VOLUMETRIC EFFICIENCY

We have all studied at school that gases fill the container that contains them, but
the pressure at which they are inside varies depending on the amount of gas that is
introduced, this means that it will always occupy 100% of the volume of the
container. , but its molecules will be further apart or closer depending on the
quantity, for example, when inflating a balloon you will never see that the air is
on only one side of the balloon, it is distributed in the same way and depending on
the air inside it will be softer or harder, more or less pressure. The same thing
happens inside the cylinder, more or less mixture can enter, but the one that
enters will occupy the entire volume of the cylinder, what happens is that
depending on the mass of air, more or less pressure will be achieved in the
compression time and a combustion more or less powerful.
Before beginning, we will see an important factor in the movement of gases, it is
very simple, they always move from a high pressure area to another low pressure
area, continuing with the example of the balloon, once inflated if the nozzle is
released the air will begin to come out, it is because there is more pressure
inside than outside and until the pressures equalize, air will not stop coming out
of the balloon. In the cylinder of the engine it is the same, when the piston
descends in the intake time, it creates a zone of vacuum or low pressure inside the
cylinder and the air that is outside that is at a higher pressure is forced to
enter inside. of the cylinder until the internal and external pressures are equal,
therefore the maximum pressure that could occur inside the cylinder of an
atmospheric engine, in theory, is the external or atmospheric pressure.
Let's see the theoretical cycle of a four-stroke combustion engine, which indicates
that the valves must open and close at PMS and PMI of the piston movement, a
theoretical cycle will be simulated and to better understand it, diagrams such as
the one shown will be used. see below.

Image 1
In image 1 you can see a diagram that is basically like a real engine, it shows
what happens with the pressure and volume inside the cylinder, putting a little
imagination is easy to understand, the piston moves between the two lines Marked as
PMS and PMI, it symbolizes the volume of the cylinder, when the piston approaches
TDC the volume of the cylinder decreases and when it moves away it increases, there
is also the volume of the combustion chamber on the left, above TDC like a real
engine . The pressure that occurs inside the cylinder when increasing or decreasing
the volume is seen on the left, this will vary depending on whether the valves are
open or closed and the engine time that is displayed, in the lowest pressure area
is the atmospheric pressure.
-Intake time, from 0º to 180º of crankshaft rotation, the blue line in diagram 1
shows the piston travel from PMS to PMI, the intake valve opens suddenly at PMS and
the piston begins to descend increasing the volume of the cylinder and creating a
vacuum inside the cylinder, at that moment the air from the outside is under higher
pressure and is pushed into the cylinder filling that vacuum, it must be remembered
that the air always moves from a high pressure area to one of low pressure, the
entire intake process is at atmospheric pressure and when the piston reaches BDC
and the intake valve slams shut, the cylinder volume should be full of fresh
mixture at atmospheric pressure as indicated by the line blue diagram 1 in PMI.

Diagram 1
-Compression time, from 180º to 360º of crankshaft rotation, the piston begins its
upward journey from PMI to PMS, the valves are closed and the mixture cannot escape
from the cylinder. The yellow line in diagram 2 shows how the pressure inside the
cylinder increases as the piston volume decreases and the mixture is compressed.
The pressure reached at the end of the compression stroke will depend on the
compression ratio of the engine. but the maximum will always occur at PMS.

Diagram 2
-Explosion time, from 360º to 540º of crankshaft rotation, the spark jumps just at
PMS, where the mixture pressure is the maximum achieved in the compression time, as
seen in the red line of diagram 3, which This line is vertical at PMS because it is
assumed that combustion is so fast that the piston does not even have time to move,
therefore it is carried out at constant volume, the increase in pressure causes the
piston to be forcefully pushed down and rotate the crankshaft, as the piston
descends the volume of the cylinder increases and the pressure produced by the
combustion decreases, it is the only time that it produces work in an internal
combustion engine.

Diagram 3
-Exhaust time, fourth cycle of the engine from 540º to 720º of crankshaft rotation,
the exhaust valve opens just at PMI, the burned gases are still at a higher
pressure than the outside and the output of exhaust is supposed to be so fast. the
gases that the piston does not have time to move, also being carried out at a
constant cylinder volume, in diagram 4 it is indicated by the black line, the rest
of the gases that remain in the cylinder at atmospheric pressure, are expelled due
to the decrease in volume produced by the piston on its way to TDC, in theory all
exhaust time occurs at atmospheric pressure following the blue line back to TDC,
which means that as the piston rises the burned gases can escape freely without any
restriction.

