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UNIT I FUNDAMENTALS OF AIR BREATHING ENGINES 8

Operating principles of piston engines – thermal efficiency calculations – classification of
piston engines - illustration of working of gas turbine engine – the thrust equation – factors
affecting thrust – effect of pressure, velocity and temperature changes of air entering
compressor – methods of thrust augmentation – characteristics of turboprop, turbofan and
turbojet – performance characteristics.

OPERATING PRINCIPLES OF PISTON ENGINES

A four-stroke engine (also known as four-cycle) is an internal combustion engine in which

the piston completes four separate strokes which constitute a single thermodynamic cycle. A stroke refers to the
full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either direction. The four separate strokes are termed:

1. Intake: this stroke of the piston begins at top dead center. The piston descends from the top of the
cylinder to the bottom of the cylinder, increasing the volume of the cylinder. A mixture of fuel and air
is forced by atmospheric (or greater by some form of air pump) pressure into the cylinder through the
intake port.
2. Compression: with both intake and exhaust valves closed, the piston returns to the top of the cylinder
compressing the air or fuel-air mixture into the cylinder head.
3. Power: this is the start of the second revolution of the cycle. While the piston is close to Top Dead
Centre, the compressed air–fuel mixture in a gasoline engine is ignited, by a spark plug in gasoline
engines, or which ignites due to the heat generated by compression in a diesel engine. The resulting
pressure from the combustion of the compressed fuel-air mixture forces the piston back down toward
bottom dead centre.
4. Exhaust: during the exhaust stroke, the piston once again returns to top dead centre while the exhaust
valve is open. This action expels the spent fuel-air mixture through the exhaust valve(s).

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The reciprocating engine is also known as an internal-combustion engine. This name is used because the fuel
mixture is burned within the engine. To understand how a reciprocating engine works, we must first study its
parts and the functions they perform.

The seven major parts are:

(1) The cylinders

(2) The pistons
(3) The connecting rods
(4) The crankshaft
(5) The valves
(6) The spark plugs
(7) A valve operating mechanism (cam).
Refer to the relative location of these parts in Figure 6-2 .

Engine Operation.

The cylinder is closed on one end (the cylinder head), and the
piston fits snugly in the cylinder. The piston wall is grooved to
accommodate rings which fit tightly against the cylinder wall and help seal the cylinder's open end so that gases
cannot escape from the combustion chamber. The combustion chamber is the area between the top of the piston
and the head of the cylinder when the piston is at its uppermost point of travel.
The up-and-down movement of the piston is converted to rotary motion to turn the propeller by the connecting
rod and the crankshaft, just as in most automobiles. Note the crankshaft, connecting rod, and piston arrangement
in Figure 6- and imagine how the movement of the piston is converted to the rotary motion of the crankshaft.
Note particularly how the connecting rod is joined to the crankshaft in an offset manner.
The valves at the top of the cylinder open and close to let in a mixture of fuel and air and to let out, or exhaust,
burned gases from the combustion chamber. The opening and closing of a valve are done by a cam geared to the
crankshaft. This gearing arrangement ensures that the two valves open and close at the proper times.
Now let's consider the movement of the piston (four strokes) and the five events of a cycle (see figure 6-3 ).

To see the animation 6-3 press here.

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1. The Intake Stroke The cycle begins with the piston at top centre; as the crankshaft pulls
the piston downward, a partial vacuum is created in the cylinder chamber. The cam
arrangement has opened the intake valve, and the vacuum causes a mixture of fuel and air to
be drawn into the cylinder.

2. & 3. Compression and Ignition Stroke As the crankshaft drives the piston upward in the
cylinder, the fuel and air mixture is compressed. The intake valve has closed, of course, as
this upward stroke begins. As the compression stroke is completed and just before the piston
reaches its top position, the compressed mixture is ignited by the spark plug.

4. Power Stroke

The very hot gases expand with tremendous force, driving the piston down and turning the crankshaft. The
valves are closed during this stroke also.

5. Exhaust Stroke

On the second upward (or outward, according to the direction the unit is pointed) stroke, the exhaust valve is
opened and the burned gases are forced out by the piston.
At the moment the piston completes the exhaust stroke, the cycle is started again by the intake stroke. Each
piston within the engine must make four strokes to complete one cycle, and this complete cycle occurs hundreds
of times per minute as the engine runs.

The overall principles of reciprocating-engine operation are easy to understand if you remember what happens
with each stroke that the piston makes. For this reason, you may find the chart in Table 6-3 helpful.

Table 6-3

Direction of Movement Event (what happens)

1. Inward (Down) Intake

Compression and
2. Outward (Up)
Ignition

3. Inward (Down) Power

4. Outward (Up) Exhaust

Thermodynamic Analysis

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The idealized four-stroke Otto cycle p-V diagram: the intake (A) stroke is performed by an isobaricexpansion,
followed by the compression (B) stroke, performed by an adiabatic compression. Through the combustion of
fuel an isochoric process is produced, followed by an adiabatic expansion, characterizing the power (C) stroke.
The cycle is closed by an isochoric process and an isobaric compression, characterizing the
exhaust (D) stroke.

