How to calculate IMEP, BMEP and FMEP

Let’s work through an example. For a 4-stroke internal combustion engine, with the
following parameters:
S = 97 mm (piston stroke)
B = 85 mm (cylinder bore)
nr = 2 (number of crankshaft rotations for a complete engine cycle)
nc = 4 (number of cylinders)
Ti = 250 Nm (indicated torque)
Te = 230 Nm (effective torque)
Calculate the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), brake mean effective pressure
(BMEP), friction mean effective pressure (FMEP), friction torque (Tf) and mechanical
efficiency (ηm).
Some facts about brake mean effective torque (BMEP):
 for any internal combustion engine, the maximum BMEP is obtained at full load (for a
particular engine speed)
 throttling the engine decreases the BMEP due to higher pumping losses
 for a fixed engine displacement, if we increase the BMEP, we produce more effective
torque at the crankshaft
 for the same value of the BMEP, a 2-stroke internal combustion engine has nearly
double torque, compared to a 4-stroke engine
 the higher the BMEP, the higher the mechanical and thermal stress on the engine
components
The pressure-volume (pV) diagram and how work is produced in an ICE
The internal combustion engine is a heat engine. It’s working principle is based on the
variation of pressure and volume inside the engine’s cylinders. All heat engines are
characterized by a pressure-volume diagram, also known as pV diagram, which basically
shows the variation of the pressure in the cylinder function of its volume, for a complete
engine cycle.
Also, the work produced by the internal combustion engine is directly dependent on the
variation of the pressure and volume inside the cylinder.
By the end of this tutorial, the reader should be able to:

 understand the meaning of the pV diagram

 how a pV diagram is drawn for a 4 stroke internal combustion engine
 when the intake and exhaust valves are actuated during the engine cycle
 when the ignition / injection is produced during the engine cycle
 how the work is produced by the internal combustion engine
 what’s the difference between indicated and brake work
 what is the mechanical efficiency of the engine
Let’s get started by looking at a pV diagram of a 4 stroke atmospheric internal combustion
engine.
Where:

S – piston stroke
Vc – clearance volume
Vd – displaced (swept) volume
p0 – atmospheric pressure
W – work
TDC – top dead center
BDC – bottom dead center
IV – inlet valve
EV – exhaust valve
IVO – inlet valve opening
IVC – inlet valve closing
EVO – exhaust valve opening
EVC – exhaust valve closing
IGN (INJ) – ignition (injection)

 The pressure-volume (pV) diagram is drawn by measuring the pressure inside the
cylinder, and plotting its value against the angle of the crankshaft, over a complete
engine cycle (720°).
 Let’s see what’s happening in the cylinder during each piston stroke, how the pressure
and volume are changing inside the cylinder.
 Notice that the timing of the intake and exhaust valves have advance and delay,
relative to the position of the piston. For example, the intake valve it’s opening
during the exhaust stroke of the piston and it is closing during the compression stroke.
In the same time, when the intake stroke is starting, the exhaust valve is still open for a
short while. The opening of the exhaust valve is done before the power stroke has
finished.
 INTAKE (a-b)
 The engine cycle starts in point a. The intake valve is already open and
the piston moves from TDC towards BDC. The volume increases constantly as the
piston travels the stroke length. The maximum volume is reached when the piston is at
BDC. The pressure is below atmospheric pressure, during the whole stroke, because
the piston movement is creating volume and the air is drawn inside the cylinder due
to the vacuum effect.
 COMPRESSION (b-c)
 After the piston has passed BDC, the compression stroke begins. In this phase the
volume starts to decrease and the pressure to increase. It takes a while until the pressure
in the cylinder exceeds the atmospheric pressure so the intake valve is still open also
after the piston passes BDC. As the piston goes towards TDC, the pressure increases
gradually. Around 25° before TDC, the ignition is triggered and the pressure rises
rapidly towards maximum pressure.

POWER (c-e)

After the ignition / injection event, the pressure in the cylinder rises sharply, until it hits the
maximum values pmax. The value of the maximum pressure depends on the type of the
engine, what fuel it’s used. For a typical passenger vehicle engine, the maximum cylinder
pressure can be around 120 bar (gasoline) or 180 bar (diesel). The power stroke starts when
the piston moves from TDC towards BDC. The high pressure in the cylinder is pushing the
piston, therefore the volume rises and the pressure starts to drop gradually.

EXHAUST (e-a)

After the power stroke, the piston is again at the BDC. The volume in the cylinder is again at
maximum value and the pressure around minimum (atmospheric pressure). The piston starts
to move towards TDC and it’s pushing the burnt gases out of the cylinder.

As you can see, there is a continuous variation of the pressure and volume inside the engine’s
cylinders. We’ll see that the work produced by the ICE is function of the pressure and
volume changes.

Work W [J] is the product between the force F [N] which is pushing the piston and the
displacement, which in our case is the stroke S [m].

Replacing (6) in (5), gives the work produced in the cylinder for a complete cycle:
Since the vast majority of the internal combustion engine have several cylinders, we are
going to introduce a more appropriate parameter to quantify work, which is specific work w
[J/kg].

The work produced inside the engine’s cylinders is called indicated specific work, wi [J/kg].
What we get at the crankshaft is a brake specific work wb [J/kg]. It is called “brake” because,
when engines are tested on a test bench, they are connected to a braking device (hydraulic or
electric), which is simulating the load.

To get the brake work we have to subtract from the indicated work all the losses of the
engine. The losses are the internal frictions and the auxiliary devices which require power
from the engine (oil pump, water pump, supercharger, air conditioner compressor, alternator,
etc.). These losses have an equivalent friction specific work wf [J/kg].
wb=wi–wf
By looking at the indicated pressure-volume (pV) diagram above, we can see that there are
two distinct areas:
the upper area, formed during the compression and power strokes (+W)
the lower area, formed during exhaust and intake strokes (-W), also named pumping work
Depending on the value of the intake pressure, the pumping work area can be negative or
positive. For atmospheric engines, the pumping work is negative because it’s using energy
from the engine to push exhaust gases out of the cylinders and draw fresh air during intake.
For gasoline atmospheric engines, due to intake air throttling, the pumping losses are higher,
being maximum at idle speed. Diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline engines
because there is no throttle on the intake, the load being controlled through fuel injection.
If we divide the brake specific torque to the indicated specific torque, we get the mechanical
efficiency of the engine

ηm [-]: ηm=wbwi

For most of the engines, mechanical efficiency is around 80-85% at full load (wide open
throttle) and it’s dropping to zero at idle, where all the engine torque is used to maintain idle
speed and not for propulsion.