School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

(SMME)

Internal Combustion Engines

Course Code ME-448

SI &CI ENGINES
Slider Crank Mechanisms
LECTURE 3
Engr Mohammad Ikhlaq Khattak
ikhlaq@smme.nust.edu.pk1
The factors important to an engine user are:
• The engine's performance over its operating range
• The engine's fuel consumption within this operating
range and the cost of the required fuel
• The engine's noise and air pollutant emissions within
this operating range
• The initial cost of the engine and its installation
• The reliability and durability of the engine, its
maintenance requirements, and how these affect
engine availability and operating costs
Page 2
Common geometric parameters of an engine

Page 3
Page 4
 • Slider-crank mechanism

x  R1  cos   n  n 2  sin   

2

 
  B2  S  2 2 
Vcyl      1  cos   n  n 2  sin   
8  CR  1 

dVcyl     B2  S  cos  
  sin   1  
d 8  n 2
 sin  2 
 
Page 5 of 36
 • Slider-crank mechanism

x  R1  cos   n  n 2  sin   

2

 
  t


x  R 1  cos t  n  n 2  sin 2 t 
 sin 2t 
x  R  sin t  
 2 n 2
 sin t 2 
 

  cos  t  sin 2
2t 
x  R 2   cos t   

 n 2
 sin 2
 t 4 n 2

 sin 2
t 
32 


Page 6 of 36
 Slider-crank mechanism

• Approximation via binomial theorem

nn  1 n  2 2 nn  1n  2 n 3 3
a  b   a  na b 
n n n 1
a b  a b  ...
2! 3!

• From 
x  R 1  cos t  n  n 2  sin 2 t 
• We have 
n 2  sin 2 t  n 2  sin 2 t 
12

n 2  sin 2 t  a  n 2 , b  sin 2 t , n  1
2

• Expanding

n 2  sin 2 t  n 
1 2
n  1 2
 sin 2 t 
1 21 2  1 n 2 1 22 sin 4 t...
2 2
Page 7 of 36
 Slider-crank mechanism

• We have

2 2 sin 2 t sin 4 t
n  sin t  n   3
...
2n 8n
• Ignoring higher than second order terms, we get

2 2 sin 2 t
n  sin t  n 
2n
• Substituting in the original equation, we get

 sin 2 t 
x  R1  cos t  
 2n 

Page 8 of 36
 • Slider-crank mechanism

• And subsequently

 sin 2t 
x  R  sin t  
 2n 
• And

 cos 2t 
x  R 2  cos t  
 n 

Page 9 of 36
 Torque and Power
A common term used for power estimation is “brake torque” and
“brake power”:

Engine torque is normally measured with a dynamometer. The engine

is clamped on a test bed and the shaft is connected to the
dynamometer rotor.

Page 10
The value of engine power measured as described above is called brake power P b. This
power is the usable power delivered by the engine to the load-in this case, a "brake."
Page 11
 Indicated Work
• Pressure data for the gas in the cylinder over the operating cycle of the engine can
be used to calculate the work transfer from the gas to the piston. The cylinder
pressure and corresponding cylinder volume throughout the engine cycle can be
plotted on a P-V diagram.

Page 12
 Indicated Power
• The power per cylinder is related to the indicated work per cycle by:

• Here, nr is the number of crank revolutions for each power stroke per
cylinder. For four-stroke cycles, nr equals 2; for two-stroke cycles, nr
equals 1. This power is the indicated power; i.e., the rate of work
transfer from the gas within the cylinder to the piston. It differs from
the brake power by the power absorbed in overcoming engine
friction, driving engine accessories, and (in the case of gross indicated
power) the pumping power.

• For 4-stroke engine, we must specify which indicated power we are

using, net-indicated power, or gross. We will mostly use gross
indicated power Page 13
 Mean Effective Pressure
Some of the power generated by the working cycle is lost in intake and exhaust strokes, some power is
lost in the friction of bearings, cams, pistons etc etc.

