Piston Engine

Module I: Basic principle

An engine is a machine which converts (chemical) energy into mechanical labour. The
combustion refers to the type of energy conversion. Here, it is a chemical reaction between fuel
and which gives the chemical energy. The purpose of the engine is to convert this energy into
a mechanical one. There are two types of combustions:

 External combustion: the combustion occurs at the exterior of the engine and the energy
is given by heat transfer (steam engine, steam turbine, Stirling motor)
 Internal combustion: the combustion take place in confine space and the engine works
without heat transfer. We distinguish:
o Continuous combustion process: turbojet, gas turbine
o Intermittent combustion process: piston engine

The domains of application of piston engine are very numerous: transport of persons and goods
(railway, ship, airplane), energy production (electricity, pneumatic energy) or tools (agriculture
machine, mine construction).

There are advantages and disadvantages of internal combustion:

 Advantages: No heat exchange required, higher energy because the maximal

temperature is not limited by heat exchange, the temperature of the components are
lower than the maximal temperature of the cycle, they are low cost and safe.
 Disadvantages: The combustion gases come into contact with the internal parts of the
engine, there are hazardous emission of greenhouse gases, presence of vibration and a
greater noise. The last one is that this kind of engines is generally dependent of fossil
fuel.

The basic principle of the combustion engine is: To create a periodic reaction of controlled quantity of
oxygen and fuel in a confined space and use the resulting pressure in a variable volume to operate. The
summarize, the energy pass by

( ) ( )

The classical fuels are hydrocarbon or oil derivatives. There are also alternative fuels (biofuel,
hydrogen).
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The operating principle (a closed cycle) can be schematized by

The moving mechanical part of the engine is

composed with a piston and a crank. This
mechanism permits the conversion of the
translation of the piston into a rotation of the
crank shaft. The labour of the system is given
by

( )

There are two types of combustion cycles:

 4-strokes engines: inlet  compression  combustion  exhaust. Each stroke takes one
half of rotation and then a complete cycle take two rotations.
 2-strokes engines: A complete cycle takes one rotation. Thus we combine several strokes
in one: inlet and outlet happens simultaneously.

There are also two types of combustion:

 Diesel engines (also named compression ignition (CI) engine): the mixture of air and fuel
is injected during the combustion strokes (not during the inlet) and then the compression
occurs only on air. Thus we can use a larger compression ratio without risk of explosion
 Otto engine (or spark ignition engine): The mixture is already present before the spark.
The energy is given by a deflagration.

We define the compression ratio

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where is the volume of the piston displacement and is the air volume when the piston is at
the top dead centre (TDC).

4-strokes cycle: principle of operation

First, the mixture enters into
the cylinder. After that, the
mixture is compressed by the
piston. When the fuel is
maximally compressed, a
spark occurs and then an
explosion rejects the piston, it
is the expansion. Finally, the
cycle finishes by the exhaust of
the burned gases.

2-Strokes Otto engine

In this case, the inlet and the outlet of the
gases are simultaneous. To decrease the risk
of loss of mixture, we use a deflector which
ejects the mixture at the top of the cylinder.
But in practice if we want to have a cylinder
full of mixture (without burned gases), we
always lose a part of the mixture. That is
why 2-stroke engines are more consumerist.

4-stroke Diesel engine

For Diesel engine, the air enters in the
piston without fuel and the fuel comes
after. During the compression stroke, the
piston move toward top dead centre and
compress the air to 1/20 of the original
volume. The pressure is closed to 30-
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55bars and the temperature is closed to 700-900°C. Strong metal is needed for this type of engine
(because of the high pressure). The high pressure also imposes a high pressure injection (to
counter the intern pressure of the combustion chamber). The injection is made by a nozzle. The
fuel ignites when it enters in the piston and then the temperature increases to 2000-3000°C and
the pressure to 70-115bars.

The inlet and the exhaust can be made by the same

valve (in the two cases it is air). Then for a 2-stroke
Diesel engine, we only lose air and then it is more
efficient than the 4 stroke one. It is the most
efficient motor between the four discussed here.

Cross section of an internal

combustion engine
Sometimes, the piston is made of aluminium but it
comport some disadvantages like a lower strength,
a lower melting point and a bigger thermal
expansion.

The valve springs are generally made of steel

(sometime cobalt). The valves represent sorts of
mass-spring systems which have a resonance
frequency. Thus we take a mass as low as possible
to increase the resonance frequency far higher than
the frequency of the engine.

For a 4-stroke engine, the camshaft must rotate at

half the speed of the piston.

The block part is generally made of cast iron (cheap,

resistant, vibration damping).

An important point is that all the moving parts

must be light (lighter than fixed ones). Also, all the
parts in the combustion chamber must be resistant
to corrosion.
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Cylinder arrangement
We can discuss the advantages and disadvantages
of more than one cylinder:

 Advantages:
o Small degree of speed irregularities
(only a small fly wheel required)
o Almost constant torque
o Easy to balance
o Saving on R&D and production cost
o Decrease the centrifugal effect
(cylinder with smaller dimension)
and then permit a higher power (because
we can have higher rotation speed).
o One cylinder present problem of cooling,
combustion and thermal stresses for high
power delivery
 Disadvantages:
o Precise finishing and strict standardization
are needed and then the cost increase.
o More wear due to smaller dimension and
higher rotation speed
o Difficult accessibility
o A particular attention must be port to the inlet, the exhaust and the cooling

Piston form
In the piston-conrod system, the piston
vibration creates leakage (losing air or
mixture). In the cross-head system, the
piston move perfectly up and down and
then the leakage disappears. But it is a
much heavy system. Then, it imposes a
lower rotation speed and then less
power production. Thus it is impossible
to use this type of systems for large motor like in trucks. But we can use it for energy production
where the dimension is not a problem (then we can have a very big motor for which the velocity
is not a big issue).
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Cylinder cooling
We can cool the engine by water or by air. The water cooling is more efficient. But with water,
we need a reservoir, we must be care of the corrosion, the water can freeze and then expand and
break mechanical parts (it is why we put glycol in the water). For small motor (like for MBK), we
use air fins to cool the piston.

Piston parts
The piston ring is used to seal the
piston. We must have a good sealing
because of the pressure difference
between compression and
decompression.

The piston expands with the

temperature. Thus when the car is
starting (the engine is at low
temperature) the piston do not fit
exactly with the candle and then
there are losses. But with the increasing of the temperature, the losses disappear.
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Crankshaft and flywheel

The configuration of the crankshaft is made to have the best equilibrium possible. It is also
important to avoid the torsion as more as possible. We see that if we have more than six pistons,
it is preferable to not have a linear crankshaft.

The bearing shell

In the piston grip (on the crankshaft) there is a bearing shell. It is made in material selected to
decrease the friction. There is a corner to block the shell into the bearing bloc.
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Valve actuation
The camshaft must be synchronised with the crankshaft. This can be made by a chain for
example. The cam can be on the combustion space or under it.

The valves can have several forms: SAE, tulip or flat.

The inlet manifold can be made of material with

low heat resistance because it rest cool all the time.
That is not the case for the exhaust manifold.

For a radial engine, an air coolant is enough for the

cooling (no need of fans). But the water cooling is
more than fifteen times more efficient.

We can use fan to cool the water in the radiator and

then cool the piston with the water. Generally, there is a thermostat which permits to block the
water circulation in the cooling system. Thus the radiator does not work and the water warms
and then the motor also warms. We use it at the starting of the engine when the motor is not
warm enough.
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Rotary engine
The purpose of this engine is to create a rotation from a
rotation and then have a pure rotary engine (avoid
transmission problem). Most of the time, it is use in
spark ignition system (easier with a spark than with an
injector). By analysing, we see that the motor take three
inlet-outlet to perform one complete cycle. But at the
same time, the process occurs three times (but not on
the same step). This motor has the advantages of a 2-
stroke engine (one cycle for one explosion) and the ones of the 4-strokes engine (no loss of fuel).

