Its simple.

Otto type charges have good flash and fire point and hence they are ignited by spark
plugs. At the same time diesel has good self ignition temperature and hence they don't have any
plugs to ignite and has higher compression ratio to maintain a temperature on which they can get
ignited. For compressing to such extent they should have thick walls for maintaining the pressure. Its
the basics. Now if the diesel's compression Ratio (C.R) is kept down to otto, they won't ignite coz the
temperature maintained is less. At the same time if the C.R of otto is increased, the temperature and
pressure increases w.r.t the C.R during compression stroke, further addition of heat in
power/expansion stroke increases its temperature further and hence complete combustion takes
place. Complete combustion means improved efficiency. In addition Diesel engine has lots of
subsidiary parts which increases the weight and hence reduces the efficiency. That is why otto gives
good efficiency but the possibility of knocking has to be monitored coz the possibility is more

if u draw p-v diagram for the otto and diesel cycle for same compression ratio then you will easily
find that otto cycle has more area than diesel cycle. It means that otto cycle gives more work than
diesel cycle for same compression ratio. so, otto cycle has higher efficiency than diesel cycle. I think
it is the easiest way of understanding.

having same comp ratios means having same pressures at the beginning of heat addition, So in a
diesel cycle the heat is added at constant pressure and this pressure is the same as that of the end
of compression so this is the peak pressure hence the graph(pv graph) stops increasing in pressure
after compression.

Whereas if the same comp pressure for an otto cycle means an even higher pressures at the end of
combustion because heat is added at const volume and not const pressure so higher peak
pressures than that of a diesel hence higher power output and hence better efficiency.

In the otto the energy available is fully used to raise the pressure in the cylinder. Higher the pressure
implies larger work done.

But in diesel cycle, Part of the energy is added only during the expansion, So it does not contribute
to the work. Hence Otto cycle is more efficient.
The above figure shows Otto cycle on both P-V & T-S diagrams.
In this cycle,

Process 1-2 is isentropic compression.

Process 2-3 is constant volume heat addition process.
Process 3-4 is isentropic expansion( power stroke).
Process 4-1 is constant volume heat rejection.
The above figure shows diesel cycle on both P-V & T-S diagrams.

Process 1-2 is isentropic Compression.

Process 2-3 is constant pressure heat addition.
Process 3-4 is isentropic expansion.
Process 4-1 is constant volume heat rejection.

As we can notice the difference between two cycles is in process 2-3 .

In Otto cycle it is " constant volume heat addition" and in diesel cycle it is " constant pressure heat
addition".

As Otto cycle is for petrol engines and diesel cycle for diesel engines.
In petrol engines volume is kept constant and heat is added by sparkplug. So that combustion fakes
place.
In diesel engines pressure is kept constant and heat is added. .