As friction is harder to find out, we find out the indicated power and brake power, and figure out the losses
this way
Mean Effective Pressure (MEP)
While torque is a valuable measure of a particular engine's ability to do work, it depends on engine size. A
more useful relative engine performance measure is obtained by dividing the work per cycle by the
cylinder volume displaced per cycle. The parameter so obtained has units of force per unit area and is
called the mean effective pressure (MEP)

Page 14
Mean Effective Pressure

Page 15
 Mean Effective Pressure

• Torque itself does not allow comparison of engines of different sizes. For
this, we could use a specific torque figure in Nm/l for example, or we could
use Mean Effective Pressure (MEP) which is usually expressed in bars

• The MEP is defined as follows: W  MEP  Vcyl

1
• We thus get: MEP    Pcyl  dVcyl
Vcyl cycle
• The MEP is related to the torque by the following equation:
4 
• For 4 stroke: MEP 
Vcyl
2 
• For 2 stroke: MEP 
Vcyl

Page 17 of 36
 Power – Engine speed

• Power (SI units: W, usually kW or hp; 1hp = 746 W) is the product of torque
and rotational speed:
PW    Nm  rad s   W J  N cycle s 

• The same power may be obtained using a small torque and high rotational
speed (motorcycle engines) or large torque value and slow rotational speed
(bicyclist)

• The engine speed is limited by friction and inertia of moving parts. The part
most affected is the piston, for which the stroke is a very important factor

N tr mn S m 
Vpm s  
30

Page 18 of 36
 Indicated and Brake values

• Indicated values of power, torque, MEP are those which are obtained
directly by calculation from cylinder pressure
• In reality, we cannot obtain all of the indicated power as a part of the
mechanical power is lost to friction (rings, journals) and a part is lost in the
accessories (cams, pumps, electrical generators etc.)
• The real, obtained power, torque and MEP are expressed as “brake” values,
which are measured via a dynamometerP  P  P
FMEP  IMEP  BMEP f i b
 f   i  b

• Standards are defined for the measure of performance which provide

corrections. For example atmospheric conditions where we could apply
corrections for temperature, humidity and pressure
• Generally, expressed values of power and torque are brake figures. MEP
may be expressed both in brake and indicated values (BMEP or IMEP)
Page 19 of 36
 Specific Fuel Consumption and Efficiency
In engine tests, the fuel consumption is measured as a flow rate-mass flow per unit
time . A more useful parameter is the specific fuel consumption (sfc) the fuel flow
rate per unit power output. It measures how efficiently an engine is using the fuel
supplied to produce work:

Page 20
 Specific Fuel Consumption and Efficiency
The specific fuel consumption has units. A dimensionless parameter that relates the desired
engine output (work per cycle or power) to the necessary input (fuel flow) would have more
fundamental value. The ratio of the work produced per cycle to the amount of fuel energy
supplied per cycle that can be released in the combustion process is commonly used for this
purpose.
The fuel energy supplied which can be released by combustion is given by the mass of fuel
supplied to the engine per cycle times the heating value of the fuel. The heating value of a fuel,
Qhv, defines its energy content.

Page 21
 Air-Fuel Ratio
• In engine testing, both the air mass flow rate and the fuel mass flow rate are
normally measured. The ratio of these flow rates is useful in defining engine
operating conditions:

Page 22
 Engine Specific Weight and Specific Volume

• Engine weight and bulk volume for a given rated

power are important in many applications. Two
parameters useful for comparing these
attributes from one engine to another are:

Page 23
• Piston acceleration

Page 24 of 36
 • Real cycle

• The real thermodynamic operations are not “perfect”; pressure

head loss at the intake and exhaust, fluid inertia, non-instantaneous
combustion, thermal transfer with the environment etc.