The working principle is the following: During the first step, a mixture of air and fuel enter in
the motor. During the second one (upper right), the used air of a previous cycle is exhaust out of
the engine. The new mixture is compressed and the spark ignites. During the third step, the inlet
are closed and the explosion cause an expansion (translate in rotation here). During the last step,
the exhaust open and the used gases go out.

Operational parameters

Power-torque for diesel engine

The minimal torque corresponds to the minimal speed. But the
minimum does not correspond to zero because it is impossible for
IC engine to begin at zero speed. The rotation speed is limited by
the ignition delay. The power is the product of the torque and the
rotation speed

Thus the maximum power is not localised at the same speed than
the maximum torque because for an increasing speed, the power
also increases.
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Spark ignition engine torque-power

characteristic
It is a similar graph than the one of Diesel engine. The
limitation comes from the chocking in the inlet channel (not
from the ignition delay). We see that the speed limitation is
much higher than for Diesel engine.

Construction data
We have the fixed parameters: bore B (dimension of the cylinder), the stroke S (distance
travelled by the piston). We have also the number of piston N. The compression ratio was
defined earlier

where . The compression ratio of a diesel engine is higher than for spark ignition
engine (permits higher temperature). In Otto engine, the compression ratio is limited by the
mixture: we can have knock if the compression is too high.

Some definition:

 The specific power is the number of kilowatts produced per litre (displacement volume)
 The specific weight is how many kilograms of fuel we need to produce one kilowatt.
Then the lower this parameter is, the lower the consumption
 The air-fuel ration L and the air factor are defined like in previous courses (see later).
We can see that if the air-fuel ratio is stoichiometric.
 is the effective efficiency. It is function of the energy losses in the engine: heat,
energy lost in exhaust gases, friction… For diesel, we have an efficiency of 45% and for a
Otto engine, we have a efficiency about 35%.
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Pressure variation in a cylinder

The first graph gives the pressure in the cylinder in function of the position of the piston. The
complete line gives the pressure with combustion and the dashed one gives the pressure
without combustion. We see some particular points on the graph: EVC (exhaust valve closed),
IVC (inlet valve closed), EVO (exhaust valve open) and IVO (inlet valve open).

We see that the inlet valve is open a little bit before the top dead centre: We open the inlet valve
when the exhaust one is still open to use the depression created by this one.

In practice the ignition and combustion begin a little bit before the top dead centre, it is the pre-
ignition. The pressure is not maximum on the top dead centre, but continue to increase when the
piston start to go down. It is due to the fact that the deflagration is not finish when the piston
arrives on the top dead centre.

To ensure a clean mixture (without residue of combustion) we must give more time to the
exhaust. Thus we open the exhaust valve before the bottom dead centre. So we see that a part of
the pressure created is not used.

The torque (computed on the crankshaft) is given by

∫ ( ) ( )

Where is a motor coefficient which is 1 for a 2-stroke engine and ½ for a 4-stroke. ( ) is the
force-torque transfer function between piston and crankshaft. The is the difference of
pressure between the TDC and the BTC. It is averaged on all cylinders and for a lot of cycles.
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We can state a relation between labour per cycle and torque

The filling
The filling is defined by

This parameter evaluates the difference between the mass of air (if the cylinder is filled with air)
and the mass of the fuel mixture inserted in the system. One can show that this parameter must
be as high as possible. The filling evolution is given in the following graph

The line B shows that at low time there is enough time to exchange heat and then the filling
decrease but for high speed the exchange becomes complicated and the filling increases. The
curve C indicates the effect of friction due to the fact that the fuel is not perfect. The curve G is a
tuning of the curve F made by improving the valve timing. This tuning is made by using the
resonance frequency effect. This is made at the level of the inlet manifold. First the mixture
enters in the piston and then the inlet manifold is closed. Thus the mixture is pushed in the inlet
and goes hit the bottom of the inlet. Then it is projected in the direction of the piston. If we open
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the inlet manifold exactly at the moment when the mixture arrives on the valve, the inlet
mixture (in the piston) will have a higher speed and then the filling will be easier. So we see that
the opening of the inlet manifold must be done at the resonant frequency of the system
mixture+manifold.

A last effect seen in the graph is the limitation due to sound speed (risk of chocking).

Notion of power
For a perfect theoretical engine, the power is given by

( )

But it is a pure theoretical system. In reality, we can define different sort of power:

 Indicated power (power developed in combustion chamber):

 The effective power (available on crankshaft):
 The specific power (power by litre):
 The lost power due to friction of mechanical parts
 The fiscal horsepower ( ) . This one does not have
any link with a real property (no physical meaning).

The normalized effective power is the power measured on the crankshaft of the engine
including all aggregates: water pump, alternator, oil pump, air filter, exhaust system. It
represents the maximum power in continuous use. It can be measured by

where m.c. stand for measuring condition. So we see that the temperature and pressure of the
ambient have an effect on the power delivery (the power delivery of an engine on a plane
decrease when the plane goes up). We can analyse it: If the pressure decrease, the mass flow in
the piston will decrease. Then, there are less mass in the piston and then less power in the
engine (the filling decrease).
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Torque and power vs rotation speed

We see in the graph the evolution of the power and the torque in function of the rotation speed.
We also see the fuel consumption .

We see that at low speed, there are only few turbulences. Turbulences are needed to improve the
capacity of the motor (better mix of the fuel and the air in the combustion chamber and then
better combustion). But too much turbulence can lead to a loss of energy.

At high speed, we see that there is not enough time to put all the exhaust gases out and there is a
loss of energy (scavenging losses). Indeed, if a part of the burned gases remains in the chamber,
the filling will be worst.

We see that for a certain speed, there exist a minimum of fuel consumption. We also see
maximums for the torque and the power (not on the same speed).

A good way to analyse the fuel consumption is the

egg diagram. This one is used to optimise the fuel
consumption. We try to be as much as possible on
the summit of the egg (the cream yellow). A possible
method to stay there is the use of a gearbox.

The fuel consumption of an engine is given by

̇
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Indicated mean pressure

The indicated mean pressure is the expansion pressure delivering the same labour as given by
the indicator diagram (p-V). We have and then .

Another mean pressure is the one measure on the crankshaft . It is defined by the expansion
pressure that delivers the same labour as the crankshaft provides

Thus we can compute the torque of the crankshaft

Efficiency
Here also there are different types of efficiency computable. The first one is the perfect efficiency
(the one of theoretical model) given by

We can also define the indicated efficiency

where is the mass of fuel and is the lowest combustion value (enthalpie). The
thermodynamic efficiency is the ratio of the indicated labour and the perfect one

The effective efficiency (blurp) is given by

̇
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where ̇ . It is the ratio between the effective power and the ideal power. For a diesel
engine, it is closed to 0.3-0.45 and for an Otto engine, it is closed to 0.25-0.30. Finally, we can
define the mechanical efficiency

Now we can state a relationship between all this efficiencies:

Air fuel mixture

The air-fuel ratio is given by

̇
̇

The stoichiometric value is . thus if you burn one kilogram of fuel, you need to use 14.6
kilograms of air. The air factor is given by and is one if the system is stoichiometric. We
can also define the fuel factor . So the inlet heat is given by

( )

where ( ) is equal to if it is smaller or equal to 1 and is equal to 1 when the air factor is bigger
than 1. The first case correspond to rich mixture, the second one correspond to poor mixture.

Fuels
Fuel has en influence on the engine design, the power and torque, the consumption, and the
reliability and life span. There are different types of fuels: solid (only for test engine), liquid
(mostly used), and gaseous.