During the normal operation of the engine as the fuel mixture is being compressed an electric arc is created to
ignite the fuel. At low rpm this occurs close to TDC (Top Dead Centre). As engine rpm rises the spark point is
moved earlier in the cycle so that the fuel charge can be ignited while it is still being compressed. We can see
this advantage reflected in the various Otto engines designs. The atmospheric (non-compression) engine
operated at 12% efficiency. The compressed charge engine had an operating efficiency of 30%.
CLASSIFICATION OF PISTON ENGINES

Engine Classifications

Internal combustion engines can be classified in a number of different ways:

1. Types of ignition

(a) Spark Ignition (SI)

An SI engine starts the combustion process in each cycle by use of a spark plug. The spark plug gives a high
voltage electrical discharge between two electrodes, which ignites the air fuel mixture in the combustion
chamber surrounding the plug. In early engine development, before the inventor of electric spark plug, many
forms of torch holes were used to initiate combustion from an external flame.

(b) Compression Ignition (CI)

The combustion process in a CI engine starts when the air-fuel mixture self-ignites due to high temperature in
the
combustion chamber caused by high compression.

2. Engine cycle

Four-stroke cycle: A four-stroke cycle has four piston movements over two engine revolutions for each cycle.
Two-stroke cycle: A two-stroke cycle has two piston movements over one revolution for each cycle.

3.Air Intake Process

Naturally Aspirated: No intake air pressure boosts system.

Super charged: Intake air pressure increased with the compressor driven off of the engine crankshaft.
Turbo charged: Intake air pressure increased with the turbine compressor driven by the engine exhaust gases.
Crankcase compressed: Two-stroke cycle engine which uses the crankcase as the intake air compressor.
Limited development work has also been done on design and construction of four-stroke cycle engines with
crank case
compression.

Aircraft Thrust

 Propulsion Systems Thrust is the force that pushes an airplane through the air.
There are many different types of propulsion systems which generate thrust.
o Propellers For the forty years following the Wright Brothers first flight, aircraft
used propellers to produce thrust. Modern general aviation aircraft still use
propellers.

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o Jet Engines Most modern aircraft are powered by gas turbine, or jet engines.
There are several different types of jet engines which are used for different
missions.
 Turbojets The turbojet is the most basic type of gas turbine engine.
 Afterburning Turbojets To develop the extra thrust needed for
supersonic flight, an afterburner is often connected to the exit of a
turbojet or turbofan engine.
 Turbofans Most modern airliners are powered by highly efficient
turbofan engines.
 Turboprops Many small commuter airliners use highly efficient
turboprop engines. The turboprop uses a gas turbine engine to turn a
propeller.
o Ramjets A ramjet engine produces thrust by burning a fuel at high pressure
and exhausting the gas through a nozzle. The high pressure is produced by
the forward speed of the vehicle.
o Rockets A rocket engine produces thrust by burning a fuel at high pressure
and exhausting the gas through a nozzle. The oxygen for combustion is
carried with the propulsion system.
 Parts of a Jet Engine Jet Engines are composed of many parts with many different
functions. Learn to recognize and identify the different parts of a jet engine.
o Inlet The inlet sits upstream of the compressor and brings air into the engine.
o Compressor The compressor increases the pressure of the air while
delivering it to the burner.
o Combustor or Burner Combustion of the fuel takes place in the burner. Fuel
is mixed with high pressure air from the compressor and burned.
o Power Turbine The power turbine sits downstream of the burner and extracts
some energy from the hot exhaust to power the compressor.
o Nozzle The nozzle is a specially shaped tube which accelerates the hot
exhaust gas to produce thrust.

ILLUSTRATION OF WORKING OF GAS TURBINE ENGINE

Jet engines
Airbreathing jet engines are gas turbines optimized to produce thrust from the exhaust gases, or from ducted
fans connected to the gas turbines. Jet engines that produce thrust from the direct impulse of exhaust gases are
often called turbojets, whereas those that generate thrust with the addition of a ducted fan are often called
turbofans or (rarely) fan-jets.

Turboprop engines
A turboprop engine is a type of turbine engine which drives an external aircraft propeller using a reduction
gear. Turboprop engines are generally used on small subsonic aircraft, but some large military and civil aircraft,
such as the Airbus A400M, Lockheed L-188 Electra , have also used turboprop power.

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THE THRUST EQUATION

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Engine Efficiency
The indicated or thermal efficiency is given by:

thermal efficiency = indicated power ÷ power input from the fuel

As we have seen there are mechanical losses in an

engine. The mechanical efficiency of an engine can be defined as the
ratio of the output power to the indicated power or workable power. The
output power is the power we can get from a dynamometer.

mechanical efficiency = output power ÷ indicated power

What is the mechanical
Question 4 efficiency of the engine in
Question 3?

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As the engine runs faster, the power absorbed in overcoming friction

increases, so the mechanical efficiency falls away. We can see this in the
graph below:

The frictional power increase almost mirrors the decrease in mechanical

efficiency.

The overall efficiency is the fraction of the input power of the fuel that is
delivered as useful power:

Overall efficiency = output power ÷ input power of the fuel.

In Question 1 you
worked out that the
power gained from
the fuel of the engine
Question 5
was 15.8 kW. If the
power output is 4.7
kW, what is the
overall efficiency?

The overall efficiency of internal combustion engines is not very good, with
even the best being about 40 %.

Summary
We can work out indicated power from the indicator diagrams.
Internal combustion engines work on the four-stroke cycle: Suck, squeeze,
bang, blow.
Indicated power = energy from p-V diagram x no of cylinders x number of

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cycles per sec.

Power from fuel = calorific value x flow rate
Thermal efficiency = indicated power ÷ power from fuel
Mechanical efficiency = output power ÷ indicated power
Overall efficiency = output power ÷ power from fuel
Power = torque x angular velocity.
1 bhp = 1 PS = 750 W

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