Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Automotive Engines
Combustion in Engines
Module IV

Basics of Combustion

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Combustion
 Combustion is a chemical reaction in which hydrogen
and carbon present in the fuel combine with oxygen
liberating heat energy

 Conditions
 Presence of combustible mixture
 Source for initiating combustion

Combustion
 Combustible Mixture
 A mixture of fuel and oxidizer is combustible when
combustion is developing in it after an ignition source
vanishes.

 Ignition
 Local initiation of the combustion process in a combustible
mixture.
 Ignition types
 External ignition (e.g. spark),

 Self ignition

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Propagation of Combustion
 Deflagration
 Deflagration is propagation of a combustion process by
flame.
 Flame is a wave of exothermic chemical reaction
propagating with characteristic velocity, called flame
speed
 Mechanism of propagation has thermal character: by heat
conduction.

Propagation of Combustion
 Detonation
 Detonation wave is a wave of combustion
preceded by the shock wave.

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Types of Flames

 Based on Character of Flow

 Laminar Flames

 Turbulent Flames

 Based on mixture preparation

 Premixed

 Diffusion

Types of Flames

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Combustion
 Flammability Limits
 The composition range within which ignition and flame
propagation can be brought by external ignition (e.g.
by spark).
 Lower Explosive Limit (LEL)
 The minimum concentration of a particular combustible
gas or vapor necessary to support its combustion in
air. Below this level, the mixture is too “lean” to burn.
 Upper Explosive Limit (UEL)
 The maximum concentration of a gas or vapor that will
burn in air. Above this level, the mixture is too “rich” to
burn.

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Combustion Thermodynamics
 A mixture of a hydrocarbon (RH) fuel with air at normal
temperatures will not react unless an ignition source is
present.
 When the mixture is heated, the fuel eventually begins to
react with oxygen.
 Initiation of the combustion reactions can happen in two
ways
 Abstraction of a hydrogen atom from the hydrocarbon
molecule by an oxygen molecule

 Thermally induced dissociation of large hydrocarbon

molecules to produce hydrocarbon radicals

Combustion Thermodynamics

 Hydrogen abstraction reactions (reaction 1) involve

breaking a carbon-hydrogen bond
 Reaction 2 involves breaking a carbon-carbon or
hydrogen-hydrogen bond.
 Both reactions are endothermic in nature.
 The reaction rate in the endothermic direction is a strong
function of temperature

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Combustion Thermodynamics
 Highly endothermic reactions are slow at low
temperatures
 Due to low reaction rates, radicals are generated very
slowly.
 After the radicals have accumulated for a period of time,
their concentrations become high enough for the faster
radical chemistry to become important.
 This delay between the onset of the initiation reactions
and rapid combustion is called an induction period or
ignition delay.
 After this delay, other reactions dominate the oxidation of
the fuel and the initiation reactions are no longer
important

Combustion Thermodynamics
 Substantial energy is released in a very short time.
 Temperatures in excess of 2000 K are common in
flames.
 High temperature promotes rapid oxidation of
hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide
and water
 Promotes the oxidation of N2 to form nitric oxide.
 Temperature in the flame decides the formation and
control of pollutants.

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Combustion
 Types of combustion

 Homogeneous or premixed combustion (SI)

 Fuel and oxygen molecules are uniformly distributed

 A flame front rapidly spreads in the mixture

 Heterogeneous or diffusion combustion (CI)

 Rate of combustion is determined by the velocity of
diffusion of fuel vapors and oxygen in to the combustion
zone

Stages of combustion SI

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Stages of combustion SI

 Ignition lag
 Growth and development of self
propagating nucleus of flame takes
place
 Chemical process depending on
both pressure and temperature
 It also depends on the nature of
the fuel, proportion of residual gas
present

Stages of combustion
 Propagation of flame
 Physical process
 Flame travels at constant velocity
 Diffusion of burning fuel molecules from the combustion zone
to the adjacent layers of unburned mixture
 The turbulent flame spreads away from the spark discharge
location.
 Heat transfer to the wall is low
 The rate of heat release depends on turbulence and also on
reaction rate
 The rate of pressure rise is proportional to the rate of heat
release
 The combustion chamber volume remains practically constant

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Stages of combustion

 Afterburning
 The flame velocity decreases during
this period
 The rate of pressure rise reduces due
to lower flame velocity and reduced
flame front surface
 No pressure rise due to expansion
process

Flame front propagation

 The rate of propagation of flame
is very critical for efficient
combustion
 Factors
 Reaction rate

 Transposition rate

 Reaction rate is a chemical

process
– how it consumes unburnt
charge
 Transposition rate is a physical
process – movement of flame
front relative to cylinder walls

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Flame Propogation
 Factors
 Turbulence
 Flame speed increases with increasing turbulence
 Turbulence increases the heat flow to the cylinder
walls
 Accelerates the chemical reaction - lean mixtures
 Excessive turbulence will extinguish the flame
 Fuel air ratio
 Highest flame velocities are obtained with slight rich
mixture
 Less thermal energy is released in the case of lean
mixture
 Very rich mixtures lead to incomplete combustion