The important requirements for a fuel are:

 An high combustion value to limit the needed quantity of fuel

 An easy and efficient production
 A fuel which permit to control the start and the duration of the combustion

There are different types of liquid fuels: gas (methane, ethane, propane), petrol, gasoline (for
petrol engines), kerosene (tractor, gasturbines), gasoil, diesel, lubrication oil, asphalt…
 17

All this fuels are extracted from the crude oil which is a mixture of hydrocarbons (paraffin,
naftene, asphalt…). This crude oil is converted into the different fuel in the refinery. The first
step is to distillate the oil and the second one is to refine (cracking, reforming…). In reality, these
fuels are not pure substance. They are mixture of hydrocarbons with different structure and
molecular mass.

The most known fuels are the petrol and the diesel.

 Petrol: It is an explosive fuel. Is boiling trajectory goes from 30°C to 200°C. Then it is
possible to have evaporated gases at ambient temperature. Its composition is 60-80%
paraffin, 15-30% naftenes, 0-10% aromatics (benzene) and 0-2% oilfines. Its density is
approximately 0.720-0.775 kg/l.
 Diesel: It cannot explode at ambient temperature (not evaporated gases). It is mainly
composed of paraffin. Its boiling trajectory goes from 180°C to 370°C.

Fuel criteria for petrol engine

First the volatility must meet very high requirements. We can determine the volatility by
distillation test. We need to have the low 10% point at 50°C to ensure a good cold start and the
low 90% point at 175°C to ensure a complete vaporisation in warm engine, and avoid
condensation and lubrication oil dilution. A too high volatility gives vapour bells at warm start,
i.e. a vapour lock (bells block fuel supply and stop engine). Thus the low 10% point cannot be
too low.

The vapour pressure must be limited to 60kPa during summer and 90kPa during winter. Thus
during summer, we use heavier hydrocarbures which do not evaporate.

The auto-ignition temperature is the lowest temperature at which the fuel ignites automatically.
For petrol, it is closed to 480-550°C and for Diesel, it is closed to 330-350°C. It is lower for diesel,
but is a good thing because in diesel engine, we use the auto-ignition process (the fuel is injected
by an injector and ignites automatically when it enter in the combustion chamber).

The octane number measure the knock stability, i.e. the presence of auto-ignition. The two limits
are the iso-octane which is 100% knock free and the iso-heptane which is 0%. So a
high octane number corresponds to a mixture which knocks hardly. It can be obtained by
adding oxygenises component like alcohol in the mixture (but alcohol increase volatility and
damage material).
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Combustion in diesel engine

If the speed of rotation increases, the ignition lag
stays the same and then, if the speed becomes too
high, the ignition lag becomes too long for the cycle.
This induces incomplete combustion.

There is a part of the diesel which is already entered

in the cylinder at the ignition time. The knock appears
when the entire diesel ignites at the same time. This creates a very high pressure in a very short
time (it also increases the heat). A solution consists in starting by injecting only a small quantity
of fuel (a pilot fuel) which begins to burn at ignition time. But because it is a small quantity, it
cannot create knock. When the pilot starts burning, we can inject the rest of the fuel in the
system (see later).

The parameters which influence the knock are:

 A pre-injection angle too large or too much fuel

 The time between the injection and the auto-ignition. This time depends on the quantity
of unburned diesel in the cylinder
 A cold engine resulting in a lower temperature and pressure
 A low compression ratio due to blow-by and leakage in cold engine conditions.

Fuel criteria for diesel engine

The diesel does not need volatility for good functioning. The volatility and the viscosity
influence the injection jet: high volatility and low viscosity give rapidly falling apart of droplets:
more rapid and better mixture, better combustion, less soot (see later).

The deposit and the corrosion are a serious problem for diesel engine. They are originating from
fuel and dirty oil. A high paraffin concentration decreases the quantity of deposit. The sulphur
in fuel promotes deposits and cause chemical corrosion. Thus we need to decrease the quantity
of sulphur in the fuel.

The ignition delay is defined as the time between the injection and the spontaneous combustion.
It decreases with an increase of compression rate, inlet and temperature. Indeed, the larger these
values, the closer the auto-ignition limits are approached after compression. The ignition delay
can be measured by the cetane number.
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The cetane number

The cetane number is percentage of cetane ( ) in the mixture. High cetane number is a
measure for auto-ignition. The cetane number (like the octane number) can be measured on the
CFR engine on basis of ignition delay method.

We can see that the octane number gives the slow burning property and the cetane number
gives the fast burning property.

Alternative fuels
There are three famous alternatives for fossil fuel: the methanol, the hydrogen and the biofuels.

Methanol
It is a derivative of oil, natural gas or coal. The problem of this fuel is that it evaporates very
quickly. The heat power (enthalpie) of the methanol is about a half of the one of petrol. Due to
large vaporisation heat, pre-heating is necessary. But as octane number is high, the compression
ratio can be increased.

Hydrogen
It has a high octane number and need a small ignition delay. It is suitable for petrol and diesel
engine. The main problem of the hydrogen is the storage problem. Indeed, hydrogen is an
explosive.

Biofuels
There are several types of biofuels (colza, wood, cereals…) and conversion technologies. It is not
neutral but has a positive balance. In another hand, there are a lot of different types of
biofuel and then some of them are very bad (environmentally). Another important aspect is that
the biofuel can be economically profitable.

Spark Ignition Engine

Carburation and fuel injection

The goal of the carburettor is to mix the fuel with the air,
respecting the engine parameters and the composition of the
exhaust gases, in such a way to obtain a homogeneous gaseous
air-fuel mixture. The carburettor uses the principle of a venturi:
the fuel is send with high pressure into an air flow.
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The basic lay-out of a carburettor is

given in the figure on the left. The real
carburettor is given by the figure
down-side.

The mixture ratio is critical for

ignition and combustion. The
stoichiometric relationship gives a
ratio of 14.6 particle of air for 1 mass
particle of fuel. But for cold start,
stationary condition or accelerating
condition, the motor need more fuel
and then the carburettor must provide a rich mixture (1/12-1/14). And also for calm driving
condition, the carburettor must provide a poor mixture (1/18). So we see that the carburettor
must take the conditions of the motor into account.

The mixing is made by evaporation of the fuel and then mixing the gas with the inlet air. Then
we obtain a flammable, gaseous mixture of homogeneous quality.

The figure up-side provides the theoretical lay-out of the carburettor. We can compute the
velocity of the air by applying the Bernoulli’s equation

which gives
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√ ( )

where is the average density. We can also compute the velocity of the fuel by applying
Bernoulli between point a and s

( )

which gives

√ ( )
( )

The flows of air and fuel will then be

̇ ̇

By putting the two flows in a graph, we see that it is

possible to fix the coefficient of the mixture
(stoichiometric or not) by modifying the difference of
pressure . The carburettor contains also a
compensation chamber. This chamber is used to
provides a constant flow of fuel in c (independent of
).

This modification is made because at low pressure

difference (slow combustion at low rotation speed), the
mixture may not become too lean.
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To accelerate (e.g. for large power demand), a rich mixture must be available during a short
time. Therefore, extra petrol should be injected during a short time. The main fuel nozzle cannot
be used immediately due to the flow inertia. This is why we use an accelerating pump. This is
made by a throttle. When the throttle is closed, there is an under pressure in A and then the
piston move to the right against the spring. When the throttle is open, there is no under pressure
in A and the spring push the piston to the left and extra fuel is ejected in the venturi.

Stationary running demands a rich mixture because atomizing and vaporisation are insufficient
at very low flow speed. Then we need a stationary regulation. For that, we add a stationary
nozzle. There will be an extra jet in B because air speed is there very high at closed throttle. In
addition, the mixture ratio can be controlled by means of calibrated restriction for the petrol and
a control screw for the air.
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The carburettor also contains a choke. Indeed, at cold start, a rich mixture is needed because the
vaporisation of petrol is still difficult in the cold intake manifold and cylinder. The idea is to add
an extra valve called choke placed before the venturi to reduce the air flow and induce locally a
large underpressure resulting in a rich mixture. The choke can be fully opened as soon as the
engine becomes warm. For this reason, the choke is, in most versions, automatically opened at
sufficient high engine temperature.

