NANDHA ENGINEERING COLLEGE

(Autonomous)
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

17MEX12 - INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES

UNIT I : SPARK IGNITION ENGINES (9) Mixture

requirements - Fuel injection systems - Monopoint, Multipoint & Direct

injection - Stages of combustion - Normal and Abnormal combustion, Spark

Knock, Factors affecting knock, Combustion chambers

 Mixture requirements
• The spark-ignition automobile engines run on a mixture of
gasoline and air.

• Amount of mixture the engine can take in depends upon

following major factors:

(i) Engine displacement.

(ii) Maximum revolution per minute (rpm) of engine.

(iii) Volumetric efficiency of engine.

• There is a direct relationship between an engine’s air flow and

it’s fuel requirement. This relationship is called the air-fuel ratio.
 Air-Fuel Mixtures

Load/
Vary
speed

• Stoichiometric Air-Fuel Ratio (15:1) (standard)

- normal operating range
• Rich Mixture (10:1)
- excess fuel (starting, cold climate, acceleration)
• Lean Mixture (17:1)
4
- excess air (slow running, slope hill running)
i) Air-Fuel Ratio for Starting
Very rich mixture (10:1) is required at starting of engine. During
starting very small amount of fuel is vaporizes and rest of it stay in
the liquid state so as to give an ignitable mixture.

 ii) Air-Fuel Ratio for Idling

An idling, engine demands a rich mixture, which can be made
leaner as the throttle is gradually opened.
During idling, the pressure in the inlet manifold is about 20 to 25%
of atmospheric pressure.
iii) Air-Fuel Ratio for Medium Load
• Most of the time, engine is running in medium load condition,
therefore, it is desirable that the running should be most
economical in this condition.
• So a lean mixture can be supplied, as engine has low fuel
consumption at medium load. For multi cylinder engine, slightly
more fuel is required due to mal distribution of fuel.
iv) Air-Fuel Ratio for Maximum Power Range
• When maximum power is required, the engine must be supplied
with rich mixture as the economy is of no consideration.
• As the engine enters in the power range, the spark must be
retarded otherwise knocking would occur.
• A lean mixture burns at latter part of working stroke.
• As the exhaust valve expose to high temperature gases and
have very less time to cool down.
• Moreover, the excess air in the lean mixture may cause an
oxidizing action on the hot exhaust valve and leads to failure.

v) Air-Fuel Ratio for Acceleration

• Even during normal running, sometimes more power is required
for a short period such as to accelerate the vehicle for
overtaking, hills, etc.
• During this period rich mixture is required.
 FUEL INJECTION SYSTEMS

Fuel injection: A form of a fuel-metering system for a IC engine

that injects fuel directly into the cylinder rather than mixing it with
air before in carburetor.
The primary difference between carburetors and fuel injection is
that fuel injection atomizes the fuel through a small nozzle under
high pressure, while a carburetor relies on suction created by
intake air accelerated through a Venturi tube to draw the fuel into
the airstream.
 Merits of Fuel Injection in the SI Engine
• Absence of Venturi – No Restriction in Air Flow/Higher Vol. Eff./Torque/Power
• Hot Spots for Preheating cold air eliminated/Denser air enters
• Manifold Branch Pipes Not concerned with Mixture Preparation (MPI)
• Better Acceleration Response (MPI)
• Fuel Atomization Generally Improved.
• Use of Sensors to Monitor Operating Parameters/Gives Accurate Matching of
Air/fuel Requirements: Improves Power, Reduces fuel consumption and
Emissions
• Precise in Metering Fuel in Ports
• Precise Fuel Distribution Between Cylinders (MPI
• Fuel Transportation in Manifold not required (MPI) so no Wall Wetting
• Fuel Surge During Fast Cornering or Heavy Braking Eliminated
• Adaptable and Suitable For Supercharging (SPI and MPI)
• Low emission
 TYPES OF FUEL INJECTION SYSTEMS
• Monopoint
• Multipoint
• Direct injection