• The cylinder pressure may be measured by means of a piezoelectric sensor,

placed in the spark or glow plug.
Page 25 of 36
 • Real cycle

• Maximum cycle pressure

• 80 bars for spark ignition engines
• 200 bars for compression ignition
engines

• Gas temperature
• 50 deg. C at intake
• > 1800 K at flame core
• 750 deg C (CI engine) and 950 deg
C (SI engine) at exhaust
Page 26 of 36
 • Cycle work and torque

• Work produced by expanding gases in J: W P

cycle
cyl  dVcyl

• This is however a thermodynamic expression, it is not used very often by

engine developers who prefer to use torque (Nm, lb-ft) and Mean
Effective Pressure (MEP)

• Over the 4 strokes, only one

produces power. The rest of the
strokes are there to perform
gas exchange processes and
compression of the air charge.

Page 27 of 36
 • Cycle work and torque

• Instantaneous torque exerted by the gas pressures on the

crankshaft
dVcyl
 inst  Pcyl  Pcrankcase 
d

Page 28 of 36
 • Torque and smoothing

• In practice we use a flywheel and quite often, engines with multiple cylinders to
reduce pulsations in torque delivery. The cylinders are often, but not always arranged
so that power pulses be evenly spaced over the whole engine operating cycle and the
instantaneous torque and rotational speed remain more or less constant.

Page 29 of 36
 • Torque and smoothing

• The average torque over the cycle is obtained by:

1
 av 
 cycle 
cycle
inst d

• 4 stroke engine:

W
 av 
4
• 2 stroke engine:
W
 av 
2
Page 30 of 36
 • Torque and smoothing

• Dual-mass flywheel:
• Helps reduce oscillations from the engine going into the transmission
• Helps reduce stresses on the transmission
• Costly to buy and repair, reliability???

Page 31 of 300

Page 31 of 36
 Performance
• In practice, for terrestrial propulsion, an engine has to have a wide
RPM power band so that the vehicle may accelerate from a
standstill to its maximum speed.
• It is also important for us that the engine power or torque be
variable. We thus obtain a range of minimum and maximum RPM
and Torque. We will have some zones where engine operation is
optimal, and some zones where engine operation is not optimal.
The speed and torque subjected on the engine depend on the type
of utilization
• We also talk of “engine load” which is expressed in percentage of
maximum torque that the engine can deliver at a certain engine
speed. This is controlled by the throttle pedal. The engine load
depends on the quantity of fuel that is burnt in each cycle. This is
modified by injecting more or less fuel or by sending more or less air
fuel charge into the cylinder Page 32 of 36
 Air/Fuel mixture

• An ICE needs a fuel and an oxidiser (air) to function. For this, we need to
prepare an air / fuel mixture.
• Air / fuel mixture prepared via the following means
– Carburettor
– Indirect fuel injection
– Direct fuel injection
• By definition Air / Fuel ratio (AFR) the mass ratio of air to fuel present in
an internal combustion engine. If exactly enough air is provided to
completely burn all of the fuel, the ratio is known as the stoichiometric
mixture, often abbreviated to stoich in subscript. AFR is an important
measure for anti-pollution and performance-tuning reasons.
• The normal operating range for AFR for engines is:
– SI engines : 12 ≤ AFR ≤ 18
– CI engines : 18 ≤ AFR ≤ 70
Page 33 of 36
 • Performance

Max torque curve Constant power

Brake Specific Fuel

Consumption (BSFC)
Torque (daNm)

Zero torque Speed (RPM)

Idle speed
Maximum speed

Page 34 of 36
 • Performance

• Torque and power are speed dependent. Torque goes up, then drops and is
designed according to use of engine
• Power rises until maximum near maximum speed. There is no point in going
past that engine speed since power diminishes

Page 35 of 36
 Efficiencies
– Thermal
– Combustion
– Mechanical
– Global – specific fuel consumption

Page 36 of 36
 • Thermal efficiency

• The thermal efficiency broadly expresses the effectiveness

with which the heat energy from combustion is converted to
motive force
W on the piston during the cycle
cycle _ i Pi 4    i
therm   
Qinput Pfuel  comb  m fuel  LHV fuel