Another layout of carburettor is given here

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Power control regulation

Every throttle position corresponds to a specific
power curve. In case of full throttle (4/4), a
maximum power is delivered. Then controlling the
throttle allows to control the required power. It is
possible to use a manual gearbox to deal with the
required power.

Fuel injection
The carburettors are outdated by indirect injection, because it has better performances and is
conform to emission requirement. And actually, the indirect injection is more and more replaced
by the direct injection. It has a higher power, a lower fuel consumption (and therefore CO2
emission). It also requires other catalysts ( ).

The main advantages of injection are:

1. High power and torque: Better and more equal filling of cylinders. The air flow is not
disturbed (the intake manifold can be design on the air flow). And finally with the
injection, we give a better cylinder cooling and then increase the volumetric efficiency.
Indeed, by limiting the risk of knock, we can increase the volumetric ratio.
2. A lower specific fuel consumption: The cylinder receive optimal and equal fuel quantity
and the increasing of the volumetric ratio gives an efficiency raise.
3. It improve the adaptability and the response time: the system responds more rapidly to
load variation
4. It gives clean exhaust gases: The combustion is more complete and then there is less toxic
exhaust.
5. It can be integrated to other system.

Indirect injection system

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The difference between the injection and the use of carburettor is that for the carburettor, we
make the mixing of air and fuel and then send it to the cylinder; with the injector, we send a
quantity of air and the injector sends a quantity of fuel computed in function of the air quantity.
The common rail guarantees that the pressure is at constant level. The injectors are controlled by
a CPU.

The figure upside shows the different sensor needed to control the injector. We measure the
volume and the temperature of the inlet air (and then have the mass of air). The CPU will
determined how long must be the injector opening to ensure the good quantity of fuel in the
mixture.

The figure on the left shows the air

quantity meter. It measure the force
exerted by the air flow on the rotating
valve (the rotation of the valve is
counteracted by a radial spring). One
can show that there is a logarithmic
relationship between the angle of the
valve and the air flow.
 26

Direct injection
In direct injection, the fuel is directly injected into the cylinder (it is
comparable to the diesel injection). The cylinder filling is possible in two
different ways: laminated and homogeneous. The first one optimizes the
fuel consumption by adding turbulences in the cylinder (by decreasing
the section of the intake manifold). Then the mixture is better mixed and
we need less fuel to have the same efficiency. We use this technique when
we do not need too much power and torque. When we need a lot of
power and torque, we use the homogeneous filling (it is the normal
operating mode of the engine).
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Ignition in Otto engine

To perform a good ignition, we need to determine the ignition advance angle as a function of the
relevant engine parameters. We also need to provide a sufficiently high voltage to the spark
plug (by induction). The ignition system need also to distribute the voltage to the correct plug
(correct cylinder). And finally, we need to create a spark which has enough energy to ignite the
mixture (power and duration). This last point depends also on the mixture parameters
(stoichiometric or not…).

There are two ways to provide a high voltage: by using a battery or a magneto. The battery
ignition can be made by coil ignition, transistor ignition or electronic ignition. The coil ignition is
made with two circuits: the primary (with low voltage and high current) and the secondary
(with high voltage). The spark is then created by breaking the current with a contact breaker. It
must be done at the good moment in order to produce the spark at the right time. The magneto
ignition is made with a permanent magneto which permits to create a voltage. For example, on
the old car, we had a manifold to turn in order to induce a current in the circuit (by magnetism)
and then create a spark to start the engine. The scheme shows the ignition system in an Otto
engine.

We see the ignition distributor (tête de delco) which sends the current to the right cylinder. In
the ignition coil, we distinguish the primary and secondary circuit. The battery provides a
tension of 12V for cars and 24V for trucks.
 28

In order to send the spark at the right time, the

contact breaker is link to the camshaft. Then it
can find the moment when the piston is at the
TDC.

The high voltage is made by an interruption of

the current in the primary circuit. Then a
medium voltage (250V) is created in the
primary circuit by self-induction. This last one induces a high voltage (25kV) in the secondary
circuit by mutual induction. It is made by providing to the secondary circuit a number of
windings hundred times higher than the one of the primary circuit.

The primary circuit can be schematized by the following scheme. The

current in the circuit follows the law (charging)

( )

Where the frequency (of the motor) is given by . So if we have

, , we have . For a 4-stroke engine
with four cylinder and a rotation speed of 4200rpm, we find that
and then . For a 2-stroke engine we will find
which is very closed to . So if we take more cylinders, we
will finish by having and thus it becomes impossible to provide the
spark at the good time (the distributor have change its position before the
complete charging of the primary circuit). So we see that the number of
cylinder is a very important parameters of the engine which represents a big issue. A way to
decrease is to increase the value of R. But this decrease the current and then the energy stocked
into the system. So it is not a good solution. It will be the same if we decrease the value of L. A
better solution to provide more sparks in smaller intervals is to use several coil in place of one.
Actually with the fully electronic system, we have one coil for each cylinder.

If we analyse the evolution of the tension across the spark plug, we see a big
increasing of the tension and then a fast decreasing. The increasing is the
tension across the plug which increases because the primary circuit was
break and then the tension of the secondary enhances. When the tension is
sufficiently high, the air is sufficiently ionised and then the spark occurs. At
this moment the tension decreases because the current pass. After that, we
see an oscillation in the circuit. It comes from the primary circuit which is
closed again. At this moment, the condenser is active and with the resistor
 29

and the inductance, they form a RLC circuit which creates oscillation.

If we analyse the need of energy in function of the air factor, we see

that for a stoichiometric ratio, the need is minimum. Then the voltage
can be less high. But for lean and rich mixture, we need more energy
to ignite the mixture and then a higher voltage.

Now, we can analyse the need in voltage in function

of the compression ratio. We see that for a higher pressure, there is more
energy in the cylinder and then we need a higher voltage to ignite the mixture.
It comes from the fact that it is hard to create a spark in very compressed
atmosphere (thunderstorms occur when there is depression).

We also see that if the engine turn slowly, there are less turbulences in the
cylinder and then less fuel closed to the spark and then the voltage must be
higher.

The electrode distance has also a big influence on the voltage

needed. We need to put the electrode closed enough in order
to ensure the spark. But if we put the spark to closed, we risk
to create low voltage spark. But the energy stocked in the coil
remains the same and then the spark will occur for a longer
time and then the electrodes will corrode.

In the following graph, we analyse the required voltage

for old (c) and new (d) spark plug, and the provided
voltage in good (a) and bad (b) conditions. We see that
in the worst case (old spark plug and bad conditions)
we risk to not have spark and then the engine will not
start.

Pre-ignition
We make a pre-ignition because the deflagration takes a certain time: the flame front take a
certain time to arrive to the top of the piston. Then we ignite the system before the piston arrives
to the TDC to ensure good working conditions. The time the flame needs to arrive to the piston
top is given by where is the distance between the spark plug and the TDC and is the
flame speed. Thus the pre-ignition angle will be given by . But is
proportional to the dead volume and then
 30

But it is impossible to measure the flame speed into the cylinder, thus we need other parameters
to compute the ignition advance. But we know that the flame speed depends on the properties
of the fuel. One can see that when the octane number increases, the flame front speed also
increases (this is why pre-ignition angle is smaller for spark ignition engine). Thus we can use
this parameters to design the pre-ignition angle.

The figure on the left presents the contact

breaker used to create the spark.

We saw that the ignition advance must be

design in function of the fuel properties. But
we also saw that it must be proportional to the
rotation speed of the motor. So we need to
have a bigger pre-ignition advance if the motor
turn faster. It is quiet logical, because if the
motor turn faster, the piston take less time to
arrive to the TDC, but the flame front keep its velocity. Thus we need to start the ignition a little
bit earlier in such a way that the ignition arrive at the TDC at the same time than the piston. This
modification of the pre-ignition angle can be made by a simple mechanical system which uses
the centrifugal effect. When the motor turns faster, the centrifugal effect puts the flyweight
outer. This modifies the cam position and then the ignition start earlier. In the more recent
motor, we simply use a sensor to measure the velocity of the engine and then modify the pre-
ignition angle.
 31

The following figure shows a system where the ignition is controlled electronically.

