ENGINEERING ANIMATION: MECHANICS: FOUR STROKE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

(CAR ENGINE / PETROL ENGINE): This animation explains how a petrol engine works.
It shows a highly simplified 4-stroke engine cycling through the intake,
compression,
power and exhaust strokes.
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES are mechanical devices that use controlled explosions
(combustions) of petrol (gasoline) and air mixtures to rotate wheels. The
reciprocating
(back and forth) engine explodes the mixture (of fuel + air) in a cylinder that
forces
the contained piston to move. This movement of the piston is transmitted
(via the connecting rod) to a rotating device (crankshaft shown as a simple red
disc)
which is ultimately connected to the wheels (via gears, usually). This is how cars
run
on petrol. The ubiquitous four stroke engine is so called because the piston
repeats a
sequence of four strokes for every explosion. This animation shows a highly
simplified
engine to illustrate this process. In reality, the components often have highly
complex
and irregular shapes. Since a realistic rendering might obscure the underlying
process I
have reduced the components to their simplest form. Car engines have multiple
cylinders
contained together in an engine block. Usually these contain 4, 6 or 8 cylinders.
For
example a V6 engine contains six cylinders arranged to create a V configuration.

FOUR STROKES ANIMATED: the animation begins with the piston at the top of the
cylinder.
The piston moves down and the petrol air (gasoline-air) mixture enters the
cylinder. The
inward flow of the air-fuel mixture is illustrated as a rotating spiral entering
the
engine through the purple inlet. The piston then moves upwards and compresses the
air-fuel
mixture. The sparking plug (spark plug) then fires (an electrical discharge) and
the
compressed mixture explodes (by contrast, diesel engines use the heat of
compression to
ignite the mixture). This explosion drives the piston downwards in what is called
the
power stroke. The piston then returns to the top of the cylinder in the exhaust
stroke
and drives the exhaust gases out of the engine. The exhaust gases can be seen
leaving the
(orange-yellow) exhaust tube as a cone of pale orange. The flow of gases is
controlled by
valves (not shown) whose movements are timed to allow the inflow of fuel and air
and the
outflow of spent gases. The intake valve (which would be at the point the purple
fuel line
enters the top of the cylinder) opens during the first (intake) stroke and allows
the
fuel-air mix to enter the cylinder. It then closes to seal the cylinder during the
remaining part of the cycle. The exhaust valve opens during the final (fourth)
stroke to
allow the exhaust gases to leave.
PETROL (GASOLINE) ELECTRIC HYBRID VEHICLES: contain both a petrol engine and an
electric
motor. Each contributes to powering the vehicle depending on conditions. Energy is
stored
in the fuel tank (as gasoline) and in batteries (cells). Hybrid vehicles are
attracting
great attention because they use less fuel (petrol / gasoline/ diesel fuel) than
conventional vehicles. With the increasing price of oil and worry about carbon
dioxide
emissions hybrid cars (and other hybrid vehicles) are increasing in popularity.