• The high pressure loop (valves closed)

corresponds to compression and power strokes. It
is positive in value and produces work. We will
thus try to maximise this
• The low pressure loop (valves open) corresponds
to exhaust and intake strokes. Generally it is
negative (sometimes positive for supercharged
engines). These operations dissipate work and give
rise to “pumping losses” which we try to reduce.
Page 37 of 36
 • Thermal efficiency

• Depend on:
1
• Compression ratio  otto  1or
 CR
even effective power strokes (Miller or
Atkinson cycles)
• Combustion: phasing and duration
• Pumping work: intake butterfly in SI engines, supercharging, pressure losses in
various aftertreatment devices, etc.
• Heat losses to the cooling system
• Thermal efficiency of CI engines is generally greater than that of SI engines (CR is
higher, pumping losses are lower at part-load)

Page 38 of 36
• Thermal efficiency

Page 39 of 36
 • Combustion efficiency

• Combustion efficiency ηcomb describes the effectiveness of the

conversion of energy in the fuel to thermal energy. This can be
quantified by analysing the gas products produced in the exhaust
• It is generally close to 100% for CI engines
• For SI engines, it is generally above 95% except at low engine
speeds
• In case of absence of data, we can consider it to be close to 100%

Page 40 of 36
• Combustion efficiency

Page 41 of 36
 • Mechanical efficiency

• Mechanical efficiency is defined by:

Wbrake Pb BMEP  b  i   f
 mech     
Windic Pi IMEP  i i

• Mechanical losses generally reduce with an

increase in load, but stay non-zero. With
decreasing load, their relative part increases and
at zero-load, the engine uses fuel only to keep
itself running. This explains the higher fuel
consumption noted in city driving
Page 42 of 36
 • Global efficiency

• Global efficiency is defined as a product of mechanical and thermodynamic efficiency. Typical values
are:
• 20 – 25% for SI engines
• 30% for CI engines
• Upto 50% for large marine engines
• We can express global efficiency in the form of Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) in g/kWh (SI)
or hp/lb-hr (imperial)

Page 43 of 36
 Energy balance
• The energy stored in fuel is divided
as shown in the pie-chart below.
The division is dependent on the
type of engine and operating point.
1. Cylinder wall losses
2. Frictional losses
3. Part of frictional loss transferred to cooling system
4. Transfer between exhaust gases and the cooling
system
5. Energy radiated via the exhaust system
Page 44 of 36
 • Energy balance

• There is a large number of automotive projects underway at different labs and R&D centers
to try and recover a maximum of heat normally lost during conversion of fuel into
mechanical work Page 45 of 36
 • Efficiency – CO2 Emissions

• ICEs produce a large amount of CO2, one of the principal “greenhouse effect” gases.
For the same fuel, the CO2 emissions are proportional to vehicle fuel consumption
• Rules and regulations are being put in place that penalise / reward owners and
manufacturers according to the fuel consumption of their cars. Companies will be
forced to have a limit of fuel consumption over their whole vehicle range
• Fuel consumption may be reduced by the following means:
– Reduction of power required by the application – vehicles that are lighter / more aerodynamic
– Improvement of efficiency of the ICE via thermodynamic or mechanical improvements
– Use of ICEs in conditions of use (load, speed, temperature), which promotes the reduction of
fuel consumption (hybrid, downsizing, down-speeding, cylinder deactivation etc.)
– Recuperation of lost energy
– Change the fuel – use fuels with a smaller proportion of Carbon (CH 4, H2). This will reduce CO2
emissions during operation. Care should be taken that the analysis be performed from well-
to-wheel.

Page 46 of 36
 Efficiency – Operating range

Available torque for Constant power curves

acceleration – Wide
Open Throttle
(WOT)

Constant BSFC Constant RPM curves α

curves N2

At a specified vehicle
speed, the operating
point of the engine
depends on the gear
selected

Page 47 of 36
Thank you

Page 48 of 36