In the figure on the left, we see the evolution of the

pressure in the cylinder in function of the position of the
piston. The first graph presents the normal evolution of the
pressure. The two others show what happens when the
pre-ignition angle is too big. In this case, there is an auto-
ignition into the cylinder (knock). The knock is a
deflagration with a very high flame speed which causes a
very high pressure into the cylinder. It can damage the
mechanical parts of the cylinder. The knock occurs because the flame
deflagration start too early and then another flame front is created before
the piston arrives to the TDC.

By analysing, we can see that knock causes high frequency vibration into
the cylinder. Thus we can use accelerometer (see the course about
vibration) to detect the knock into the motor. We filter the measuring to
keep only the high frequencies (because there are a lot of vibrations in the motor but we must
focus on the knock vibration). We need to measure the vibration very closed to the knock. Thus
we put the sensor directly on the cylinder or on the cylinder block.

One can show that the knock is caused by a very high temperature into the cylinder. Then a first
solution was to inject water into the combustion chamber. Because of the high temperature, it
evaporates directly and takes a part of the energy, and then decreases the temperature of the
cylinder. But this solution was not good for the life time of the engine. The actual solution is to
decrease the ignition advance when we detect knock.
 32

It is possible to have knock in only one cylinder. For example when the cylinder is at the end of
the cooling system, it is worst cooled and then more subject to knock. When knock is detected,
the ignition angle is changed (by the CPU). Then the ignition is made during the expansion of
the volume and the energy production is lower. Thus the temperature decrease and most of the
time the knock disappears. Mainly, we keep the ignition advance at this (small) level for about
200 rotations and then come back to the ideal pre-ignition angle. If the knock reappears, there is
a problem into the motor and the warning light turn on in the car interface.

The figure on the right shows the classical lay

out of a spark plug.

Because the electrode is in contact with the

combustion chamber (2500°C), we need to use
special material (high temperature resistant).
Another problem is that the mixture comes
close to the electrode. Then if the temperature of
the electrode is very high, there is a risk that the
mixture ignites only with the temperature of the
electrode (not at the right moment). Thus we
need to cool the electrodes. The cooling system
is shown in the following figures.

There are different types of spark plug. In function of the lay

out, the spark will cool more or less rapidly. In the figure
down side, we see that for the spark on the left, the heat
makes a longer path before meeting the cooling system. Then
the spark cool less rapidly than the two others. The better one
(for this point of view) is the spark plug on the right.
 33

We can draw the map of the spark

plug. We see different areas. There is
an operational range in which the
spark ignition works well. There is
also a glow ignition area in which the
mixture will ignites in contact with
the spark because of the too high
temperature. We also see that if the
cooling is too effective, the spark plug
will not clean itself. Indeed, during
combustion there are residues which
stick on the spark plug and then
change the surface properties. These
residues will leave themselves with the temperature of the plug. But if the cooling is too
effective, it is impossible and the residues will remains on the plug. Then engine will not work
correctly.

There exist systems with two spark plugs. For the

majority of the engine, one is enough, but for large
combustion chamber, we need a second spark plug.
Indeed, for a large combustion chamber, if we ignite
only one side of the chamber, we automatically have
knock on the other side of the chamber.

Combustion in Otto engines

The combustion of the gas is made by a flame propagation which is a transport of mass and
heat. We distinguish two different cases: when the gas is in laminar regime or in turbulent
regime. The flame speed can be subsonic (deflagration) or supersonic (detonation or explosion).
When we study the combustion into the engine, we must be care about the risk of auto-ignition.
The combustion process follows:

1. Heating of the mixture to approximately 100°C. This point depend on the outside
temperature, the vaporisation of the fuel, the heating by the cylinder walls, the cooling
system, the pre-heating of incoming air and the presence of residual gases. To perform a
better heating of the incoming air, we can put the inlet and the exhaust manifold closed
 34

to each other to produce heat exchange. Another possibility is to perform an electric

heating in the inlet system. But the most common system is to create a contact between
the exhaust and the inlet to use the heat of the exhaust.
2. The mixture is compressed. This increases the temperature to 550°C. It depends on the
compression ratio and on the air factor. The compression of the mixture must lead to a
complete vaporisation. During the compression, we must be care because of the
increasing of the pressure and the temperature (auto-ignition).
3. The mixture is ignited by a spark. The energy needed from the spark is given by

Where is the flame speed, the gap between the electrodes,

is the heat conduction of the mixture and is the
temperature difference between the mixture and the ignition
point. Mainly, this energy is about 0.5-3mJ. This is a very small
energy amount. This comes from the fact that in the closed
system with the very high pressure (the chamber), the mixture
is very closed to the ignition point. Then a small amount of
energy is enough to pass the barrier and ignite the mixture.

The figure on the right gives the variation of the pressure in the
combustion chamber in function of the position of the piston. We see
that the ignition provides a very large increasing of the pressure.

The flame speed in laminar regime is given by

( ) ( )

So it is a function of the temperature and of the composition of the mixture. In turbulent regime,
the flame speed is given by

( )

where is a factor of form (of the combustion chamber) and is the piston speed (the more it is
high, the more there are turbulences). The flame speed is a big issue. Indeed, with a low flame
speed, there is a risk to have auto-ignition in the chamber.

The combustion speed (not the flame speed) is influenced by:

 The thermodynamic: combustion heat , the temperature, the pressure, the mixture
composition(for a rich or a lean mixture, the speed decreases),…
 Aerodynamic: The speed is proportional to the rotation speed. Indeed, if the piston
speed increases, then the turbulences also increase and thus the flame speed can be
 35

faster. The augmentation of the turbulences decreases the volumetric efficiency (not a
good thing). In another hand, it permits a better cooling of the system by increasing the
heat losses. So we see that it is important to distinguish enough turbulences and too
much turbulences
 Chemical factors: reaction kinetics, propagation mechanisms
 Geometrical aspect: the shape of the combustion chamber
 Kinematic aspect: the motion of the piston

The abnormal combustion is defined as the combination of a

normal combustion and a spontaneous combustion (auto-
ignition). We need to avoid abnormal combustion. This one
produces a strong and sudden increase of the temperature and
the pressure. This causes a heavy thermal and mechanical load
on the piston and the cylinder which can finish by the possible
destruction of the piston, the valve or the connecting rod. Like
we said before, the knock is responsible of a pressure wave in
the cylinder which causes a high frequency vibration which is
measurable. The ideal conditions for auto-ignition are less
cooling, a low flame speed and too much fuel in the mixture. It
is also possible to have auto-ignition before the spark plug.

The influencing factors for the auto-ignition are:

 The fuel: The octane number, the molecular structure, the additives (to increase the
octane number).
 The mixture properties: The air factor: we obtain the highest combustion temperature for
(lightly rich mixture). When a part of the fuel does not oxidise and when
, we need to warm up the excess of air. Other important mixture properties are the
temperature of the inlet air and the presence of residual gases.
 Operational parameters: Rotational speed (increasing it causes a decreasing of the
volumetric efficiency and an increasing of the turbulences, then the combustion
temperature decreases), the load (for heavy load, the combustion temperature increase
and also the knock sensitivity), the pre-ignition (increasing it make a decrease of the
combustion temperature and then decreases the knock sensitivity).
 The compression ratio: if the ratio increases, the knock sensitivity increases.
 Deposits in the combustion chambers: increases the knock sensitivity
 The shape of the combustion chamber
 36

Like we said before, it is possible to detect the knock by measuring the vibration on the cylinder
block. Because the high frequencies are strongly damped, it is important to measure the
vibration as close as possible of the cause of vibration. Then we put several sensors to the
cylinder block. We know that the piezoelectric accelerometer work only under the Curie
temperature (the piezoelectric element become a dielectric above this temperature). Then we
must find another system to measure the vibration into the engine.

