The Four-stroke Combustion Engine

Cycle

Introduction
The internal combustion engine (figure 1) changed the way we travel and transport
goods since it went into mass production in the early 1900s. As of today, there are
approximately 260 million cars in the United States alone, and the primary source of
energy is combustion. Over time, the engine has evolved and improved in many
different ways. There are engines with as many as 12 cylinders with different
amounts of displacements and configurations, but the core concept remains the
same. The goal of this technical document is to dissect the engineering and science
that goes into a complete four-stroke combustion engine cycle. After reading this
document, even someone from a non-technical background should have a
reasonable understanding of how this cycle works.

Figure 1: Internal combustion engine diagram

Image from: http://easyscienceforkids.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/pistons-
286x300.jpg

Cycles
In a four-cylinder car, this cycle occurs approximately 1600 times when the car is
idling. All the cylinders move in harmony together to create a unique sound that you
hear when you start your car. The four-stroke engine cycle gets its name from each
movement (or stroke) of the piston. Pistons (annotated in figure 1 above) move
inside the cylinders pushing or sucking in the air fuel mixture. The four strokes
comprise of Intake, Compression, Combustion, and Exhaust. After the last stroke,
namely Exhaust, the cycle repeats and that is how the engine keeps running as long
as there is fuel being fed to the cylinders.
 Figure 2: The complete four stroke cycle
Image from: https://i2.wp.com/mechstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/4-stroke-
engine.jpg

1.Intake
Also known as induction or suction, this is the first stroke in the cycle. It
starts with the piston head being at the very top of the cylinder (the
space where the pistons move inside the engine). This position is also
known as Top Dead Center (TDC). The piston then moves all the way to
the bottom, also known as Bottom Dead Center (BDC), towards the
crankshaft. The crankshaft is attached to the bottom of the pistons and
helps transfer the mechanical energy to rotational energy in order the
spin the wheels. This can be visualized from the figure on the right. As
the piston moves up and down in the cylinder, the crank at the bottom rotates. The
intake valve is open during this stroke, so as the piston moves down, it creates a
vacuum pressure inside the cylinder. As a consequence, a mixture of air and fuel is
sucked into the cylinder. At this stage, the mixture is at low pressure, which
translates to being at a low state of energy.

2.Compression

After the cylinder has sucked in all the air-fuel mixture, the piston starts to
move up towards the top, compressing the mixture to prepare it for
combustion. During compression, both valves are closed so the mixture
cannot escape. The idea behind compression is that the pressure of the
mixture is increased, raising its energy potential before the next stroke
when the mixture has to be ignited. The higher the energy potential, the
more powerful the explosion will be after ignition. This will generate the maximum
amount of energy to push the piston down and turn the crankshaft.
 3.Combustion
Combustion or burning is a high temperature process that results in a
release of energy in the form of heat and light. This is the halfway point in
the four-stroke cycle, and is also termed ignition. Another important
component, known as the spark plug, comes into play during this stroke.
As the name suggests, the role of the spark plug is to ignite the fuel after
it has been compressed by the piston. It does this by delivering high
current to produce an electric spark. Accordingly, these plugs are
mounted at the top of the cylinder. During this stroke, the air-fuel mixture
is at an extremely high pressure and energy potential.

It is crucial that the spark plugs only go off when the piston head is
completely at the top of its range in the cylinder. If the spark is initiated before or
after the piston has stopped moving at the top, it can lead to either of two
problems. One is a loss of power, because the air-fuel mixture is not
completely compressed and so not at its maximum energy potential. The
second is damage to the piston itself, if it is still moving up when the
spark ignites and forces it down.

However, if ignited at the correct time, the energy from the explosion
pushes the piston down and this in turn rotates the crank shaft.

4.Exhaust

The purpose of the exhaust stroke is to clear the cylinder of the spent
mixture through the exhaust valve. Following combustion, the final stage in the
cycle is when the piston once again returns from the bottom of the cylinder to the
top. This prepares the engine for another cycle as the piston moves down and takes
in fresh mixture.

Conclusion
Each of the strokes described above come together in a sequence to keep the
engine successfully running. We started with the first stroke where the piston moves
down to take in the air-fuel mixture. In the second stroke, it moves up again,
compressing the mixture. This prepares it for the third stroke, Combustion, as the
spark plugs ignite the mixture and the explosion forces the piston down. The last
stroke happens as the piston moves down and the spent air-fuel mixture exits the
cylinder via the exhaust valve. Hopefully by now, you should have a deeper
understanding of how majority of the engines work in the cars you see on the road.