Flame Propogation
 Factors
 Temperature and pressure
 Flame speed increases with an increase in intake
temperature and pressure
 Better homogeneous mixture
 Compression ratio
 Higher compression ratio increases the flame speed
 Reduced clearance volume and hence high density of
mixture
 Engine speed
 Increases linearly with engine speed due to increased
turbulence

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Abnormal Combustion
 Normal Combustion – Smoothly varying cylinder
pressure
 Abnormal Combustion – Slightly or heavy pressure
fluctuations in cylinder
 Knocking
 Surface ignition
 Knocking is the pinging noise emitted from the SI
engine due to shock waves
 Surface ignition is due to the hot spots present
inside the combustion chamber

Abnormal Combustion
 Causes for Surface ignition
 Carbon deposits that remain incandescent
 Spark plug too hot
 Sharp edges in combustion chamber
 Overheated valves

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Knocking Theory
 Auto-ignition theory
 Fuel-air mixture in the end gas region is
compressed
 Rapid release of energy
 Detonation theory
 Flame front accelerates to sonic velocity and
consumes the end gas at faster rate than the
normal flame speeds

Knocking Theory
 Types of Abnormal combustion
 Spark knock
 Recurrent and repeatable in terms of audibility
 Controllable by spark advance mechanism
 Knocking surface ignition
 Knock which has been preceded by surface ignition.
 Not controllable by spark advance
 Non knocking surface ignition
 Surface ignition which does not result in knock

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Knocking Theory
 Types of Abnormal combustion
 Run on
 Continuation of engine firing after the electrical ignition is shut
off
 Run away knocking
 Surface ignition which occurs earlier and earlier in cycle.
 Can lead to overheating and structural damage to the engine
 Rumble
 Caused by high rates of pressure rise associated with early
ignition or multiple surface ignition
 Characterized by low pitched thudding noise accompanied
with engine roughness

Abnormal Combustion

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Abnormal Combustion
 Factors affecting knocking
 Compression ratio
 Inlet temperature
 Engine wall temperature
 Engine speed
 Engine size
 Location of spark plug
 Spark timing

Fuel Knock Scale

 To provide a standard measure of a fuel’s ability to resist
knock, a scale has been devised by which fuels are assigned
an octane number ON.

 The octane number determines whether or not a fuel will

knock for a specified engine at a specified operating
condition.

 An ON scale is in place where normal heptane (n-C7H16) has

an octane value of zero and iso-octane (i-C8H18) has a value
of 100.

 The higher the octane number, the higher the resistance to

knock.

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Octane Number Measurement

 Two methods have been developed to measure ON using a standardized
single-cylinder engine developed under the auspices of the Cooperative Fuel
Research (CFR) Committee in 1931*.

 The CFR engine is 4-stroke with 3.25” bore and 4.5” stroke, compression
ratio can be varied from 3 to 30.

Research Motor

Inlet temperature (oC) 52 149

Speed (rpm) 600 900
Spark advance (oBTC) 13 19-26 (varies with r)
Coolant temperature (oC) 100
Inlet pressure (atm) 1.0
Humidity (kg water/kg dry air) 0.0836 - 0.0072 0.003 – 6.0072

Octane Number Measurement

 Testing procedure:
 Run the CFR engine on the test fuel at both research and
motor conditions.

 Slowly increase the compression ratio until a standard

amount of knock occurs as measured by an in-cylinder
pressure transducer.

 At that compression ratio run the engines on blends of n-

hepatane and iso-octane.

 ON is the % by volume of octane in the blend that produces

the same knock

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Octane Number Measurement

 The antiknock index used in N. America is the average of the
research and motor octane numbers. Note, Europe uses RON for its
antiknock index.

 MON is always lower than RON because it uses more severe

operating conditions.
 For fuels with antiknock quality better than iso-octane
ON = 100 + 28.28T / [1.0 + 0.736T+(1.0 + 1.472T - 0.035216T2)1/2]
where T is milliliters of tetraethyl lead per U.S. gallon
 Sensitivity : RON – MON
It is a measure of the extent to which a gasoline is downgraded
under severe conditions

Combustion in CI Engines

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Combustion of CI Engines
 Fuel is injected into the cylinder at the end of
compression stroke
 Liquid fuel atomizes into small drops and penetrates
into chamber
 The fuel vaporizes and mixes with the high
temperature and high pressure cylinder air
 Spontaneous ignition of fuel air mixture takes place
after a delay period
 Cylinder pressure increases as the combustion
continues
 CI engine combustion is a extremely complex one

Fuel Spray

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Fuel Spray

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Combustion in CI Engines

Stages of Combustion

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Stages of Combustion
 Ignition delay
 Premixed combustion phase
 Mixing controlled phase
 Late combustion phase