The glow ignition is the particular case where the auto-ignition is caused by hot point in the
chamber (spark, exhaust valve, glowing deposit…). We distinguish two different glow ignitions:
the early glow ignition (which causes a negative labour, a thermal load on parts of the cylinder
and the temperature increase with possible fracture or failure as consequences) and the late
glow ignition. The simple condition for glow ignition is to have a temperature higher than the
auto-ignition temperature of the mixture on a point of the chamber.

There exist other abnormal combustions:

 Rumble: burn of carbon deposits which causes low frequency sound

 After-dieseling: The engine continues to run after witching off the electric contact. In the
actual cars, it is impossible because the injection is linked to the battery and then if we
switch off the battery, we switch off the injection. This after-dieseling is an auto-ignition
phenomenon. It appears when there is insufficient cooling, reheating by exhaust
manifold or after heavy loading of the engine.

Design of the combustion chamber

The design must respect a certain number of parameters: avoiding the abnormal combustion,
the optimization of the volumetric efficiency and the structural requirements (strengths,
deformation). To meet this constrains, we can modify the form of the chamber, the form of the
piston and the inlet and outlet canals.

In order to avoid auto-ignition in the chamber, we need to have a small distance between the
spark plug and the walls of the combustion chamber (decreasing the time needed for the flame
front to go to the wall). We also need to avoid hot surface or ignition points. And finally, we
need a sufficient whirl (turbulence) because it give a higher speed of deflagration (and then
decrease the time needed for the flame front to go to the walls of the chamber).

There are some structural requirements which must be met by the design. First we must have
small bore, preferably limited to 150mm (note that it is not the case for diesel engine). We also
need a small distance between the plug and the exhaust valve. The cooling must be sufficient in
order to avoid knock, but not too effective because the efficiency of the motor is higher for high
temperature.
 37

There are different types of combustion chambers:

 Combustion chamber in the cylinder head: side valves, tube shaped, wedge shaped,
hemispherical…
 Combustion chamber in the piston: bath tube
 Combustion chamber in the piston and the cylinder heat: used with direct injection
engine

The figure on the left presents the side valve system. The main
disadvantage is the dimension of the combustion chamber which does
not permit optimal combustion. But the exhaust valve is closed to the
spark plug and we have a narrow space which causes the necessary
turbulences. This system works with small compression ratio.
 38

Here we present the bath tub shape. It provides a small distance between
the electrode and the walls. The long oval form of the chamber provides
enough turbulence. The mixture is squished (ecrasé) between the cylinder
head and the piston.

The wedge shape system also

provides a short distance for the flame front. It
permits also a good whirl, because the mixture is
pressed between the piston and the head of the
chamber and is pushed in the direction of the plug.

The hemispherical also provides a short distance between the

electrodes and the piston top. The breathes are good in this
configuration (large available surface for the valves). It also provides a
good cooling.

Directly injected engine are engines for which the combustion chamber is
localised into the piston. With this system, the turbulent mixture is pushed
to the spark plug. This system provides a combination of the roof shaped
combustion and the shaped piston.

Emission of Otto engines

The emissions of greenhouse gases in Europe are scale in the following graph
 39

The evolution of the greenhouse gases concentration is given in the following graphics

To make the analysis of the greenhouse gases more comprehensible, we computed the
equivalent in (comparison of the effect):

Name Formula CO2 equivalence

Carbon dioxide CO2 1
Methane CH4 23
Nitrous oxide N2O 296
Chlorefluorcarbon CFC’s 150 to 12000
Polyfluorcarbon CF4 5700 to 11900
Sulphurheaxfluoride SF6 22200
A piston engine is responsible of a lot of emission. They are given in the following scheme.
 40

We can also compare the emission of an Otto and a Diesel engine:

For the Otto engine, the most severe problem is the carbon monoxide. But it can be treated easily
even before send it to the atmosphere. For the diesel engine, the problem is more complex,
because the emissions contain soot which is a solid particle responsible of health damages. The
composition of the exhaust gases of an IC engine is given in the following table.

Nitrogen (N2)
It is gas not inflammable. It is colourless and not toxic. It represents 78% of the air. It is the major
part of the exhaust gases. We can see that only a small part of the resulting exhaust gases is
reactive: .
 41

Carbon dioxide
It is a not inflammable, colourless, and not toxic gases. It has a big impact on the ozone layer. It
is the most important greenhouse gas.

Carbon monoxide
It is a dangerous gas (can kill people). It is colourless, odourless, and explosive. It oxidises very
fast in open air to carbon dioxide.

The most important parameter to determine the emissions of carbon monoxide is the air factor.
They are particularly important for cold engine (start), acceleration and deceleration.

Nitrogen oxides
The is formed if high combustion temperatures are reached. They are mainly produced
from start of combustion to the point where the maximum pressure is reached. Its concentration
is higher when the air factor is stoichiometric. The emission of NOx also increases with high fuel
rate.

Unburned hydrocarbons
The source of UHC is the oil absorption/desorption, the carbon deposits, the incomplete
combustion, the combustion extinction at the walls and the leakage at exhaust valve.

The UHC will however be oxidised during the expansion and exhaust stroke and in the exhaust
system.

Causes of emissions
First, there is emission during the fuelling and also emissions which come directly from the fuel
tank (reservoir). Indeed, when the temperature rises, the fuel will evaporate resulting in an
overpressure into the tank. This can be avoided by an overpressure valve which emits the gas
into the atmosphere. This is a big problem because of the composition of the gas. Thus we add
an active carbon filter which filters the evaporated gases. There are also emissions which come
from the engine. These ones are characterized by the combustion parameters (pre-ignition and
composition of the mixture) and by the treatment of the exhaust gases (oxidation catalytic
converter, three-way catalytic converter, exhaust gas recirculation). An important parameter to
determine the emission of an engine is the fuel consumption. We can plot the emissions in
function of the air factor. The carbon monoxide emission will be caused by a non-complete
combustion (the carbon does not find enough oxygen to finish the combustion). This is why it is
very small for a lean mixture. The unburned gases follow a similar evolution as the fuel
consumption. There are always present in the exhaust gases and their quantity is proportional to
the quantity of fuel used. The NOx production depends on the heat produced into the engine.
 42

It is possible to modify the composition of the exhaust gases by reduction or oxidation. The
reduction consists in transforming the into carbon dioxide and nitrogen . There different
possible oxidation: oxidise the carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide or oxidise the UHC into
carbon dioxide and . The oxidation can be made into the oxidation catalytic converter. The
reactions into the converter are

( )

Another way to decrease the toxic composition of the

exhaust gases is the recirculation (to decrease the NOx
concentration). The exhaust gas, added to the fuel,
oxygen, and combustion product, increase the heat
capacity of the cylinder content, which lowers the
adiabatic flame temperature. This decreasing of the
temperature decreases the production of NOx in the
engine. The maximum quantity of recirculated gas is
limited by the requirement of the mixture to sustain a continuous flame front during the
combustion event.

There is another catalytic

converter available: the three-way
catalytic converter. It is introduced
because the oxidation catalytic
converter does not limit the
emission of NOx.
 43

The principle of this catalytic converter is to add the reduction reaction to the two oxidation
ones:

The catalytic converters work by using a catalyst which is

a substance that accelerates a chemical reaction. In the
three ways, there is a reduction catalyst and an oxidation
catalyst. Both types consist of a ceramic structure coated
with a metal catalyst (usually platinum, rhodium or
palladium). The idea is to create a structure which exposes
a maximum area of catalyst to the exhaust gases (this
allows to minimise the quantity of catalyst needed). The platinum and rhodium are used to
reduce de NOx. When it enter in contact with the catalyst, this one rips the nitrogen atom out of
the molecule freeing the oxygen in form of . The nitrogen will bond with other nitrogen atom
and form . To oxidise the monoxide and the UHC, we use platinum and palladium.

