Due to partial vacuum, mixture continues to flow into the cylinder
even ABDC. As long as ΔP > 0, we can keep valve open
• Best time is to close intake valve when
intake and cylinder pressures are equal
– too late -> backflow; too early ->
insufficient charging
• At high engine speeds, the ΔP
increases, we can wait till much later BDC TDC BDC
than at low engine speed to close the
intake valve (~60° ABDC)
• At low engine speeds, the ΔP
decreases, so we have to close intake
valve earlier than at high speed (~40°
ABDC)
 Factors affecting ηv

Ram effect
• At high engine speeds, as the intake valve closes, the inertia of air in
the intake increases the pressure in the intake port
P  v 2 const
Thus allowing more air to be ingested by the engine
• This effect becomes progressively more significant at higher engine
speeds
• To take advantage of the ram effect, the intake valve is closed ABDC
 Factors affecting ηv

Intake tuning
• Upon opening of the intake valve, air suddenly rushes into the cylinder.
This causes the generation of an expansion wave which propagates back
into the intake manifold at the local sonic speed
• When the expansion wave reaches the end of the intake runner, it reflects
back to the intake valve as a compression wave. The time taken for the
round trip depends on the length of the runner and the flow velocity
• If the wave is timed correctly, it will arrive back at the intake at the end of
the intake process raising the intake pressure allowing more air charge to
be taken in by 2the
L engine 13 c
t wave  tvalve  L local
clocal N  6N

• For fixed runner lengths, the intake is tuned for one engine speed
Factors affecting ηv

L ~1 N
 In cylinder fluid flow

We can identify three parameters that are used to characterise

large-scale in-cylinder charge motion: swirl, squish and tumble
• Swirl is the rotational motion about the axis of the piston
• It is used to
• Promote rapid combustion in SI
engines
• Promote rapid mixing of air and
fuel in direct injection SI and CI
engines
• Swirl may be generated by
• Tangentially directing air into the
cylinder
• Pre-swirling air flow in the intake
port using helical ports
 In cylinder fluid flow

Swirl and its generation

 In cylinder fluid flow

Engine swirl
Many engines have a bowl shaped cylinder head – as piston
approaches TDC, the air mass is squeezed into a smaller diameter,
increasing its polar moment of inertia, increasing its swirl speed
 In cylinder fluid flow

Squish and tumble

• Squish is the radial inflow
of gases at the end of the
compression stroke

• As the piston reaches

TDC the squish generates
a secondary motion in
the form of a torus or
horizontal axis, called the
tumble
 Factors affecting ηv

As a function of engine speed

 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Flame propagation in SI engines

• Propagation of the turbulent flame away from the spark

 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Flame development
• Flame development angle – Δθd – crank angle interval for the
development of the flame kernel to develop after ignition by spark
• Rapid burning angle – Δθb – crank angle required to burn most of the
mixture (90%)
• Overall burning angle – sum of development and rapid burning angles
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Mixture burn time vs. engine speed

 90%
The time for overall burn is: t90% 
 min   360 
0
N    
 60 s   rev 

In general, a burn angle is taken to be around 50°

Engine type Speed (RPM) t90% (ms)

Passenger car idle 500 17

Passenger car full power 4000 2

F1 car at full N 19000 .4

 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Mixture burn time

The overall burn time is too slow. If the engine is running at high
speeds, the case is even worse
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Mixture burn time vs. engine speed

• Turbulent burning velocity is proportional to turbulence intensity S t ~ ut. The
turbulence intensity increases with the piston speed, u t=1/2.up
• At higher engine speeds, the turbulent flame velocity is higher, thus less time is
needed to burn the mixture
• Combustion duration in crank angles varies between 40 ° and 60° with slight increase
with an increase in engine speed.
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Heat losses during burn

During combustion the ratio of cylinder surface area to volume (S/V) is

very high – heat loss to the cylinders is very significant
In order to reduce the heat loss, we will reduce the burn time by:
– Laminar burning velocity
– Turbulence intensity
The highest laminar burning velocity is achieved for slightly rich
mixtures. For iso-octane the maximum Sl = 26.3cm/s for φ=1.13. Squish
promotes in-cylinder turbulence
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Optimum composition
• Maximum power is usually obtained around φ=1.1. This gives us the
best combustion velocity and hence the least heat loss and the
highest flame temperature (thus pressure)
• Best fuel economy is obtained for a φ < 1.0
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Spark timing
• Spark timing relative to TDC affects the pressure rise and thus IMEP
and power
• Gas should be ignited before TDC in order to have a high cylinder
pressure developed at TDC
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Maximum brake torque timing

