Combustion in c.i.

engines

By :
ABHISHEK DHAWAN
SG9904
MECHANICAL 4TH SEM
 Combustion in CI Engine
I engine the fuel is sprayed directly into the cylinder and the vaporise
f the fuel mixes with air and ignites spontaneously.
photos are taken in a RCM under CI engine conditions with swirl

1 cm
Air flow

0.4 ms after ignition 3.2 ms after ignition

3.2 ms after ignition Late in combustion process

 In - Cylinder Measurements
is graph shows the fuel injection flow rate, net heat release rate and
linder pressure for a direct injection CI engine.

Start of injection
Start of combustion
End of injection
 Combustion in CI Engine
The combustion process proceeds by the following stages:
Ignition delay ( ab ) - fuel is injected directly into the cylinder
towards the end of
the compression stroke. The liquid fuel atomizes into small drops
and
penetrates into the combustion chamber. The fuel vaporizes and mixes
with
the high-temperature high-pressure air.

Premixed combustion phase ( bc ) – combustion of the fuel which

has mixed
with the air to within the flammability limits (air at high-
temperature and high-
pressure) during the ignition delay period occurs rapidly in a few
crank angles.

Mixing controlled combustion phase ( cd ) – after premixed gas

consumed, the
burning rate is controlled by the rate at which mixture becomes
available for
burning. The burning rate is controlled primarily by the fuel-air
mixing process.
ur Stages of Combustion in CI Engine

Start of End of
injection injecction

-20 -10 TC 10 20 30
 CI Engine Types
Two basic categories of CI engines:
1 Direct - injection – have a single open combustion chamber into
which fuel
is injected directly
2 Indirect - injection – chamber is divided into two regions and
the fuel is
injected into the “prechamber” which is connected to the main
chamber via a
nozzle, or one or more orifices.
•For very-large engines (stationary power generation) which operate
at low
engine speeds the time available for mixing is long so a direct
injection
quiescent chamber type is used (open or shallow bowl in piston).
•As engine size decreases and engine speed increases, increasing
amounts
of swirl are used to achieve fuel-air mixing (deep bowl in piston)
•For small high-speed engines used in automobiles chamber swirl is
not
sufficient, indirect injection is used where high swirl or
turbulence is generated
Direct Injection Direct Injection Direct Injection Indirect injection
quiescent chamber multi-hole nozzle single-hole nozzle swirl pre-chamber
swirl in chamber swirl in chamber
 Combustion Characteristics
bustion occurs throughout the chamber over a range of equivalence
ios dictated by the fuel-air mixing before and during the combustion phas

general most of the combustion occurs under very rich conditions within
d of the jet, this produces a considerable amount of solid carbon (soot).

1o 5o
ASI ASI

Shadow
graph

Backlit
photo

Liquid fuel
Fuel vapour High soot

Diffusion flame
 Ignition Delay
Ignition delay is defined as the time (or crank angle interval)
from when
the fuel injection starts to the onset of combustion.

Both physical and chemical processes must take place before a

significant
fraction of the fuel chemical energy is released.

Physical processes are fuel spray atomization, evaporation and

mixing of
fuel vapour with cylinder air.

Good atomization requires high fuel pressure, small injector hole

diameter,
optimum fuel viscosity, high cylinder pressure (large divergence
angle).

Rate of vaporization of the fuel droplets depends on droplet

diameter,
velocity, fuel volatility, pressure and temperature of the air.

Chemical processes similar to that described for autoignition

ctors Affecting Ignition Delay T
Injection timing – At normal engine conditions the minimum delay
occurs
with the start of injection at about 10-15 BTC.

Earlier or later injection timing results in a lower air temperature

and
pressure during the delay period  increase in the ignition delay
time

Injection quantity – For a CI engine the air is not throttled so the

load is
varied by changing the amount of fuel injected.

Increasing the load (bmep) increases the residual gas and wall
temperature
which results in a higher charge temperature at injection  decrease
in the
ignition delay.

Intake air temperature and pressure – an increase in ether will

result in a
decrease in the ignition delay, an increase in the compression ratio
Compression ratio limitations in
CI engine

•The higher the combustion pressure, the higher the sealing

pressure.
•The higher the sealing pressure, the higher the friction loss.
•The higher the compression ratio, the higher the combustion
pressure, sealing pressure, and friction loss.
ROLE OF COMBUSTION CHAMBER ON
ENGINE PERFORMANCE
•Thedieselengineperformanceisgreatlyaffectedbyt
hephenomenaoccurringinsidethecombustionchamber,
whichdependsmainlyonthepistonbowlconfiguration.
•The piston bowl configuration is closely to
swirl ratio of the engine.
•InordertomaintaintheglobalstandardofDIenginepe
rformance,multidimensionalflowsimulationisuseda
saneconomicaltoolfortheoptimumdesignofDIengine.
•SwirlisgeneratedduringcompressionprocessinDIen
gineandsubsequentlyitplaysavitalroleinmixingair
andfuelinsidethecylinder.

•Modeling of combustion cylinder and

prediction of in-cylinder flow is essential to
achieve better performance of a DI engine.
TYPES OF COMBUSTION CHAMBER

1.OPEN TYPE COMBUSTION CHAMBER

•Fuel is injected directly into
the upper portion of the
cylinder(i.e. combustion
chamber).This type depends little
on turbulence to perform the
mixing.
•High injection pressures and
multi–orifice nozzles are
required.
•Itwasusedearlieronlowspeedengines,
butwithavailabilityoffurtherhigher
pressures,beingusedevenforhighspee
dengines.
 2.PRE COMBUSTION CHAMBER

It is separated into two chambers.