The figure on the right shows the efficiency of the three ways catalytic converter in function of
the air factor.

Another system used to control the composition of the

exhaust gases is the regulation. It consists in measuring
the composition of the exhaust gases to see if the mixture
is too lean or too rich. The measuring is made with a
probe which measures the potential difference between
the air and the exhaust gases.
 44

Measurement of the exhaust gases

The measurement of the emission of an engine is subject to standards. The measuring system is
described in the following figure.

To measure the impact of the car on the environment, we measure how much gram of toxic
gases are produced during a certain period. The evolution of the maximum allowed emissions is
given in the following graphs.
 45

Diesel Engine
There are different possible classifications for the diesel engines:

 Function of the rotational speed: fast 500-5000rpm (trains, car) or slow 100-400rpm (ship)
 On the basis of the cycle: 2-stroke, 4-strokes. Most of the time the slow running engine
are 2-stroke engine and the fast engines are 4-stroke engines.
 On the basis of the number of piston per cylinder: 1 piston or 2 pistons. In the second
case, the combustion chamber is formed between the two pistons.
 On the basis of the type of combustion chamber: separated combustion chamber (more
controlled combustion, less vibration, less noise) or combustion chamber in the piston
(direct injection).
 On the basis of the engine construction: Piston connecting-rod mechanism, cross-head
mechanism. This last mechanism is made to decrease the leakage, but decrease also the
maximal speed of the engine. It also has a higher inertia and then is not used for traction
system where we always need to change the rotational speed.

Two pistons per cylinder is mainly used in aircraft. The two

pistons compress the air between them by moving toward each
other. When both pistons reach approximately the middle, the
injectors inject fuel and then the explosion induces the expansion.
This type of motor is not used anymore.

The main differences between diesel and Otto engine are:

 The combustion principle which is made by auto-

induction in this case
 The temperature and the pressure at the end of the compression stroke is high (bigger
compression ratio)
 The fuel is adapted in function of the cetane number which gives an indication for the
ignition delay
 Because we have a diffusive combustion, the air-fuel ratio must be lean
 The engine constructions are heavier because of the higher pressure and temperature
 The adaptation of the combustion chamber: in the case of SI engine, the combustion
engine is mainly design to avoid auto-ignition, but here we must design it to ensure
auto-ignition
 The efficiency of the motor is higher (more than 35%)
 The rotation speed is limited due to the ignition delay.
 46

The combustion process is the following:

1. The fuel is injected under the form of droplets in hot air which is under high pressure
2. The droplets are warm up and will start burning after some time (depending on the
pressure, turbulence, temperature, size of the droplets…)

The time which passes between the injection of the fuel and the spontaneous burning is
important for a good combustion process.

The droplets size plays also a vital role into the combustion process. The droplets must receive
enough heat to ignite. One can show that the heat received by the droplets is proportional to the
surface of the droplets and the heat required depends on the volume of the droplets. If we
assume spherical droplets, we will have

Then the condition to have ignition is

So we need very small droplets in order to have ignition (between 1µm and 100µm). When the
droplets start burning, they should find enough air in order to keep burning. If we put all the
droplets together, some of them will start burning and consume the air in their vicinity. Then
there will have an impact on the burning of the other droplets. Thus we see that the bore and the
volume of the cylinder play also a role in the combustion process.

The kinetic energy of the particle depends on their mass which depends on the volume
and the air friction on the particle will depends on their surface . The covered distance
in the combustion chamber will be proportional to the diameter . Thus we have two
opposite conditions: the droplets must be enough small to ignite, but in order to travel a
sufficiently long distance, they must have a certain dimension. This distance (that the droplet
must cover) depends also on the dimension of the combustion chamber. Then for a large
combustion chamber we will have large droplet (100µm) and for small combustion chamber, we
will have small droplet (3µm).

The distance travelled by the droplet is also function of the injection pressure and the injection
nozzle hole. We can make a link between the velocity of the droplet and the pressure: .

The droplets can also split into smaller droplets. The condition to have that is given by the
Weber number which must be bigger than 10 ( is the surface tension of the droplet).
 47

Ignition delay
The ignition delay is the time between the injection of the
fuel and the ignition. The ignition delay is a fixed time
which depends on the fuel and on the condition of the
motor. Thus when the engine runs faster, the scale of the
ignition delay becomes larger. At a certain point, the
droplets ignite after the TDC and then a part of them does
not ignites and the engine loses a part of its power.

If we suppose that the ignition delay becomes longer (cold

start, fuel with less important cetane number…), there will be more droplets in the combustion
chamber when the ignition start. Then a more important number of droplets start burning
together. When a too high number of droplets burn at the same time, we talk about diesel knock.
It is the cause of a large mechanical load and a large noise. To make the ignition delay as small
as possible, we need to work on the cetane number, the droplets size and the form of the
combustion chamber.

Thus we see that the principle parameter for the design of the combustion chamber is the
diminution of the ignition delay. To ensure a burning of the droplet as soon as possible, oxygen
and turbulence must be present in the chamber. There are two types of combustion chambers:

 Separated combustion chamber: whirl chamber (Ricardo-Comet), pre-chamber (Daimler-

Benz) and air chamber (Lanova).
 Combustion chamber in the piston: Flat cylinder head, numerous form of combustion
chamber in the piston.

The figure on the right presents the pre-chamber. The idea

is to inject the fuel in this chamber and pre-heating it
(with the glow injector). Thus the fuel will start burning
into this chamber. But it is impossible that all the droplets
start burning at the same time because there is not enough
air into the pre-chamber. The advantages of this system
are a gradual pressure rise in the main combustion
chamber (even if there is a sudden increasing of the
pressure in the pre-chamber, the connection with the final chamber is very small and there will
be an averaging of the pressure), a smaller emission of soot and NOx, a small thermal load on
the engine, a low injection pressure become possible (in the pre-chamber, the droplet do not
have to travel a long distance), and the use of only one injector nozzle hole. There are also some
disadvantages like the high gas velocity needed (which cost energy), the higher flow losses
 48

which lead to higher fuel consumption, the less efficient combustion chamber, and the difficulty
with cold start (the engine is warmed later because the combustion
does not start on the final chamber).

The whirl chamber uses the same principle as the pre-chamber.

The only difference is that here the lay out of the chamber induce
whirling and then is better. The advantages and disadvantages of
this lay-out are closely the same than for the pre-chamber.

For the air chamber, the droplets are

injected into the chamber and start burning.
But because of the small quantity of oxygen,
the burning is not complete. At the same
time, the piston is going down. Due to the
burning, a high pressure is created. Thus
we have a flow with high velocity which
goes down in the cylinder where it finishes
to burn. The main disadvantage of this
system is the fuel consumption and the
efficiency.

We can also use direct injection and then put the combustion
chamber into the piston.

The main advantages of this system are: a high output due to

small heat losses (the combustion take place in the piston
which can only exchange heat by the piston ring or the
connecting rod), the excellent cold start properties (the piston
has a low heat capacity and then warm rapidly), and the
simple engine construction. There are also some
disadvantages: More noise and vibration (less turbulence and
ignition delay a little bit larger, then more droplets burn together which causes higher sudden
increasing of pressure and then vibration), the rotational speed is lower than for separated
combustion chamber, the emission of soot and NOx, and the necessity to use injector with
multiple nozzle holes.
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In the case of direct injection, it is possible to cool directly the piston (to
avoid mechanical problem). It is made with a small injector (which
operates at small pressure). It injects a small quantity of oil into the
piston. The oil is injected when the piston goes down (and then no need
of large pressure). For larger engine, it is also possible to cool down the
piston with water. In this case, the inertia becomes a problem. Indeed,
injecting too much water will increase the inertia of the piston and then
decrease the rotational speed of it.

