IC Engine and Gas Turbines

Topic: Fuels and Thermochemistry

Lecture - 4

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 IC Engine and Gas Turbines

References and acknowledgement:

• Internal Combustion Engine – V. Ganesan (Tata McGraw-Hill)

• Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals – John B. Heywood (McGraw-Hill)

MEC 502 National Institute of Technology Durgapur Dr Sirshendu Mondal

 IC Engine and Gas Turbines

RECAP

MEC 502 National Institute of Technology Durgapur Dr Sirshendu Mondal

 IC Engine and Gas Turbines
  • We will now introduce mass based on molecular structure, called mole.

• A mole is the amount of substance which contains as many molecules as there are carbon
atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12.

• So, the number of moles is given by, . With this, the ideal gas equation can be modified as .
The value of in SI system is 8.314 kJ/kmol·K

Thermodynamic Properties:

• For a simple compressible substance, and .

• Therefore, the specific heats at constant volume and constant pressure, and , respectively,
are defined by and .

MEC 502 National Institute of Technology Durgapur Dr Sirshendu Mondal

 IC Engine and Gas Turbines
  • Now, we know that the internal energy 𝑢 of an ideal gas is a function of temperature
only, . Since enthalpy, ℎ=𝑢+𝑝𝑣. From ideal gas equation, we can write .

• Therefore, and .

• Two important relations with the specific heats are: and , the ratio of specific heats.

• An additional assumption is often made that the specific heats are constant. Note that
this assumption is not a part of ideal gas approximation.

• In general, and of an ideal gas at a temperature relative to its and at some reference
temperature are given by and

MEC 502 National Institute of Technology Durgapur Dr Sirshendu Mondal

 IC Engine and Gas Turbines
  • Similarly, entropy an ideal gas at a ceratain state with relative to its at some reference
state with are given by

and

• Internal energy, enthalpy and entropy can be evaluated, both, per unit mass () or per unit
mole () basis.

• Similarly, (in mass basis, kJ/kg·K) or (in mole basis, kmol/kg·K)

Mixture of ideal gases:

• The working fluids in engines are mixtures of gases. The composition of a mixture of
ideal gases can be expressed in terms of the different properties of each component.

MEC 502 National Institute of Technology Durgapur Dr Sirshendu Mondal

 IC Engine and Gas Turbines
  • Partial pressure : The pressure each component would exert if it alone occupied the
volume of the mixture at the temperature of the mixture.

• Parts by volume : The fraction of the total mixture volume each component would occupy
if separated from the mixture, at the mixture temperature and pressure.

• Mass fraction (): The mass of each component divided by the total mass of mixture .

• Mole fraction (): The number of moles of each component divided by the total number of
moles of mixture .

• Now, it follows from the equation of state for ideal gas that 
• Mixture molecular weight () can be calculated as

MEC 502 National Institute of Technology Durgapur Dr Sirshendu Mondal

 IC Engine and Gas Turbines
  • Similarly, internal energy, enthalpy, and entropy of a mixture can be evaluated as follows

• On a mass basis: , , .

• On a mole basis: , , .

Composition of Air:

• Normally in engines, fuels are burned with air.

• Composition of dry air by volume is: 20.95% oxygen (), 78.09% nitrogen (), 0.93% argon
(), and trace amounts of carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, and other gases. Oxygen
is the only reactive component of air.
• It is usually accurate to regard air as consisting of 21% oxygen and 79% inert gases
taken as nitrogen (often called atmospheric or apparent nitrogen).
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 IC Engine and Gas Turbines
• Therefore, in air, for each mole of oxygen in air, there are (1-0.2095)/0.2095 = 3.773
moles of atmospheric nitrogen.

• The molecular weight of air is 28.962, usually approximated by 29. Because atmospheric
nitrogen contains traces of other species, its molecular weight (28.16) is slightly different
from that of pure molecular nitrogen (28.012).

• In short, henceforth, nitrogen will refer to atmospheric nitrogen and a molecular weight
of 28.16 will be used. An air composition of 3.773 moles of nitrogen per mole of oxygen
will be assumed.

• The value for the density of dry air at 1 atmosphere (1.0133 × 105 Pa) and 25°C is 1.184
kg/m3.

• Actual air contains water vapor. Typically the proportion by mass is about 1%, though
it can rise to about 4% under extreme conditions.
MEC 502 National Institute of Technology Durgapur Dr Sirshendu Mondal
 IC Engine and Gas Turbines
Composition of Fuel:
• The fuels, commonly used in internal combustion engines, are blends of many different
hydrocarbon compounds obtained by refining petroleum or crude oil.

• These fuels are predominantly carbon and hydrogen (typically about 86% carbon and
14% hydrogen by weight).

• Other fuels of interest are alcohols (which contain oxygen), gaseous fuels (natural gas and
liquid petroleum gas), and single hydrocarbon compounds (e.g., methane, propane,
isooctane) that are often used in engine research.

• Some knowledge of the different classes of organic compounds and their molecular
structure is necessary in order to understand combustion mechanisms.

• We broadly classify them as 1. Alkyl compounds, 2. Aromatic compounds, and 3.

Alcohols
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 IC Engine and Gas Turbines

Doubts?

MEC 502 National Institute of Technology Durgapur Dr Sirshendu Mondal