•Thesmallerchamberoccupiesabout30p
ercentoftotalcombustionspace.
•Astheprecombustionchamberrunshot,d
elayperiodisveryshort.Thisresultsi
ntosmallrateofpressureriseandthus,
tendencyofDieselknockisminimum,and
assuchrunningissmooth.
•Productsofcombustionfromprechambe
rmovetomainchamberinaviolentway,wh
ichhelpsinaveryrapidcombustioninth
irdstagedue
 MEXICAN HAT TYPE CHAMBER
ØMost common
ØProduces desirable turbulence
ØThe deeper the bowl the greater
the turbulence
ØLower fuel Inj. Pressures possible
ØShallow bowl less turbulence
ØHigher fuel Inj. Pressures required
Ø
Late model engines use Mexican hat
because:
ØDesirable gas dynamics
ØLow risk of fuel burn-out on the
piston below the injector
TYPES OF DIESEL COMBUSTION SYSTEM
1.DIRECT –INJECTION SYSTEMS
•Have a single open combustion
chamber into which fuel is
injected directly.
•Used for large size engines.
•Additional air motion not
required .
•As engine size decreases ,
increasing amounts of air swirl
are used to achieve faster fuel –
air mixing rates.
 2.INDIRECT –INJECTION SYSTEMS

•Chamber is divided into two

regions
•Fuelisinjectedintoprechamberw
hichisconnectedtothemaincham
berviaanozzle.
•Used in the smallest engine
sizes.
•Duringcompression,airisforcedf
ormthemainchamberabovethepi
stonintotheauxiliarychamber,thr
oughthenozzleororifice.Thus,tow
ardtheendofcompression,avigor
ousflowinauxiliarychamberissetu
p.
PRIMARY CONSIDERATION IN THE DESIGN
OF COMBUSTION CHAMBERS FOR C.I
ENGINE
•Injection and combustion both must complete in
short time in order to achieve the best
efficiency.
•For best combustion mixing should complete in the
short time.
•In C.I engine it is evident that fuel air contact
must be limited during the delay period in order
to limit dp/dt, the rate of pressure rise in the
second phase of combustion. This result can be
obtained by shortening the delay time.

Toachievehighefficiencyandpowerthecombustionmustbec
ompletedwhenthepistonisnearertoT.D.C,itisnecessaryto
haverapidmixingoffuelandairduringthethirdstageofcom
bustion.
•ThedesignofcombustionchamberforC.Ienginesmustalsot
akeconsiderationoffuelinjectionsystemandnozzlestobe
used.
COMBUSTION CHAMBER DESIGN
CONSIDERATIONS
vMinimal flame travel
vThe exhaust valve and
spark plug should be close
together
vSufficient turbulence
vA fast combustion, low
variability
vHigh volumetric efficiency at
WOT
vMinimum heat loss to
combustion walls
vLow fuel octane
requirement
KNOCKING AND ITS Mechanism
Explosive combustion of air-petrol vapor mixture produces shock waves which hit the
cylinder wall and piston of IC engine, creating rattling sound is known as knocking.
In an internal combustion engine, a mixture of gasoline vapor and air is used as a fuel.
After the initiation of the combustion reaction, by spark in the cylinder, the flame should
spread rapidly and smoothly through the gaseous mixture; thereby the expanding gas
drives the piston down the cylinder. The ratio of the gaseous volume in the cylinder at
the end of the suction-stroke to the volume at the end of compression-stroke of the
piston is known the ‘compression ratio’. Increase of compression ratio not only increases
the efficiency of the engine but also saves the fuel which dependent on the nature of
constituents present in the gasoline .
Engine Damage From Severe Knock
Damage to the engine is caused by a combination of high temperature and
high pressure.

Piston Piston crown

Cylinder head gasket Aluminum cylinder head

 CETANE NUMBER
The knocking tendency of a diesel fuel is expressed in
terms of cetane number. Diesel engines works on the
principle of compression ignition.
Cetane (n-cetane) or hexadecane [CH3-(CH2)14-CH3] is a
saturated hydrocarbon, its cetane number is arbitrarily
fixed as 100.
a-Methyl naphthalene is a aromatic hydrocarbon, its cetane
number is arbitrarily fixed as zero.

Definition: Cetane number is defined as the percentage of

hexadecane (n-cetane) present in a mixture of hexadecane
and 2-methyl naphthalene, which has the same ignition
characteristic of diesel fuel in test. Generally diesel
fuels with cetane numbers of 70-80 are used.
 Cetane Number Measurement
The method employed to measure CN uses a standardized single-cylinder
engine with variable compression ratio

The operating condition is:

Inlet temperature (oC) 65.6

Speed (rpm) 900
Start of fuel injection (oBTC) 13
Coolant temperature (oC) 100
Injection pressure (MPa) 10.3

With the engine running at these conditions on the test fuel, the compression
ratio is varied until combustion starts at TC  ignition delay period of 13o.

The above procedure is repeated using blends of cetane and HMN. The
blend that gives a 13o ignition delay with the same compression ratio is
used to calculate the test fuel cetane number.