Internal Combustion

Engines
Combustion Reaction of Engine Fuels
Octane & Cetane Numbers
 Octane Rating
 Octane rating or octane number is a standard
measure of the performance of a motor or aviation fuel.
 The higher the octane number, the more compression

the fuel can withstand before detonating.

 The octane rating is a measure of how likely a

gasoline or liquid petroleum fuel is to self ignite. The

higher the number, the less likely an engine is to pre-
ignite and suffer damage.
Isooctane (upper) has an octane rating of 100 whereas n-heptane has an octane rating of 0.
 Cetane Number
 Cetane number or CN is a measure of a fuel's ignition
delay, the time period between the start of injection and
the first identifiable pressure increase during
combustion of the fuel.
 In a particular diesel engine, higher cetane fuels will

have shorter ignition delay periods than lower cetane

fuels.
Engine Knocking
 Knocking
 Knocking (also called knock, detonation, spark
knock, pinging or pinking) in spark-ignition internal
combustion engines occurs when combustion of
the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder starts off correctly
in response to ignition by the spark plug, but one or
more pockets of air/fuel mixture explode outside the
envelope of the normal combustion front.
Knocking
 The fuel-air charge is meant to be ignited by the
spark plug only, and at a precise time in the piston's
stroke cycle
 Knock occurs when the peak of the combustion

process no longer occurs at the optimum moment for

the four-stroke cycle.
 The shock wave creates the characteristic metallic

"pinging" sound, and cylinder pressure increases

dramatically.
 Normal Combustion
 Under ideal conditions the common internal
combustion engine burns the fuel/air mixture in the
cylinder in an orderly and controlled fashion.

 The combustion is started by the spark plug some 10

to 40 crankshaft degrees prior to top dead
center (TDC), depending on many factors including
engine speed and load.
 Abnormal Combustion
 When unburned fuel/air mixture beyond the
boundary of the flame front is subjected to a
combination of heat and pressure for a certain
duration (beyond the delay period of the fuel
used), detonation may occur.
 Detonation is characterized by an instantaneous,

explosive ignition of at least one pocket of fuel/air

mixture outside of the flame front.
 A local shockwave is created around each pocket and

the cylinder pressure may rise sharply beyond its

design limits.
 If detonation persists upto many engine cycle it can
damage or destroy the engine parts.
 Severe knocking can lead to catastrophic failure in

the form of physical holes punched through

the piston or cylinder head (i.e., rupture of
the combustion chamber), either of which
depressurizes the affected cylinder and introduces
large metal fragments, fuel, and combustion products
into the oil system.
Detonation can be prevented by the following
techniques:
 The use of a fuel with high octane rating, which increases the
combustion temperature of the fuel and reduces the affinity to detonate;
 Enriching the fuel/air ratio, which adds extra fuel to the mixture and

increases the cooling effect when the fuel vaporizes in the cylinder;
 Reducing peak cylinder pressure by increasing the engine revolutions

(knock occurs more easily at low rpm than high regardless of other
factors);
 Increasing mixture turbulence or swirl by increasing engine revolutions

or by increasing "squish" turbulence from the combustion chamber

design;
 Decreasing the manifold pressure by reducing the throttle opening
 Reducing the load on the engine.
 Because pressure and temperature are strongly
linked, knock can also be reduced by controlling peak
combustion chamber temperatures by compression
ratio reduction, exhaust gas recirculation, appropriate
calibration of the engine's ignition timing schedule,
and careful design of the engine's combustion
chambers and cooling system as well as controlling
the initial air intake temperature.
Additive which reduce Detonation
 Lead
 Thallium
 tetra-ethyl
lead (TEL)
 Manganese compounds
Effect of chemical Changes
 Branched chain paraffins tend to resist knock
while straight chain paraffins knock easily.

Isooctane (upper) has an octane rating of 100 whereas n-heptane has an octane rating of 0.

 Effect of Turbulance
 Engines with good turbulence tend to knock less than
engines with poor turbulence.
 Turbulence occurs not only while the engine is

inhaling but also when the mixture is compressed and

burned.
 During compression/expansion "squish" turbulence is

used to violently mix the air/fuel together

 Squish Turbulance
 Squish
is the radial inflow of gases at the end of the
compression stroke.
 Engines using indirect injection generally have lower
levels of knock than direct injection engine, due to
the greater dispersal of oxygen in the combustion
chamber and lower injection pressures providing a
more complete mixing of fuel and air.
Direct & Indirect Combustion Chamber
 Pre-Ignition
 Pre-ignition in a spark-ignition engine is the event
wherein the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder ignites
before the spark plug fires.
 Detonation may lead towards Pre-Ignition
 Pre-ignition and engine knock both sharply
increase combustion chamber temperatures
Causes of pre-ignition include the following:
 Carbon deposits form a heat barrier and can be a contributing factor
to pre-ignition. Other causes include: An overheated spark plug (too
hot a heat range for the application). Glowing carbon deposits on a
hot exhaust valve (which may mean the valve is running too hot
because of poor seating, a weak valve spring).
 A sharp edge in the combustion chamber or on top of a piston
(rounding sharp edges with a grinder can eliminate this cause).
 Sharp edges on valves that were reground improperly (not enough
margin left on the edges).
 A lean fuel mixture.
 An engine that is running hotter than normal due to a cooling
system problem (low coolant level, slipping fan clutch, inoperative
electric cooling fan or other cooling system problem).
 Auto-ignition of engine oil droplets.
 Detonation induced pre-ignition
 Because of the detonation very high temperature is
developed which cause the Pre-Ignition.
 Knock Detection
 Due to the large variation in fuel quality, a
large number of engines now contain
mechanisms to detect knocking and adjust
timing.
 Knock detection devices are used to prevent

any failure and enhance the engine

performance.
 Assignment
 Write the Balanced chemical equation and find
the mass air fuel ratio of the following fuels.
1. Diesel
2. Natural Gas
3. LPG

Submission Deadline, before start of next lecture.

Late assignment will not be accepted.
Jenbacher 620 (8 MW) Gas Engine
“A Thousand Miles Journey
Starts with a single Step”