REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

• The actual cycle experienced by an internal combustion engine is not, in

the true sense, a thermodynamic cycle. Major differences include:
• Real engines operate on an open cycle with changing composition. Not
only does the inlet gas composition differ from what exits, but often the
mass flow rate is not the same
• Air-standard analysis treats the fluid flow through the entire engine as air
and approximates air as an ideal gas. In a real engine inlet flow may be all
air, or it may be air mixed with up to 7% fuel, also exhaust
residual
• There are heat losses during the cycle of a real engine which are neglected
• In air-standard analysis. Heat loss during combustion lowers actual peak
temperature and pressure from what is predicted
• Combustion requires a short but finite time to occur, and heat addition is
not instantaneous at TDC, as approximated in an Otto cycle
• The blowdown process requires a finite real time and a finite cycle time,
and does not occur at constant volume as in air-standard analysis
• In an actual engine, the intake valve is not closed until after bottom-dead
center at the end of the intake stroke
ENGINE CYCLE AT PART THROTTLE
 Diesel Cycle
• Early CI engines injected fuel into the combustion chamber very late in the
compression stroke, resulting in the indicator diagram shown in Fig. 3-7.
Due to ignition delay and the finite time required to inject the fuel,
combustion lasted into the expansion stroke. This kept the pressure at peak
levels well past TDC. This combustion process is best approximated as a
constant-pressure heat input in an air-standard cycle, resulting in the Diesel
cycle shown in Fig. 3-8. The rest of the cycle is similar to the air-standard
Otto cycle. The diesel cycle is sometimes called a Constant· Pressure
cycle.
If representative numbers are introduced into Eq. (3-73), it is found that the value
of the term in brackets is greater than one. When this equation is compared with
Eq. (3-31), it can be seen that for a given compression ratio the thermal efficiency
of the Otto cycle would be greater than the thermal efficiency of the Diesel cycle.
Constant-volume combustion at TDC is more efficient than constant-pressure
combustion. However, it must be remembered that CI engines operate with much
higher compression ratios than SI engines (12 to 24 versus 8 to 11) and thus have
higher thermal efficiencies
 Dual Cycle
• If Eqs. (3-31) and (3-73) are compared, it can be seen that to have the best of
both worlds, an engine ideally would be compression ignition but would
operate on the Otto cycle. Compression ignition would operate on the more
efficient higher compression ratios, while constant-volume combustion of the
Otto cycle would give higher efficiency for a given compression ratio.

• The modern high-speed CI engine accomplishes this in part by a simple

operating change from early diesel engines. Instead of injecting the fuel
late in the compression stroke near TDC, as was done in early engines,
modern CI engines start to inject the fuel much earlier in the cycle,
somewhere around 20° bTDC.

• The first fuel then ignites late in the compression stroke, and some of the
combustion occurs almost at constant volume at TDC, much like the Otto
cycle.
• compares Otto, Diesel, and Dual cycles with the same inlet
conditions and the same compression ratios. The thermal
efficiency of each cycle can be written as:
ɳth = 1 - Iqout I/Iqin I

The area under the process lines on T-s coordinates is equal to the
heat transfer, so the thermal efficiencies can be compared. For each
cycle, qout is the same (process 4-1). qin of each cycle is different,
for these conditions:
(ɳth)Otto > (ɳth)Dual > (ɳth )Diesel
However, this is not the best way to compare these three cycles,
because they do not operate on the same compression ratio.
Compression ignition engines that operate on the Dual cycle or
Diesel cycle have much higher compression ratios than do spark
ignition engines operating on the Otto cycle. A more realistic way
to compare these three cycles would be to have the same peak
pressure-an actual design limitation in engines. This is done as
shown in Fig. below. Then

(ɳth) Diesel > (ɳth)Dual > (ɳth ) Otto

 Example
• A small truck has a four-cylinder, four-liter CI engine that operates
on the air-standard Dual cycle using light diesel fuel at an air-fuel
ratio of 18. The compression ratio of the engine is 16:1 and the
cylinder bore diameter is 10.0 cm. At the start of the compression
stroke, conditions in the cylinders are 60°C and 100 kPa with a 2%
exhaust residual. It can be assumed that half of the heat input from
combustion is added at constant volume and half at constant
pressure. Calculate:
1. temperature and pressure at each state of the cycle
2. indicated thermal efficiency
3. engine volumetric efficiency
Atkinson Cycle
 MILLER CYCLE
• It is a modification of the Atkinson cycle(expansion ratio
i(V4/V2)s greater than the compression ratio(V7/V2)
• It uses a unique valve timing
• Air intake is unthrottled
• Intake valve closes long before BDC (point 7) in figure 3.15, in
this case engine has early intake valve closing (6-7-1)
• Cylinder pressure is reduced by piston motion toward BDC in
the latter part of the intake stroke(process 7-1)
• Pressure increases by piston motion from BDC to TDC ,
process 7-1, the cycle will be 6-7-1-7-2-3-4-5-6
• Process 6-7 which is the intake is cancelled with process 7-6
(exhaust)
 Miller (cont)
• Process 7-1 is cancelled with process 1-7
• Net indicated work is (7-2-3-4-5-7), in this case there is no
pumping work
• Shorter compression stroke (which absorbs work) and
longer expansion stroke which produces work mean high
net indicated work per cycle
• It has higher thermal efficiency because Miller cycle has no
pumping work due to unthrottled intake system especially
at part throttle (Otto would experience low pressure in the
intake manifold and high negative pumping work).
 Intake valve closes ABDC
• Air is ingested during the entire intake stroke (part is forced
back into the intake manifold before the intake valve closes),
the cycle is (6-7-5-7-2-3-4-5-6)
• Intake valve closes at point 7 is the optimum solution to get
maximum work
• Point 7 changes with engine speed and load
• VVT is was the solution (opening and closing the valves using
electronic actuators without canshaft)
• If the intake valve closes bBDC, less than full displacement
volume available for air ingestion
• If the intake valve closes aBDC, full displacement is filled with
air but some is expelled out again before the valve is closed(5-
7 in figure 3-15)
• So both cases lead to less air and fuel eng up
in the cylinder at the start of
compression ,which means low output power,
and low imep

• To solve this issue, supercharger and

turbocharger are used.
Miller cycle w/o Turbo/supercharger
Turbo or supercharged Miller cycle
Miller problem
 Two stroke cycles
• It is desirable for most small engines(chain saws, leaf blowers) b/c
light weight and cheap(no engine valves).

• No modern automobile is now made in high volume b/c of emission

laws, however it is desirable due to smoothness(power stroke eac and
engine weight/power(specific weight).

• Since 1990 , due to emission regulation, no more 2 stroke is produced

for automotive applications.

• Imperfect scavenging” large amounts of exhaust residual remain in

the cylinder at the start of the next cycle”. This dilutes the AF mixture
in the cylinder (low combustion temperature), which reduces the NOx
emissions but affects the catalytic system.
Two stroke SI engine cycle