Diagram 4
The theory is fine for an engine that runs at very low revs and the volume and
pressure changes are very slow, but when you start to increase the revs, things
change, the air has mass and a resistance to start the movement, a time it is
moving it also has a resistance to stopping (inertia), another effect to take into
account is that in practice the valves do not open and close suddenly, they are
opened and closed by cams, which gradually open the valves until its maximum and
then close it little by little.
If a real cycle of an engine were carried out with a theoretical distribution
adjustment, the consequences would be that at the beginning of the intake time the
pressure inside the cylinder would not be atmospheric, in the previous exhaust time
the valve has closed a little little by little by means of a cam and as the piston
ascends, expelling the burned gases, the valve closes, leaving less surface for the
passage of the gas. At the end of the exhaust time, the valve is almost closed and
the surface it leaves is so small that Not all the gases can come out and part of
them begin to compress, increasing their pressure. Therefore, when you start to
open the intake valve at PMS, the burned gases inside the cylinder are at higher
pressure than atmospheric, as seen in the blue line of diagram 5 at PMS.

Diagram 5
As the movement of the gases is always from a high pressure area to a low pressure
area, what will happen when the intake valve opens is that the gases inside the
cylinder will exit through the intake duct, pushing the mixture backwards. new,
until the pressure inside the cylinder is equalized with the outside or atmospheric
pressure, the mixture will not enter and by the time this happens the piston will
have covered a part of its intake stroke, as seen in diagram 5, therefore the
intake time is not done at atmospheric pressure as is assumed in the theoretical
diagram, and what enters the cylinder will be a part of new mixture and the remains
of burned gases from the previous cycle.
Continuing with the intake, in the theoretical diagram the intake valve should
close just when the piston reaches PMI, as the valve closes little by little by
means of a cam, as the piston approaches PMI the valve closes. is closing and
creates a restriction for the passage of new mixture, the result is that the
pressure inside the cylinder at the end of the intake stroke is lower than
atmospheric, as indicated by diagram 5 in PMI.
At the beginning of the compression stroke, the pressure inside the cylinder is
less than atmospheric pressure and this is not exceeded until the piston has made
part of its compression stroke. Upon reaching PMS, the pressure achieved will be
much lower than the theoretical , due to the little mixture that I enter at the
time of admission.

Diagram 6
At the time of explosion, the theoretical diagram makes the spark just at PMS
without any advance and the increase in combustion pressure occurs instantaneously
and at a constant volume, in reality it does not happen like this, the mixture
takes time to ignite and while combustion occurs, the piston descends, increasing
the volume of the cylinder, as can be seen in the red line of diagram 7, so the
pressure achieved is much lower than the theoretical one due to the fact that the
increase in combustion pressure coincides with the increase in volume of the
cylinder.

Diagram 7
Lastly, the exhaust time, the exhaust valve should open suddenly just at PMI, but
since the valve is opened by a cam, at PMI it will be very little open, this causes
a restriction and the gases cannot leave instantly and at volume constant as the
theoretical diagram says, the piston begins to rise towards PMS while the valve
opens, the volume is reduced and the piston has to push the gases to the outside,
creating pressure inside the cylinder and reducing performance.

Diagram 8
In the black line of diagram 8 you can see how the pressure decreases from PMI to
PMS, nothing similar to the theoretical one, near the end of the exhaust stroke the
valve is almost closed due to the effect of the cam, this causes another
restriction and the Gases are compressed, increasing their pressure, so that at the
end of the exhaust time there are gases locked in the cylinder at more than
atmospheric pressure and thus the admission of a new cycle begins.
All these negative effects of a bad adjustment in the distribution cause losses in
engine performance, either due to poor cylinder filling or pumping losses, the
latter are due to the efforts made by the piston both for the entry of the mixture
as for the expulsion of the burned gases, the ideal is that it should be carried
out at pressures as close as possible to the theoretical ones, to achieve this it
is necessary to make the valves open before and close later, both in intake and
exhaust, which produces the real distribution diagrams with advances in openings
and delays in closing the valves, as shown below.
-AAA Advance to the Intake Opening, the opening of the intake valve must be done
before TDC, so when the piston begins to create depression, the valve will already
be open enough to not be an obstruction to the passage of the mixture, In addition,
it must be remembered that the air has resistance to start moving, the more
revolutions there is less time for the air to start moving and the more advance the
opening is needed.

Diagram 9
but there will come a time when it will not have enough energy to push the one
inside and that would be the moment to close the valve, this will clearly depend on
the revolutions at which it is intended to have maximum filling or maximum torque.
One thing that should be noticed is that the compression timing is reduced by
closing the intake valve later, compression will not start until the intake valve
is almost fully closed, this effect is called dynamic compression ratio.
AE Ignition advance, the ignition needs an advance so that the combustion is
complete when the piston reaches PMS, thus achieving that the maximum combustion
pressure is close to PMS and not while the piston descends in the explosion time.

Diagram 10
AAE Advance to the Exhaust Opening, combustion has already taken place and the
maximum pressure has been produced at TDC, which is where the smallest volume of
the cylinder has occurred, from there the combustion pressure decreases as the
piston descends and the volume of the cylinder increases, there comes a time when
due to the increase in volume the pressure of the gases is so low that it is
interesting to open the valve so that they leave themselves through the conduit,
rather than allowing them to continue inside the cylinder , thus getting the burned
gases to come out on their own and lower the pressure inside the cylinder when the
piston reaches PMI,In addition, by starting to open the valve before, it is
achieved that it is open enough so that the piston can expel the gases in its
career towards PMS without compressing or creating pressure at the beginning of the
exhaust time.