Inlet air
In the figure on the left, we see the natural turbulences which occur
when the air comes from the inlet manifold.

The inlet air must be pre-heated in order to deal with the cold start and
to reduce the soot emission. Indeed, if the temperature and the
pressure are lower, the ignition delay is longer and the fuel does not
burn completely. This induces soot in the exhaust gases. There are two
methods to pre-heat the air: the flame heater and the glow plug. For
example, there is a glow plug in the whirl chamber which pre-heats the
air (during a very short time) before the injection of the fuel.

For a direct injection engine, the glow plug is placed like on the
figure on the right.

Injection
The purpose of an injection system is to inject the adapted fuel quantity as droplets in the
combustion chamber at the correct moment. The droplets must have the correct size (this
parameters serves to design the injector nozzle holes) and must be send with enough high
pressure (the droplets must go far enough in the chamber in order to find oxygen). The quantity
of fuel injected must be adapted to the engine’s parameters.
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The injection can be done in one or several steps. Indeed, in order to improve the knock
resistance, we can start by injection a very small quantity of fuel (a pilot) which will burn but
cannot cause knock. Then the combustion is started and we can inject the rest of the fuel.
Sometimes, we also delay a small part of the injected fuel (this last part is injected at the end of
the expansion). Then the droplets will burn in the soot filter and burn the soot residue. It is
made to clean the filter and to reduce the soot production.

The injection system is composed by the fuel tank, the fuel filter, a low pressure fuel pump, a
high pressure fuel injector, and an injection nozzle. There are several types of injection system:

 The old systems: inline fuel injection pump with mechanical regulation, and axial piston
distribution injection pump (regulation mainly mechanical)
 The actual systems: common rail injection system, pump nozzle unit (unit injector
system), and electronically regulated.

The figure shows the inline fuel injection pump.

On the upper left corner, we see the injection
pump itself (low pressure) which is directly link
to the filter. The purpose of the filter is to reduce
the impurities of the fuel. Sometimes, the fuel is
heated to prevent paraffin formation which can
block the filter. On the middle of the figure, we
see the first pump which pump the fuel from the
tank and send it to the injection pump. After the
injection pump and the filter, the fuel is directly
sends to the injector. We see that a part of the
fuel which pass by the injection pump go back
to the fuel tank. Normally, there is a speed regulator on the injection pump (e.g. centrifugal
regulation).
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The figure upside gives a view of the control sleeve in the inline fuel injection pump system.

If we look on the figure downside, we see a spring. As soon as the pressure will be higher than
the spring, the piston will be pushed on the valve and then open it and permits to the fuel to go
to the injector. The pressure is obtained by compressing the fuel on the piston. The device which
compresses the fuel in the system is connected to the camshaft (like seen in the figure upside-
right). Then the system is synchronous with the engine rotation.
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The following figures give the general lay out of the common rail system.
 53

Here, we described the nozzle lay out.

The following graphs give the evolution of the pressure in the injection pattern during the
displacement of the piston.

On point 1, we see the pre-ignition effect. The point 2 shows the main injection phase. The curve
3 shows the steep pressure gradient (with the common rail system). The point 4 shows the two-
stage pressure gradient (with a double spring valve). The curve 5 shows the gradual pressure
gradient (conventional fuel injection) and the curve 6 the gradual pressure drop (inline and
distributor injection). The curve 7 shows the steep pressure drop. 8 shows the advance post
injection and 9 the retarded post injection.
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The figure on the left shows the two-spring

nozzle. In the first phase, the pressure raise
to a certain value which is enough to move
the first part to the first slot that is directly
connected to the second spring. This allows
the injection of a small quantity of fuel
(small because the displacement is small). In
the second phase, the whole block will move
which moves up the main spring (the big
one) and enables the injection of the whole
amount of fuel.

Another possibility to inject the fuel in the system is the unit injector.
Here, the pressure is done at the last moment in order to avoid every
friction loss. The purpose of the unit injector is to produce the larger
pressure at the injector itself. On the figure, we see a unit injector
where we find the return pump (1), the pump body (2), the pump
plunger (3), the cylinder head (4), the spring retainer (5), the tension
nut (6), the stator (7), the armature plate (8), the solenoid valve needle
(9), the solenoid valve tension nut (10), the high pressure plug (11), the
low pressure plug (12), the solenoid travel stop (13), the restriction
(14), the fuel return (15), the fuel supply (16), the injector spring (17),
the pressure pin (18), the shim (19), the injector (20).

The figure on the left shows the working principle of

a unit injection pump. The camshaft is linked to the
top the injection unit. When the piston is at the good
position, it creates a pressure in the unit which open
the valve and then send the fuel into the cylinder. In
the unit injection system, it is a piezoelectric crystal
which is responsible for the opening of the valve.

The following scheme shows the unit injection

system.
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Benefit of the diesel engine

The main benefits of the diesel engine are:

 The specific power output and the high torque

 The operational safety
 The production costs
 The economy of operation fuel
 The reliability

Three factors permit a better efficiency: the higher compression ratio, the greater excess of air,
the absence of throttle flap and consequently the absence of throttle-related losses.

Emission of diesel engines

Like for the Otto engine, it is possible to oxidise the carbon monoxide and the UHC in catalytic
converter. The amount of NOx can be reduced by exhaust gas recirculation. But it remains some
problem: the soot, the decrease of the efficiency due to recirculation and the SOx. The solution is
to use a soot filter, a deNOx catalyser or selective catalytic reduction (SCR), and reduce the
content of sulphur in the diesel.

The soot particles arise as a result of a not optimal combustion in the diesel engine (too large
ignition delay, slower combustion…). The particles are about 0.05µm. They are detrimental for
health. The emission of soot can be reduced by very precise control of the diesel injection. The
number of soot emission increases drastically during idling (marche au ralenti) and in congested
traffic conditions.

The diesel particular filter (soot filter) use aluminium titanate

“A diesel particulate filter (or DPF) is a device designed to remove diesel particulate matter or soot from
the exhaust gas of a diesel engine. Wall-flow diesel particulate filters usually remove 85% or more of the
soot, and under certain conditions can attain soot removal efficiencies approaching 100%. Some filters are
single-use, intended for disposal and replacement once full of accumulated ash. Others are designed to
burn off the accumulated particulate either passively through the use of a catalyst or by active means such
as a fuel burner which heats the filter to soot combustion temperatures. This is accomplished by engine
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programming to run (when the filter is full) in a manner that elevates exhaust temperature or produces
high amounts of NOx to oxidize the accumulated ash, or through other methods. This is known as "filter
regeneration". Cleaning is also required as part of periodic maintenance, and it must be done carefully to
avoid damaging the filter. Failure of fuel injectors or turbochargers resulting in contamination of the filter
with raw diesel or engine oil can also necessitate cleaning. The regeneration process occurs at road speeds
higher than can generally be attained on city streets; vehicles driven exclusively at low speeds in urban
traffic can require periodic trips at higher speeds to clean out the DPF. If the driver ignores the warning
light and waits too long to operate the vehicle above 40 miles per hour (64 km/h), the DPF may not
regenerate properly, and continued operation past that point may spoil the DPF completely so it must be
replaced. Some newer diesel engines, namely those installed in combination vehicles, can also perform
what is called a Parked Regeneration, where the engine increases RPM to around 1400 while parked, to
increase the temperature of the exhaust.”1

The following scheme shows a clean diesel engine system.

To decrease the emission of NOx, we use a selective catalytic reduction. This catalyser uses a simple
reaction to reduce the concentration in NOx. Indeed, by mixing NOx with ammonia, we obtain a solution
of nitrogen and water. This type of catalyser can reduce about 90% the concentration in NOx.

1 Thank you Wikipedia

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The following graphs show the classical lay out for diesel emission reduction system.