Engines, Motors, and

Mobility
[ME F317]
BITS
BITS Pilani
Pilani Dr. Saket Verma
Pilani Campus Department of Mechanical Enginerring
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Lecture No.: 7-8

BITSActual
Pilani Cycles and their Analysis
Pilani Campus
INTRODUCTION

● The actual cycles for IC engines differ from the fuel-air cycles and air-standard
cycles in many aspects.
● The actual cycle efficiency is much lower than the air-standard efficiency due
to various losses occurring in the actual engine operation.
● The major losses are due to:
1. Variation of specific heats with temperature
2. Dissociation of the combustion products
3. Progressive combustion
4. Incomplete combustion of fuel
5. Heat transfer into the walls of the combustion chamber
6. Blowdown at the end of the exhaust process
7. Gas exchange process
8. Frictional losses

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COMPARISON OF THERMODYNAMIC
AND ACTUAL CYCLES

These differences are mainly due to:

1. The variation of specific heats with
temperature,
2. The working substance being a mixture of air
and fuel vapor or finely atomized liquid fuel Points 1 and 2,
in air combined with the products of
combustion left from the previous cycle. being related to
Fuel-Air
The change in chemical composition of the Cycle.
working substance,

The change in the composition, temperature and

actual amount of fresh charge because of the
residual gases.

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ACTUAL CYCLES

FUEL-AIR ACTUAL
AIR-STANDARD THEORETICAL CYCLES
CYCLES CYCLES CYCLES
Air standard Change in the Accurate Accurate
assumption are mass of the working working
applicable working medium medium
Eff. = f(r) medium properties are properties as
possible taken – but all well as the
Eff. = f(r) the processes processes
are kept Eff. = f(N,
idealized Load, r, A/F, Pi,
Eff. = f(r, A/F, Ti)
Pi, Ti)

Eff. = Efficiency
r = Comp ratio
A/F = Air-fuel ratio
N = Engine speed
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COMPARISON OF THERMODYNAMIC
AND ACTUAL CYCLES
3. The progressive combustion rather than the instantaneous combustion.
4. The heat transfer to and from the working medium.
5. Incomplete combustion of fuel
6. The substantial exhaust blowdown loss, i.e., loss of work on the expansion stroke due to
early opening of the exhaust valve,
7. Gas leakage, fluid friction etc., in actual engines.
8. Mechanical frictional losses

● Remaining points are in fact responsible for the difference between fuel-air
cycles and actual cycles.
● Most of the factors listed above tend to decrease the thermal efficiency and
power output of the actual engines.
● Out of all the above factors, major influence is exercised by:
1. Time loss factor
2. Heat loss factor
3. Exhaust blowdown factor

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Time loss factor

● In Air-Standard cycle the combustion (Heat addition)

assumed to be instantaneous, But in actual cycles, it will
take a definite period of time. Spark creation to till
complete combustion. This is the time loss due to
progressive combustion
● Path 2 → 3 represents if the combustion is instantaneous
at constant volume. Which mean instantaneous at where
the piston is at TDC.
● Due to the time taken for the complete combustion, the
peak pressure generated by the combustion at the
minimum cylinder volume (At 2) will not occur, Which
means at the piston at the TDC. It will occur sometime
after the TDC. The pressure will rise from b to c as shown
on the graph.

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Contd.

● The area which is hatched and painted in blue represents

the amount of work would have been done. This loss of
useful work results in reduced in efficiency of the cycle.
This is called the time loss due to progressive combustion.
● Factors cause the Time loss in actual
cycles
1. The flame velocity which in turn depend upon the type of
fuel and the fuel-air ratio.
2. The shape and size of the combustion chamber.
3. The distance from the point of ignition to the opposite side
of the combustion space

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Cont.
Cycle performance for various ignition timings for r = 6
(typical values)

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Heat loss factor

● Heat loss during the combustion process definitely has a high influence on
cycle efficiency. Whereas the heat loss during the end of expansion stroke
will have effectively less influence on the cycle efficiency.
● During the combustion process in the IC engines, the heat flows from the
cylinder gases through cylinder walls and cylinder head into the cooling fins
or water jacket.
● The heat also loses from the piston head into the piston rings carried away
by the lubricating oil or flow through the cylinder walls into the water
jacket.

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contd..

● Following is the P-V diagram for the three

different losses (Time loss, Heat Loss,
Exhaust Loss). Among these three losses,
e.g. Heat loss has a 12% loss of energy
which is a high amount compared to the
other two losses (Time loss – 6%, Exhaust
Loss – 2%)
● The main effect of the Heat loss in
combustion and expansion of the engine
will reduce the maximum temperature
which will result in lower specific heats.

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EXHAUST BLOWDOWN

● Blowdown is nothing but the escape of

the combustion particles from the
cylinder when the exhaust valve opens.
The timing of the opening of the exhaust
valve will also have an influence on the
efficiency of the engine since there is this
Exhaust blown loss during the cycle. This
loss depends on the timing of the Exhaust
valve opening
● It is noted that the loss of this exhaust
blown is 2%. Which is comparatively less
than the other two losses (Time loss-6%
and Heat Loss-12%) which means it will
have less effect on the efficiency of the
engine.
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Contd..

● Generally, the cylinder pressure at the end of the

expansion stroke is much higher than the atm
(e.g.7 bar) depending on the compression ratio
employed.
● If the exhaust valve is opened at the bottom dead
centre then the piston has to do the work against
the cylinder pressure due to the early part of the
exhaust stroke.
● If the Exhaust valve is opened too early, then
some portion of the expansion stroke is lost.
● Hence there is an optimum duration to open the
exhaust valve. (e.g. 40° to 70° before BDC
thereby reducing the cylinder pressure to halfway
(let’s say 3.5 bar) before the exhaust stroke
begins.)

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OTHER LOSSES

Incomplete combustion loss:

● Fuel vapour, air, and residual gas are present in the cylinder, this
makes it impossible to obtain perfect homogeneous mixture.
Therefore some fuel does not burn to CO2 or partially burns to CO,
and O2 will appear in the exhaust. Energy release in actual engine is
about 90 to 98% of fuel energy input (combustion eff.).
Friction losses:
● These losses are due to the friction between the piston and cylinder
walls, the various bearings, and the friction in the auxiliary
equipment, such as pumps, fans, etc.
● In addition to that ‘working fluid’ inside the engine also cause
viscous friction – though its magnitude is very little compare to other
losses.

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OTHER LOSSES

Leakage:
• Leakage from the crevice volume reduces
pressure during expansion stroke and hence
reduces net power output from engine.
• It is called blow by losses, which can be
measured by flow rate from crank case
breather.

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Other losses: Pumping losses

• The difference of work done in expelling the exhaust gases and the work
done by the fresh charge during the suction stroke is called the pumping
work and the loop formed in called pumping loop (negative work).
• In other words loss due to the gas exchange process (pumping loss) is due to
pumping gas from lower inlet pressure pi to higher exhaust pressure pe.

WA > 0

WB < 0

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Effect of throttle opening
● When a four- stroke SI engine run at
partially closed throttle, (throttle is a
butterfly valve in the intake system),
fuel supplied to the engine is reduced,
and this would lead to less power
output at part throttle opening as shown
in figure
● The upper loop represent positive work
output (A) while the lower loop
consisting of the exhaust and intake
strokes is negative work (B).
● The more closed the throttle position,
the lower will be the pressure during
the intake stroke and the greater the
negative pumping work.

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