Diagram 11
RCE Exhaust Closing Delay, by making the exhaust valve close later, it is achieved
that the passage of the burned gases is not throttled when the piston is reaching
TDC in the exhaust time and therefore that it is can be ejected from the cylinder
without being compressed or building pressure.
There is a moment when the intake and exhaust valves are open at the same time,
just when the exhaust timing is ending and the intake timing of the next cycle is
beginning, this is called valve crossover and it is an inevitable consequence of
the adjustment. of the distribution.
What is sought with the adjustment of the distribution is that in the intake and
exhaust stroke the valves are open enough at all times, but especially at PMS and
PMI, to allow the gases to pass at the speed requested the piston without creating
restriction, at high revs it moves very fast and requires the air to move too, when
this does not happen the power will stop increasing, as there is a limit to how
fast the valves can be opened and closed, by Reaching that limit can only make the
valves open before and close after, if fast engines have a real distribution
diagram with very large openings and closings, even 320º crankshaft rotation in
some cases, this brings some effects positive at high revs and other negatives at
low revs,at the beginning of a new cycle the valve crossing will be very
exaggerated, it is an unavoidable circumstance and that if it could be avoided it
would be done, both the intake valve and the exhaust valve will be wide open and at
low revs the exhaust gases will be at a higher pressure that the intake ones will
push the new mixture back, entering through the intake duct, when the piston begins
to descend they will re-enter mixed and what will remain in the cylinder during the
intake time will be a proportion of burned gases and mixture new which will give
very low performance.both the intake valve and the exhaust valve will be wide open
and at low revs the exhaust gases, being at a higher pressure than the intake
gases, will push the new mixture back, entering through the intake duct, when the
piston begins to descend they will re-enter mixed and what will remain in the
cylinder at the time of admission will be a proportion of burned gases and new
mixture that will give very low performance.both the intake valve and the exhaust
valve will be wide open and at low revs the exhaust gases, being at a higher
pressure than the intake gases, will push the new mixture back, entering through
the intake duct, when the piston begins to descend they will re-enter mixed and
what will remain in the cylinder at the time of admission will be a proportion of
burned gases and new mixture that will give very low performance.
As the revolutions increase, there will come a time when the exhaust gases will
begin to gain inertia and will continue to exit through the exhaust duct even
though the intake valve is open. When this happens, the exhaust gases will create a
very slight depression, but enough to entrain any remaining burnt gases in the
combustion chamber and cause the new mixture to begin entering the cylinder, some
new mixture may be entrained in the exhaust port, but it will be done before it the
piston begins to descend and creates depression, the new mixture is already
entering the cylinder.
A very late intake valve closure has a similar effect at low revs, the air moves
slowly and the inertia it has is small, what will happen is that the piston will
push the mixture backwards through the intake duct while doing the compression
stroke and the intake valve is open, but since the movement of the piston at PMI is
very slow, the effect will not be as severe as it seems. As before, when the
revolutions increase, the air will move faster and begin to gain inertia, when the
piston stops creating depression by reaching PMI, the inertia gained by the mixture
that is entering will push the one inside and will not let it back up the intake
duct even though the piston is rising,
The advance in the opening of the exhaust also intervenes in the performance, when
the combustion is carried out, the pressure created pushes the piston downwards, at
high revs the piston moves quickly and the force that pushes it also decreases very
quickly due to the increase in volume that the piston creates when descending,
there will reach a point where the pressure does not have enough force to push the
piston, but it will have enough pressure to go out through the exhaust duct, if the
valve is opened at that point the gases will be released. The burned ones begin to
come out on their own as they are under higher pressure than those in the exhaust
duct and time is gained to empty the cylinder. If you put your hand on the exhaust
outlet you will notice the pressure wave when you open the valve,When the piston
reaches PMI, the pressure inside the cylinder will be much lower and the valve will
be open enough to expel the rest of the gases on its upward stroke without
compressing or creating pressure.
The correct opening and closing points depend above all on the revolutions, the
faster the engine rotates, the less time there is for the filling and emptying of
the cylinder to take place, the more aggressive the timing adjustment, the negative
effects at low revolutions will be worse and they will be given each time at higher
revs, even making the engine unable to idle constantly, in addition the range of
revs of the engine is also greatly narrowed, from maximum torque to peak power
there will be a range of revs very small, if when changing gear the engine dropped
below the revolutions where maximum torque is given, the full potential of that
engine would not be taking advantage of, everything must be done to make it work
together, the gear ratio, the gear ratio compression,cylinder head valves and
ducts,... etc.
At this point it will be understood that the maximum torque and the volumetric
efficiency are closely linked, the torque that occurs in the engine depends on the
amount of mixture that enters each cycle, when the volumetric efficiency increases,
the pressure increases. the mixture inside the cylinder and the combustion is