Monopoint Injection
a) Injection upstream of the throttle, common for all of the
cylinders – called Throttle Body Injection – TBI or Single Point
Injection
Multipoint Injection
b) Injection into the individual intake channels of each cylinder –
called Port Fuel Injection – PFI or Multipoint Injection – MPI
Direct injection
c) Injection directly into the each cylinder, Direct Injection – DI
Monopoint Injection Multipoint Injection Direct injection
 STAGES OF COMBUSTION
There are three stages of combustion in SI Engine as shown
• Ignition lag stage
• Flame propagation stage
• After burning stage
i. Ignition lag stage:
• There is a certain time interval between instant of spark and instant where
there is a noticeablerise in pressure due to combustion. This time lag is
called IGNITION LAG.
• Ignition lag is the time interval in the process of chemical reaction during
which molecules get heated up to self-ignition temperature , get ignited and
produce a self-propagating nucleus of flame.
• The ignition lag is generally expressed in terms of crank angle (θ1).
• The period of ignition lag is shown by path ab. Ignition lag is very small and
lies between 0.00015 to 0.0002 seconds.
• An ignition lag of0.002 seconds corresponds to 35 deg crank rotation when
the engine is running at 3000 RPM.
• Angle of advance increase with the speed.
• This is a chemical process depending upon the nature of fuel, temperature
and pressure, proportions of exhaust gas and rate of oxidation or burning.
ii. Flame propagation stage:
• Once the flame is formed at ‘b’, it should be self-sustained and
must be able to propagate through the mixture.
• This is possible when the rate of heat generation by burning is
greater than heat lost by flame to surrounding.
• After the point ‘b’, the flame propagation is abnormally low at
the beginning as heat lost is more than heat generated.
• Therefore pressure rise is also slow as mass of mixture burned
is small.
• Therefore it is necessary to provide angle of advance 30 to35
deg, if the peak pressure to be attained 5-10 deg after TDC.
• The time required for crank to rotate through an angle θ2 is
known as combustion period during which propagation of flame
takes place.
iii. After burning:
• Combustion will not stop at point ‘c‛ but continue after attaining
peak pressure and this combustion is known as after burning.
• This generally happens when the rich mixture is supplied to
engine.
 NORMAL AND ABNORMAL COMBUSTION

NORMAL COMBUSTION

• In normal combustion the spark ignites the compressed fuel/air

mixture and a smooth burn travels through the combustion
chamber and building combustion chamber pressure as it goes.
• This flame travels through the chamber by the time the
crankshaft has moved about 15 to 30 degrees after top dead
centre (ATDC).
ABNORMAL COMBUSTION

• Abnormal means NOT NORMAL i.e. the combustion which is

going on with insufficient air flow producing major quantity of
unburnt fuel with carbon mono oxide in the flue gases.
 SPARK KNOCK (KNOCKING)

• Knocking in SI engines occurs when combustion of some of

the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder does not result from
propagation of the flame front ignited by the spark plug, but one
or more pockets of air/fuel mixture explode outside the
envelope of the normal combustion front.
• The shock wave creates the characteristic metallic "pinging"
sound, and cylinder pressure increases dramatically.
• Effects of engine knocking range from inconsequential to
completely destructive.
 Factors affecting knocking in SI engines

The various engine variables affecting knocking can be classified

as:
• Temperature factors
• Density factors
• Time factors
• Composition factors
(A) TEMPERATURE FACTORS
Increasing the temperature of the unburned mixture increase the
possibility of knock in the SI engine we shall now discuss the
effect of following engine parameters on the temperature of the
unburned mixture:
i. Raising the Compression Ratio
 Increasing the compression ratio increases both the temperature
and pressure (density of the unburned mixture).
Increase in temperature reduces the delay period of the end gas
which in turn increases the tendency to knock.

ii.Supercharging
 
It also increases both temperature and density, which
increase the knocking tendency of engine
iii. Coolant Temperature
 
Delay period decreases with increase of coolant temperature,
decreased delay period increase the tendency to knock

iv.Temperature Of The Cylinder And Combustion Chamber

Walls :
 
The temperature of the end gas depends on the design of
combustion chamber. Sparking plug and exhaust valve are two
hottest parts in the combustion chamber and uneven
temperature leads to pre-ignition and hence the knocking.
(B) DENSITY FACTORS
• Increasing the density of unburnt mixture will increase the
possibility of knock in the engine.
The engine parameters which affect the density are as follows
• Increased compression ratio increase the density
• Increasing the load opens the throttle valve more and thus
the density
• Supercharging increase the density of the mixture
• Increasing the inlet pressure increases the overall pressure
during the cycle.
• The high pressure end gas decreases the delay period
which increase the tendency of knocking.
• Advanced spark timing: quantity of fuel burnt per cycle
before and after TDC position depends on spark timing.
(C) TIME FACTORS
Increasing the time of exposure of the unburned mixture to auto-
ignition conditions increase the possibility of knock in SI engines.
i. Flame travel distance:
• If the distance of flame travel is more, then possibility of
knocking is also more.
• This problem can be solved by combustion chamber design,
spark plug location and engine size.
• Compact combustion chamber will have better anti-knock
characteristics, since the flame travel and combustion time will
be shorter.
ii.Location of sparkplug:
• A spark plug which is centrally located in the combustion
chamber has minimum tendency to knock as the flame travel
is minimum.
• The flame travel can be reduced by using two or more spark
plugs.
iii. Location of exhaust valve:
The exhaust valve should be located close to the spark plug so
that it is not in the end gas region; otherwise there will be a
tendency to knock.
iv. Engine size
• Large engines have a greater knocking tendency because
flame requires a longer time to travel across the combustion
chamber.
• In SI engine therefore, generally limited to 100mm

v. Turbulence of mixture
• Decreasing the turbulence of the mixture decreases the flame
speed and hence increases the tendency to knock.
• Turbulence depends on the design of combustion chamber and
one engine speed.
(d) COMPOSITION FACTORS
i. Molecular Structure
 