• If start of combustion is too early – work is done against the piston which does not
produce any work
• If too late – peak pressure and thus peak torque is reduced
• The spark timing that gives maximum brake torque is called MBT timing
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Effect of engine speed on spark timing

• Overall burn angle increases with engine speed
• To compensate, timing has to be advanced as engine speed increases
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Abnormal combustion in SI engines

• Knock is the general term used to describe a pinging noise that is emitted
by an SI engine if it is undergoing abnormal combustion
• The noise is generated by shock waves produced in the combustion
chamber / cylinder as a result of this abnormal combustion
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Engine damage from knock

• Knocking can quickly damage an engine. Damage is due to a combination of high pressure
and high temperature. Knock at low load may be less damaging than knock at full or high
load conditions.
• Piston ring lands, head gaskets, cylinder heads are usually affected
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Knock visualisation
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Knock
• Flame propagates away from spark plug – gas pressure increases
• Under certain conditions the air/fuel mixture can auto-ignite and burn
rapidly generating shock waves
• The end-gas (air/fuel mixture) burns after a certain induction time which
depends on the chemical kinetics of the air/fuel mixture
• If the flame burns all the air/fuel mixture before autoignition, knock can
be avoided
• Knock is therefore a potential problem if the burn time is long
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Engine parameters affecting knock

• Compression ratio: At high compression ratios, the air / fuel
mixture is compressed to high pressures and temperatures
which promotes autoignition.
• Engine speed: At low engine speeds, the flame velocity is slow,
which gives a longer burn time, increasing the chances of
knock.
On the other hand, at high engine speeds, there is less transfer
o heat to the combustion chamber walls, thus the charge
temperature stays higher. This may promote knock as well.
Both of these effects are competing, it is for this reason that
some engines show a greater propensity to knock at high
engines speeds while others do not
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Engine parameters affecting knock

• Throttle position: At part-throttle conditions, the residual gas fraction increases, and being a
diluent, it reduces the burn rate. To compensate for this, spark ignition needs to be advanced
to maximise torque.

At WOT conditions, burn time is short. Also the initial pressure in the cylinder before
compression is high, hence the final pressure is high, this increases the reaction rate of the
air/fuel mixture. Even though the burn time is short, the autoignition effects are stronger and
there is a need to retard ignition timing to avoid knock and correctly phase the combustion
pressure for MBT
• Intake air temperature: A high intake temperature means a high temperature at the end of
compression. If spark ignition timing is not retarded, it may well be that the pressure rise be
too abrupt and either
– Peak pressure arrives before TDC, reducing torque
– Pressure and temperature rise are too abrupt causing knock

In either case, an increase in intake air temperature demands a retardation of spark

ignition timing
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Engine parameters affecting knock

• Spark timing: By increasing the ignition advance, we make the
end of the combustion approach TDC. We get progressively
higher temperatures and pressures which may cause knock
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Knock control using spark advance

• Modern engine control systems can set ignition timing advance

according to engine speed and load. Load may be measured by
throttle position, manifold pressure or air mass flow.
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Engine knock detection

• A knock sensor is mounted on the engine block to determine if the engine is knocking
• Consists of a piezoelectric accelerometer that produces an analog electrical signal
• Signal is filtered and amplified by the ECU to determine if knock is occurring
• In-cylinder pressure sensors are prohibitively expensive and fragile for use on
production vehicles and are hence not used
• At the onset of knock, the ECU retards spark timing by a certain number of degrees
before re-increasing advance every few cycles
• Correction for fuel quality and fuel type is sometimes performed via knock sensing
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Engine knock detection

 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Engine knock detection

Generally a 1st order and 3rd or 4th order knock signal are taken for reliability as
1st order knock signal has noise from other engine components. The higher-
order signal is taken and amplified
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Octane number measurement

Two methods have been developed to measure octane number on a
standardised single cylinder engine as defined by the Cooperative Fuel
research committee in 1931
The engine is a 4 stroke engine with a variable compression ratio of
between 3 and 30. bore is of 3.25” and stroke is of 4.5”
Research Motor
Inlet temperature (°C) 52 149
Engine speed (RPM) 600 900
Spark ignition advance (°BTDC) 13 19-26
Coolant temperature (°C) 100
Inlet pressure (atm) 1.0
Humidity (kg water / kg dry air) 0.0036-0.0072
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Octane number measurement

