Reciprocating engine

1
Reciprocating engine
Internal combustion piston engine
Components of a typical, four stroke cycle,
internal combustion piston engine.
E - Exhaust camshaft
I - Intake camshaft
S - Spark plug
V - Valves
P - Piston
R - Connecting rod
C - Crankshaft
W - Water jacket for coolant flow
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is a heat
engine (usually, although there are also pneumatic and hydraulic
reciprocating engines) that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to
convert pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the
common features of all types. The main types are: the internal
combustion engine, used extensively in motor vehicles; the steam
engine, the mainstay of the Industrial Revolution; and the niche
application Stirling engine. These engines are also classified in two
ways: either a spark-ignition (SI) engine, where the spark plug initiates
the combustion; or a compression-ignition (CI) engine, where the air
within the cylinder is compressed, thus heating it, so that the heated air
ignites fuel that is injected then or earlier.
[1]
Common features in all types
There may be one or more pistons. Each piston is inside a cylinder,
into which a gas is introduced, either already under pressure (e.g.
steam engine), or heated inside the cylinder either by ignition of a fuel
air mixture (internal combustion engine) or by contact with a hot heat
exchanger in the cylinder (Stirling engine). The hot gases expand,
pushing the piston to the bottom of the cylinder. This position is also
known as the Bottom Dead Center (BDC), or where the piston forms
the largest volume in the cylinder. The piston is returned to the
cylinder top (Top Dead Centre) (TDC) by a flywheel, the power from other pistons connected to the same shaft or
(in a double acting cylinder) by the same process acting on the other side of the piston. This is where the piston
forms the smallest volume in the cylinder. In most types the expanded or "exhausted" gases are removed from the
cylinder by this stroke. The exception is the Stirling engine, which repeatedly heats and cools the same sealed
quantity of gas. The stroke is simply the distance between the TDC and the BDC, or the greatest distance that the
piston can travel in one direction.
In some designs the piston may be powered in both directions in the cylinder, in which case it is said to be
double-acting.
Reciprocating engine
2
Steam piston engine
A labeled schematic diagram of a typical single-cylinder, simple expansion,
double-acting high pressure steam engine. Power takeoff from the engine is by way
of a belt.
1 Piston
2 Piston rod
3 Crosshead bearing
4 Connecting rod
5 Crank
6 Eccentric valve motion
7 Flywheel
8 Sliding valve
9 Centrifugal governor.
In most types, the linear movement of the
piston is converted to a rotating movement
via a connecting rod and a crankshaft or by
a swashplate or other suitable mechanism. A
flywheel is often used to ensure smooth
rotation or to store energy to carry the
engine through an un-powered part of the
cycle. The more cylinders a reciprocating
engine has, generally, the more
vibration-free (smoothly) it can operate. The
power of a reciprocating engine is
proportional to the volume of the combined
pistons' displacement.
A seal must be made between the sliding
piston and the walls of the cylinder so that
the high pressure gas above the piston does
not leak past it and reduce the efficiency of
the engine. This seal is usually provided by
one or more piston rings. These are rings
made of a hard metal, and are sprung into a
circular groove in the piston head. The rings
fit tightly in the groove and press against the
cylinder wall to form a seal.
It is common to classify such engines by the number and alignment of cylinders and total volume of displacement of
gas by the pistons moving in the cylinders usually measured in cubic centimetres (cm or cc) or litres (l) or (L) (US:
liter). For example for internal combustion engines, single and two-cylinder designs are common in smaller vehicles
such as motorcycles, while automobiles typically have between four and eight, and locomotives, and ships may have
a dozen cylinders or more. Cylinder capacities may range from 10cm or less in model engines up to several
thousand cubic centimetres in ships' engines.
The compression ratio affects the performance in most types of reciprocating engine. It is the ratio between the
volume of the cylinder, when the piston is at the bottom of its stroke, and the volume when the piston is at the top of
its stroke.
The bore/stroke ratio is the ratio of the diameter of the piston, or "bore", to the length of travel within the cylinder, or
"stroke". If this is around 1 the engine is said to be "square", if it is greater than 1, i.e. the bore is larger than the
stroke, it is "oversquare". If it is less than 1, i.e. the stroke is larger than the bore, it is "undersquare".
Cylinders may be aligned in line, in a V configuration, horizontally opposite each other, or radially around the
crankshaft. Opposed-piston engines put two pistons working at opposite ends of the same cylinder and this has been
extended into triangular arrangements such as the Napier Deltic. Some designs have set the cylinders in motion
around the shaft, such as the Rotary engine.
Reciprocating engine
3
Stirling piston engine
Rhombic Drive Beta Stirling Engine Design, showing the second
displacer piston (green) within the cylinder, which shunts the
working gas between the hot and cold ends, but produces no power
itself.
Pink Hot cylinder wall
Dark grey Cold cylinder wall
Green Displacer piston
Dark blue Power piston
Light blue Flywheels
In steam engines and internal combustion engines,
valves are required to allow the entry and exit of gasses
at the correct times in the piston's cycle. These are
worked by cams, eccentrics or cranks driven by the
shaft of the engine. Early designs used the D slide
valve but this has been largely superseded by Piston
valve or Poppet valve designs. In steam engines the
point in the piston cycle at which the steam inlet valve
closes is called the cutoff and this can often be
controlled to adjust the torque supplied by the engine
and improve efficiency. In some steam engines, the
action of the valves can be replaced by an oscillating
cylinder.