• The knocking tendency is markedly affected by the type of
the fuel used.
• Petroleum fuels usually consist of many hydro-carbons of
different molecular structure.
• The structure of the fuel molecule has enormous effect on
knocking tendency.
• Unsaturated hydrocarbons have less knocking tendency
than saturated hydrocarbons.
ii.Humidity of air:
 
Increasing atmospheric humidity decreases the tendency to knock
by decreasing the reaction time of the fuel
iii. Fuel-air ratio:
 
• The most important effect of fuel-aft ratio is on the reaction time
or ignition delay.
• When the mixture is nearly 10% richer than stoichiometric (fuel-
air ratio =0.08) ignition lag of the end gas is minimum and the
velocity of flame propagation is maximum.
• By making the mixture leaner or richer (than F/A 0.08) the
tendency to knocks decreased.
• A too rich mixture is especially effective in decreasing or
eliminating the knock due to longer delay and lower
temperature of compression.
Factors that are involved in either producing (or) preventing
knock.
 
The factors that are involved in either producing (or)
preventing knock are
• temperature,
• pressure,
• density of the unburned charge and
• the time factor.
 COMBUSTION CHAMBERS IN SI ENGINES

A Combustion Chamber is the area within the Cylinder where the

fuel or air mixture is burned.

• T-Head type,
• L- Head type,
• I- Head type,
• F- Head type

It may be noted that these chambers are designed to obtain the

objectives namely:

• A high combustion rate at the start.

• A high surface-to-volume ratio near the end of burning.
• A rather centrally located spark plug.
I. T HEAD TYPE COMBUSTION CHAMBERS
 This was first introduced by Ford Motor Corporation in 1908. This
design has following disadvantages.
• Requires two cam shafts (for actuating the in-let valve and
exhaust valve separately) by two cams mounted on the two
cam shafts.
• Very prone to detonation. There was violent detonation even
at a compression ratio of 4.
II. L HEAD TYPE COMBUSTION CHAMBERS
• It is a modification of the T-head type of combustion chamber.
• It provides the two values on the same side of the cylinder, and
the valves are operated through tappet by a single camshaft.
• This was first introduced by Ford motor in 1910-30 and was
quite popular for some time.
• This design has an advantage both from manufacturing and
maintenance point of view.
Advantages:
• Valve mechanism is simple and easy to lubricate.
• Detachable head easy to remove for cleaning and
decarburizing without Disturbing either the valve gear or main
pipe work.
• Valves of larger sizes can be provided.
III. OVERHEAD VALVE or I HEAD COMBUSTION CHAMBER
• The disappearance of the side valve or L-head design was
inevitable at high compression ratio of 8:1 because of the lack
of space in the combustion chamber to accommodate the
valves.
• An overhead engine is superior to side valve engine at high
compression ratios.
The overhead valve engine is superior to side valve or L head
engine at high compression ratios, for the following reasons:
• Lower pumping losses and higher volumetric efficiency from
better breathing of the engine from larger valves or valve lifts and
more direct passageways.
• Less distance for the flame to travel and therefore greater
freedom from knock, or in other words, lower octane
requirements.
• Less force on the head bolts and therefore less possibility of
leakage (of compression gases or jacket water). The projected
area of a side valve combustion chamber is inevitably greater
than that of an overhead valve chamber.
• Removal of the hot exhaust valve from the block to the head,
thus confining heat failures to the head.
• Absence of exhaust valve from block also results in more
uniform cooling of cylinder and piston.
• Lower surface-volume ratio and, therefore, less heat loss and
less air pollution.
F- HEAD COMBUSTION CHAMBER
• In such a combustion chamber one valve is in head and other
in the block.
• This design is a compromise between L-head and I-head
combustion chambers.
• One of the most F head engines (wedge type) is the one used
by the Rover Company for several years.
• Another successful design of this type of chamber is that used
in Willeys jeeps.
Advantages
• High volumetric efficiency
• Maximum compression ratio for fuel of given octane rating
• High thermal efficiency
• It can operate on leaner air-fuel ratios without misfiring.
Drawback
• This design is the complex mechanism for operation of valves
and expensive special shaped piston.