Testing procedure
• Run the engine on both testing conditions using the test fuel
• Increase the compression ratio while monitoring knock until a standard value is achieved
• Run the engine at that compression ration while running different blends of n-heptane
and iso-octane
• The ON is the proportion in % of volume of iso-octane to n-heptane replicating the same
knock at the same compression ratio
The antiknock index used in the US is the average of RON and MON

Europe and Japan uses RON as their antiknock index. MON is always lower than
RON owing to the harsher operating conditions
Manufacturers define minimum ON ratings for their engines to cater to a wide
variety of load and speed conditions
 SI Engine combustion and performance

• Knock characteristics of various fuels

For fuels with better antiknock properties than iso-octane, the

octane n umber is defined as

ON 100  28.28T 1.0  0.736T  1.0  1.427T  0.035216T 2 
12

Where T is millilitres of TEL (Tetra Ethyl Lead) per U.S. Gallon
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Combustion in CI engine
In a CI engine, fuel is
sprayed directly into
the cylinder. The
vapourised part of the
fuel jet reacts with the
hot air and combusts

Photos are taken in a

RCM (Rapid
Compression Machine)
with swirl
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• In-cylinder measurements
In this graph we see the injection rate, cylinder pressure and net Rate Of
Heat Release (ROHR)
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Stages of combustion in CI engines

 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Stages of combustion in CI engine

The combustion in a CI engine comprises the following stages
Ignition delay (ab) – Fuel is injected directly into the combustion
chamber, mixes with the swirling air, atomizes and vapourises in the
high-pressure and high-temperature air
Premixed combustion (bc) – combustion of the fuel which has
already mixed with the injected fuel vapour. Combustion is rapid (a
few degrees CA) and governed by local conditions
Mixing controlled combustion (cd) – combustion is governed by local
conditions and fuel injection rate. A quasi-stabilised flame is
established and continues till the end of injection
Late combustion (de) – heat release continues late into the expansion
stroke. Leftover fuel and soot are burned during this phase.
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Types of CI engines
Direct injection – Fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber. The
combustion chamber is composed of the piston crown and the cylinder head
Indirect injection – The combustion chamber is divided into two regions. The
first is the main combustion chamber similar to the DI CI engine. The second is a
pre-combustion chamber that receives the injected fuel and communicates with
the main combustion chamber via a duct or orifices
• For very large engines, the time available for mixing is long, hence a
quiescent combustion chamber is used with direct injection
• For smaller engines, increasing amounts of swirl is used to decrease mixing
time. This is necessitated by the decreasing length of time available for
mixing and combustion
• For small high-speed engines, a pre-combustion chamber is used which
increases swirl, and thus mixing even at low engine speeds. After injection,
the fuel and exhaust products blow into the main combustion chamber
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Types of CI engines
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Types of CI engines

Direct injection Direct injection Direct injection Indirect injection

quiescent chamber multi-hole nozzle single-hole nozzle swirl pre-chqmber
swirl in chamber swirl in chamber
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Combustion characteristic

Shadow
graph

Backlit
photo

Start of combustion depends on the local conditions in the No combustion

combustion chamber
Most of the combustion happens in the head of the fuel jet
– rich – sooty
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Ignition delay
The time or delay in CA from the onset of injection to combustion is called the
ignition delay
Both physical and chemical processes must take place before a significant
fraction of the fuel chemical energy is released:
Physical processes – include fuel spray atomization, evaporation and mixing
of fuel vapour with cylinder air.
• Good atomization requires high fuel pressure, small injector hole diameter,
optimum fuel viscosity, high cylinder pressure (large divergence angle)
• Rate of vaporization of the fuel droplets depends on droplet diameter,
velocity, fuel volatility, pressure and temperature of the air charge
Chemical processes – similar to that described for autoignition phenomenon
in premixed fuel-air, only more complex since heterogeneous reactions
(reactions occurring on the liquid fuel drop surface) also occur.
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Fuel ignition quality

Properties of fuel have a big impact on ID
The ignition quality of fuel is defined by its Cetane Number (CN)
For low cetane values the flame ignites later, thus the ignition delay is longer, the
premixed combustion is greater, noise is greater and in severe cases, may cause diesel
knock
For high cetane values, the flame ignites earlier, ignition delay is shorter, the premixed
combustion is smaller, which give less noise and smoother operation
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Cetane number
Process similar to ON rating determination
Use isocetane and cetane as reference fuels
Isocetane (HeptoMethylNonane HMN, C6H34) is assigned a CN of
15 and cetane (n-hexadecane, C6H34) a value of 100
CN is given by:
CN = (% cetane) + 0.15 (% isocetane)
1-methylnaphthalene (C11H10) was formerly used with a CN of
zero, but has been abandoned for HMN due to its greater
stability
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Cetane number measurement

