A report on

COMBUSTION CHAMBER GEOMETRY

(ME-3204: IC Engines)

Submitted by1. Abhinav (Roll no. 13135001)

2. Abhishek Dalal (Roll no. 13135002)
3. Abhishek Gupta (Roll no. 13135003)
4. Abhishek Kumar Shukla (Roll no. 13135004)
5. Abhishek Pendam (Roll no. 13135005)
6. Adhithyan S (Roll no. 13135006)
7. Aftab Husain (Roll no. 13135007)
8. Ajay kumar saini (Roll no. 13135008)
9. Akash kakkar (Roll no. 13135009)

Combustion Chamber Geometry

Group 1: Roll nos. 13135001 to 13135009

Introduction:
Combustion chamber geometry is one of the most important factor which affects the performance and
efficiency of an engine. To achieve improved performance and further reductions in emissions, rapid
and better airfuel mixing is the most important requirement. The mixing quality of fuel spray with air
can be generally improved by selecting the best injection parameters and better design of the
combustion chamber [3]. In this article we have studied the influence of combustion chamber geometry
on the performance of SI and CI engines. Following will be the main points of discussion:

High power, low knocking and low emission based SI and CI engine
Modification/design of SI and CI engine
Modification required for alternate fuel/biofuel
Motion of air and fuel in engine
Trend of combustion chamber design

Discussion:
High Power, low knocking and less emission based SI and CI Engine

Higher power can be achieved by improving fuel air mixing characteristics and accordingly
improving the combustion chamber design. Toroidal re-entrant combustion chamber and
retarded injection timing has been found to improve brake thermal efficiency and reduced
brake specific fuel consumption[7].
Designing the combustion chamber with narrow and deep and with a shallow reentrance had a
low protuberance on the cylinder axis and the spray oriented towards the bowl entrance
reduced the NOx emission levels to the maximum extent [7].
In re-entrant combustion chamber intensification of swirl and turbulence were reported to be
higher when compared to cylindrical chambers which lead to more efficient combustion causing
higher NOx emissions and lesser soot and HC emissions [7].
In reentrant chambers, retardation of spray can be used to control Nitrogen oxide emissions
without much increase in soot and HC emissions. [8]

Modification/Design of SI and CI Engine

Various modifications and research work have been done and are still going on to improve the
performance characteristics of SI and CI engines. Some of the modified combustion chambers
are Toroidal re-entrant, Triple piston crown combustion chamber, pentroof combustion
chamber, wedge shaped combustion chamber, bowl in piston type, etc. A toroidal re-entrant

type combustion chamber with round lip and round bottom corners provides better air and fuel
distribution than a simple cylindrical combustion chamber for SI and CI engines [7].
Comparing Hemisphere Combustion Chamber With Circular Arc on Periphery of Piston Crown
@ 120(Piston A) against Hemispherical open type Combustion Chamber(Piston B), the test
result shows that Brake Specific Fuel Consumption was decrease by 5.98% and brake thermal
efficiency was increased by 1.93% using piston A at 185 bar pressure. The exhaust gas
temperature (EGT) and oxide of nitrogen (NOX) emission increased by 4.52% and 4.22%
respectively. The exhaust gas emission of hydrocarbon (HC) was decrease by 2.12%and carbon
monoxide (CO) was similar to the baseline condition. Piston A has better efficiency but at the
expense of higher NOX emissions. [2]

Figure 1 Pistons with 3 and 6 grooves

A piston with grooves on the periphery of its upper surface has lower brake specific fuel
consumption as well as lower CO and HC emissions at all loads.[5]

Modification required for alternate fuel/biofuel

The main drawbacks of using biofuel is the low viscosity and low fuel air mixing capability. Thus,
we can accordingly design the combustion chamber to find the solution for these drawbacks.
Three combustion bowl geometry shapes are preferred viz Piston 1 (shallowdepth combustion
chamber), Piston 2 (toroidal combustion chamber) and Piston 3 (hemisphericalcombustion
chamber). In the pursuit of experimental investigation of B25 (HCF e 25% and diesel e 75%)and
B100 (HCF e 100%), piston 2 shows enhanced engine performance and emission than the other
two configurations. Notably, BTE for B25 with piston 2 is increased by 10.2%, while the emission
such as HC, CO and smoke are reduced by 13.3%, 11.7% and 10.1%, respectively, than the
conventional piston bowl geometry (piston 3) at the expense of increased NOX emission.[2]
Toroidal combustion chamber is shown to exhibit better performance and emission than
trapezoidal combustion chamber and hemispherical combustion chamber for all test blends.
Categorically, B50 (HCF e 25% and diesel e 75%) shows a 5.2% increase in Brake Thermal
Efficiency than diesel with toroidal combustion chamber.[2]
TCC resulted in better performance compared to other combustion chambers. It may be due to
the fact that, the TCC prevents the flame from spreading over to the squish region resulting in
better mixture formation of biodiesel-air combinations, as a result of better air motion and
lowers exhaust soot by increasing swirl and tumble [7].

Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) for TCC (30.3%) is higher when compared to the other two types
of combustion chambers at all loads when operated with 20% POME. This may be due to better
mixture formation of POME and air, as a result of better air motion in TCC, which leads to better
combustion of the biodiesel and thus increases the BTE. At all loads the BTE for SCC is lower
than that of TCC [3].

Motion of air and fuel in Engine

The flow field at end of suction is independent of the combustion chamber geometry [8].
Reentrant with central projection combustion chamber geometry shows maximum swirl ratio at
TDC as compared with the other two combustion chamber geometry configurations. This will
result in better combustion characteristics [9].
The reentrant with central projection combustion chamber is optimum design compared with
open bowl and reentrant combustion chamber geometry which gives better air motion [9].
Better combustion due to better air fuel mixing in TCC, gives maximum in cylinder pressure
compared to SCC and HCC with 20% POME. For all combustion chambers operated with 20%
POME decrease in premixed combustion and increase in diffused combustion was observed [3].

Trend of combustion chamber design

Increasing use of CFD to analyze different combustion chamber designs have led to various
modifications as discussed above.
With the development of indirect injection, multiple chamber IC engines came into existence.
Cylindrical combustion chambers were once the most widely used type. And then with increase
in research came the hemispherical or pentroof combustion chamber.
As the requirements of better efficiency and lower emissions increased, some new combustion
chamber designs came into existence like shallow depth combustion chamber, toroidal
combustion chamber, Tangential groove piston crown combustion chambers [2].

Suggestions

More CFD based study should be done on swirl-squish characteristics and experimental work
should be done on unconventional combustion chamber designs.
Due to lower emissions in biofuels, future research should be guided in improving the
specialised combustion chamber design for biofuels.
We can switch to other advanced concepts and build IC engines which does not involve
combustion of fuels which produce harmful emissions. A possible engine would be
electromagnetic piston engine.

Conclusion
In this article we discusssed various combustion chamber designs and modifications done to improve
the performance of IC engines. Combustion chamber geometry plays an important role in deciding the
power, efficiency and exhaust characteristics of SI and CI engines. With advancement in CFD and
simulation techniques, the time and cost required to design and modify combustion chamber geometry
is reduced. Much advance work is being carried out in area of biofuel and correspondingly, better and
specialised combustion chamber geometry are being designed for engines with biofuels.

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Development, Vol. 3, Issue 03, 2015 , pp. 1042-1047
[3] S. Jaichandar, K. Annamalai " Effects of open combustion chamber geometries on the performance of
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[4] Fukang Ma et al. " Effects of Scavenging System Configuration on In-Cylinder Air Flow Organization of
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