Stages of Combustion
 Ignition delay
 Time required for physical and chemical process of mixing
 Premixed combustion phase
 Mixing rate during ignition delay determines the burn rate
 Greater the mixing rate greater the fuel burned and higher the
noise and NOx emissions
 Mixing controlled phase
 Rate of combustion is limited by mixing rate
 More rapid and complete this mixing, the greater the amount of
fuel burnt near TDC resulting in higher efficiency and lower PM
emissions.
 Too rapid mixing will result in higher NOx emissions
 Late combustion phase

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Ignition Delay
 Factors affecting ignition delay
 Injection timing
 Injection quantity or load
 Intake air temperature and pressure
 Engine Speed
 Combustion chamber wall effects
 Swirl rate
 Oxygen concentration
 Fuel properties

Ignition Delay
 Injection timing
 Advancing or retarding the
injection increases the delay
period
 If injection starts earlier, the
pressure and temperature
are too low
 If injection starts later, the
temperature and pressure
are high earlier but decrease
as delay proceeds

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Ignition Delay
 Injection Quantity or Load
 Delay decreases linearly with
increase in load
 As load increases the residual gas
temperature and the wall
temperature increases resulting in
high charge temperature
 Increase in the fuel quantity does not
affect the ignition delay at normal
load conditions
 When the engine is at starting
condition with increased fuel quantity
increases the ignition delay

Ignition Delay
 Intake air temperature and pressure

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Ignition Delay
 Engine Speed
 Increase in engine speed decreases the heat loss
to the surroundings
 Increase in engine speed increases the injection
pressure

Ignition Delay
 Combustion Chamber Wall

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Ignition Delay
 Swirl Rate
 Changes in swirl rate changes the evaporation
and mixing process
 Swirl rate also affects the wall heat transfer and
charge temperature
 At normal engine operating conditions the swirl
rate changes on delay are small
 At low engine speeds the changes on delay is
high due to higher rates of evaporation

Ignition Delay
 Oxygen Concentration
 Mixing of exhaust gas
changes the oxygen
concentration
 Oxygen concentration is
decreased the ignition
delay increased

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Ignition Delay
 Fuel Properties
 Ignition delay decreases with increase in cetane
number
 Straight chain paraffinic compounds have high
cetane number
 Aromatics have lower cetane number

Ignition Delay
 Fuel Properties

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Knocking in CI engines
 If the delay period is long a large amount of fuel will be
injected and accumulated in the chamber
 This large amount of fuel may cause high rate of
pressure rise

Fuel Ignition Quality

 The ignition characteristics of the fuel affect the ignition delay.

 The ignition quality of a fuel is defined by its cetane number

CN.

 For low cetane fuels the ignition delay is long and most of the
fuel is injected before autoignition and rapid combustion,
under extreme cases this produces an audible knocking
sound referred to as “diesel knock”.

 For high cetane fuels the ignition delay is short and very little
fuel is injected before autoignition, the heat release rate is
controlled by the rate of fuel injection and fuel-air mixing –
smoother engine operation.

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Fuel Ignition Quality

 The method used to determine the ignition quality in terms of CN is
analogous to that used for determining the antiknock quality via the
ON.

 The cetane number scale is defined by blends of two pure

hydrocarbon reference fuels.

 By definition, isocetane (heptamethylnonane, HMN) has a cetane

number of 15 and cetane (n-hexadecane, C16H34) has a value of
100.

 In the original procedures alpha-methylnaphtalene (C11H10) with a

cetane number of zero represented the bottom of the scale. This
has since been replaced by HMN which is a more stable compound.

 The higher the CN the better the ignition quality, i.e., shorter ignition
delay.
 The cetane number is given by:

CN = (% hexadecane) + 0.15 (% HMN)

Cetane Measurement
 The method employed to measure CN uses a standardized single-
cylinder engine with variable compression ratio

 The operating condition is:

Inlet temperature (° C) 65.6

Speed (rpm) 900
Start of fuel injection (° BTC) 13
Coolant temperature (° C) 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 13°.

 The above procedure is repeated using blends of cetane and HMN.

The blend that gives a 13° ignition delay with the same compression
ratio is used to calculate the test fuel cetane number.

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Automotive Engines-Module IV 27-02-2018

Comparison of Knock
 SI engines - Autoignition of the
end gas away from the spark plug
near the end of the combustion

 CI engines - Autoignition of the

charge at the start of combustion

 Knocking intensity - High in SI

engines - Low in CI engines

 Pre- ignition - No pre-ignition in CI

engines

 In SI engine it is relatively easy to

distinguish between knocking and
non knocking operation

Comparison of Knock
Factors SI engines CI engines
1. Self ignition temperature High Low
2. Delay period Long Short
3. Compression ratio Low High
4. Inlet temperature Low High
5. Inlet pressure Low High
6. Speed High Low
7. Cylinder wall temperature Low High
8. Cylinder size Small Large

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