Uses a standardised single cylinder engine with a variable compression
ratio
Operating conditions are:
Research
Inlet temperature (°C) 65.6
Engine speed (RPM) 900
Spark ignition advance (°BTDC) 13
Coolant temperature (°C) 100
Injection pressure MPa (atm) 10.3

The test is run with the test fuel and compression raio is varied till there is
combustion at TDC – ID of 13°
The test is reproduced with a blend of isocetane and cetane. The blend that
gives a 13° ID with the same compression ratio is used to calculate the CN
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Cetane number versus Octane number

ON and CN are inversely

correlated, so diesel makes
a poor substitute for petrol
and vice-versa
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Factors affecting ID time

Injection timing – at normal operating conditions the minimum delay occurs
with the start of injection at around 10-15° BTDC. Earlier or later injection
happens in lower temperature and pressures, thus the ID time lengthens
Load – For a CI engine the air is not throttled thus the load or torque
production changes with fuel quantity injected
Increasing the load increases the residual gas and wall temperatures, reducing
the ID
Intake air temperature and pressure – an increase in the air temperature will
result in a decrease in ID by increasing evaporation and reaction rate, while
the increase in intake pressure increases the mass of air, thus oxygen, and
more fluid density increasing mixing and favourising combustion. An increase
in compression ratio reduces ID as well. It may be reduced via artificial heating
as well – glow plugs, EGR, coolant temperature etc.
 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Factors affecting ID time

 CI Engine combustion and performance

• Multiple injection
Piezo electric injection multi injection – possibility of fast
opening of injectors allow for more injection events per cycle.
Helped by high injection pressures as well
Pilot injection – decreases main injection ID by increasing initial
temperature and pressure. Reduction in noise and production of
NOx.
Post injection – increases exhaust gas temperatures (EGT) to
help in heating and regeneration of exhaust catalysers and
particulate filters
 IC engine modeling

– Stepwise simulation of thermodynamic cycle

– Inclusion of physical effects on the engine
thermodynamic cycle
– Calculation of gas properties during different phases
of the engine operation cycle
– Inclusion of combustion effects – spark ignition or
compression ignition – variation of composition and
specific heat values
– Plotting and presentation of results
 IC engine modeling

• Steps involved
– Definition
• Initial conditions
Pressure, Temperature, AFR
IC engine modeling
• Definition of engine parameters
Engine size, Speed, Fuel characteristics, Combustion
parameters
• Model parameters
Hohenberg constants, Wiebe constants
 IC engine modeling

• Steps involved
– Pre-calculation of operating parametres
• Heat injection function
Using Wiebe’s law – calculated and stored as array for use after SOI
until EOI
• Volume function
Calculation of volume and differential of volume with respect to
crank angle
• Couple arm
Calculation of couple arm created by crank as a function of crank
angle
• Air mass
Calculation of air mass using basic gas laws, and initial conditions
• Fuel injection
Calculation of fuel mass injection for external and internal injection
 IC engine modeling

• Steps involved
– Calculation of operating parametres
• Definition of calculation interval – 720° CA
• Baseline of Temperature, Pressure and Specific heat for
the full interval
• Definition of gas properties per calculation step
• Composition of gas per calculation step (addition of fuel
for example)
• Calculation of gas temperature and pressure
• Calculation of heat transfers
• Calculation of indicated torque
 IC engine modeling

• Steps involved
– Calculation of operating parametres
• Calculation of gas temperature
Q U  P V
dV
dQ mmix Cv dT  mmix R T 
V
dQ R T dV
dT   
mmix Cv Cv V

• Or, translating the above for use in a computer

program: dQ R T dV
T d T   
mmix   Cv   Cv   V
 IC engine modeling

• Steps involved
– Calculation of operating parametres
• Calculation of heat transfers

Qloss   hloss  Acylinder   Tg   Tw 
• Where:

Acylinder   S piston   B  B 2
2
hloss   130 V  0.06
 P  T  U piston  1.4
0.8  0.4 0.8
 IC engine modeling

• Steps involved
– Calculation of operating parametres
• Calculation of gas pressure
mmix R T
P
V
 IC engine modeling

• Steps involved
– Display
• Cylinder pressure
• Cylinder gas bulk temperature
• Heat injection
• Indicated instantaneous torque
• P-V diagram
Thank you