Internal combustion engines operate through a
sequence of strokes that admit and remove gases to and
from the cylinder. These operations are repeated
cyclically and an engine is said to be 2-stroke, 4-stroke
or 6-stroke depending on the number of strokes it takes
to complete a cycle.
In some steam engines, the cylinders may be of varying
size with the smallest bore cylinder working the highest
pressure steam. This is then fed through one or more,
increasingly larger bore cylinders successively, to
extract power from the steam at increasingly lower
pressures. These engines are called Compound engines.
Aside from looking at the power that the engine can produce, the Mean Effective Pressure (MEP), can also be used
in comparing the power output and performance of reciprocating engines of the same size. The mean effective
pressure is a the fictitious pressure which would produce the same amount of net work that was produced during the
power stroke cycle. This is shown by:
W
net
= MEP x Piston Area x Stroke = MEP x Displacement Volume and therefore: MEP = W
net
/Displacement
Volume
Whichever engine with the larger value of MEP produces more net work per cycle and performs more efficiently.
History
Further information: History of the steam engine
Further information: History of the internal combustion engine
An early known example of rotary to reciprocating motion can be found in a number of Roman saw mills (dating to
the 3rd to 6th century AD) in which a crank and connecting rod mechanism converted the rotary motion of the
waterwheel into the linear movement of the saw blades.
The reciprocating engine developed in Europe during the 18th century, first as the atmospheric engine then later as
the steam engine. These were followed by the Stirling engine and internal combustion engine in the 19th century.
Today the most common form of reciprocating engine is the internal combustion engine running on the combustion
of petrol, diesel, Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or compressed natural gas (CNG) and used to power motor
vehicles.
Reciprocating engine
4
One notable reciprocating engine from the WWII Era was the 28-cylinder, 3,500hp (2,600kW) Pratt & Whitney
R-4360 "Wasp Major" radial engine. It powered the last generation of large piston-engined planes before jet engines
and turboprops took over from 1944 onward. It had a total engine capacity of 71.5L (4,360cuin), and a high
power-to-weight ratio.
The largest reciprocating engine in production at present, but not the largest ever built, is the Wrtsil-Sulzer
RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine of 2006 built by Japans Diesel United, Ltd. It is used to power the
largest modern container ships such as the Emma Mrsk. It is five stories high (13.5m or 44ft), 27m (89ft) long,
and weighs over 2,300 metric tons (2,500 short tons) in its largest 14 cylinders version producing more than
84.42MW (114,800bhp). Each cylinder has a capacity of 1,820L (64cuft), making a total capacity of 25,480L
(900cuft) for the largest versions.
Engine capacity
For piston engines, an engine's capacity is the engine displacement, in other words the volume swept by all the
pistons of an engine in a single movement. It is generally measured in litres (l) or cubic inches (c.i.d. or cuin or in)
for larger engines, and cubic centimetres (abbreviated cc) for smaller engines. All else being equal, engines with
greater capacities are more powerful and consumption of fuel increases accordingly, although power and fuel
consumption are affected by many factors outside of engine displacement.
Other modern non-internal combustion types
Reciprocating engines that are powered by compressed air, steam or other hot gases are still used in some
applications such as to drive many modern torpedoes or as pollution-free motive power. Most steam-driven
applications use steam turbines, which are more efficient than piston engines.
The French-designed FlowAIR vehicles use compressed air stored in a cylinder to drive a reciprocating engine in a
pollution-free urban vehicle.
[2]
Torpedoes may use a working gas produced by high test peroxide or Otto fuel II, which pressurise without
combustion. The 230kg (510lb) Mark 46 torpedo, for example, can travel 11km (6.8mi) underwater at 74km/h
(46mph) fuelled by Otto fuel without oxidant.
Quantum reciprocating engine
A theoretical study has shown that it is possible and practical to build a reciprocating engine that is composed of a
single oscillating atom. This is an area for future research and could have applications in nanotechnology.
[3]
Miscellaneous engines
There are a large number of unusual varieties of piston engines that have various claimed advantages, many of which
see little if any current use:
Free-piston engine
Swing-piston engine
IRIS engine
Bourke engine
Reciprocating engine
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Notes
[1] Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach by Yunus A. Cengal and Michael A. Boles
[2] AIRPod (http:/ / zeropollutionmotors. us/ ?cat=9) manufactured by MDI SA. Accessed April 2007
[3] Can a car engine be built out of a single particle? (http:/ / phys. org/ news/ 2012-11-car-built-particle. html) Physorg, November 30, 2012 by
Lisa Zyga. Accessed 01-12-12
External links
Combustion video (http:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=ObmAOJA__1k) - in-cylinder combustion in an
optically accessible, 2-stroke engine
HowStuffWorks: How Car Engines Work (http:/ / auto. howstuffworks. com/ engine. htm)
Reciprocating Engines (http:/ / www. infoplease. com/ ce6/ sci/ A0858857. html) at Infoplease.
Piston Engines (http:/ / www. centennialofflight. gov/ essay/ Evolution_of_Technology/ piston_engines/ Tech23.
htm) at the US Centennial of Flight Commission.
Article Sources and Contributors
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Article Sources and Contributors
Reciprocating engine Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=607345898 Contributors: 123suthan, 2help, Anandms31, Andrewa, Andy Dingley, Argus fin, Arnero, Arthena, BilCat,
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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
Image:Four stroke engine diagram.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Four_stroke_engine_diagram.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors:
User:Wapcaplet, User:Wapcaplet
Image:Steam engine nomenclature.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Steam_engine_nomenclature.png License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5
Contributors: User:Panther
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