Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

The actual cycle experienced by an internal combustion engine is
not, in the true sense, a thermodynamic cycle.
An ideal air-standard thermodynamic cycle Occurs on a closed
system of constant composition.
This is not what actually happens in an IC engine, and for this
reason air-standard analysis gives, at best, only approximations to
actual conditions and outputs.

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

Major differences include:
1.Real engines operate on an open cycle with changing composition.
Not only does the inlet gas composition differ from what exits, but
often the mass flow rate is not the same.
Those engines which add fuel into the cylinders after air induction is
complete (CI engines and some SI engines) change the amount of
mass in the gas composition part way through the cycle.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

There is a greater gaseous mass exiting the engine in the exhaust
than what entered in the induction process.
This can be on the order of several percent.
Other engines carry liquid fuel droplets with the inlet air which are
idealized as part of the gaseous mass in air-standard analysis.
During combustion, total mass remains about the same but molar
quantity changes.

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

Finally, there is a loss of mass during the cycle due to crevice flow
and blow by past the pistons.
Most of crevice flow is a temporary loss of mass from the cylinder,
but because
it is greatest at the start of the power stroke, some output work is
lost during expansion.
Blow by can decrease the amount of mass in the cylinders by as
much as 1%

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

2. Air-standard analysis treats the fluid flow through the entire engine
as air and approximates air as an ideal gas.
In a real engine inlet flow may be all air, or it may be air mixed with
up to 7% fuel, either gaseous or as liquid droplets, or both.
During combustion the composition is then changed to a gas mixture
of mostly CO2, H20, and N2, with lesser amounts of CO and
hydrocarbon vapor.
In CI engines there will also be solid carbon particles in the
combustion products gas mixture.

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

Approximating exhaust products as air simplifies analysis but
introduces some error.
Even if all fluid in an engine cycle were air, some error would be
introduced by assuming it to be an ideal gas with constant specific
heats in air-standard analysis.
At the low pressures of inlet and exhaust, air can accurately be
treated as an ideal gas, but at the higher pressures during
combustion, air will deviate from ideal gas behavior.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

A more serious error is introduced by assuming constant specific
heats for the analysis.
Specific heats of a gas have a fairly strong dependency on
temperature and can vary as much as 30% in the temperature range
of an engine (for air, cp = 1.004 kJ/kg-K at 300 K and cp = 1.292
kJ/kg-K at 3000 K [73]);

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

3. There are heat losses during the cycle of a real engine which are
neglected in air-standard analysis.
Heat loss during combustion lowers actual peak temperature and
pressure from what is predicted.
The actual power stroke, therefore, starts at a lower pressure, and
work output during expansion is decreased.
Heat transfer continues during expansion, and this lowers the
temperature and pressure below the ideal isentropic process towards
the end of the power stroke.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

The result of heat transfer is a lower indicated thermal efficiency than
predicted by air-standard analysis.
Heat transfer is also present during compression, which deviates the
process from isentropic.
However, this is less than during the expansion stroke due to the
lower temperatures at this time

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

4. Combustion requires a short but finite time to occur, and heat
addition is not instantaneous at TDC, as approximated in an Otto
cycle.
A fast but finite flame speed is desirable in an engine.
This results in a finite rate of pressure rise in the cylinders, a steady
force increase on the piston face, and a smooth engine cycle.
A supersonic detonation would give almost instantaneous heat
addition to a cycle, but would result in a rough cycle and quick

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

Because of the finite time required, combustion is started before TDC
and ends after IDC, not at constant volume as in air-standard
analysis.
By starting combustion bTDC, cylinder pressure increases late in the
compression stroke, requiring greater negative work in that stroke.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE

CYCLES
Because combustion is
not completed until aTDC,
some power is lost at the
start of the expansion
stroke (see Fig. 2-6).

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REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

Another loss in the combustion process of an actual engine occurs
because combustion efficiency is less than 100%.
This happens because of less than perfect mixing, local variations in
temperature and air-fuel due to turbulence, flame quenching, etc.
SI engines will generally have a combustion efficiency of about 95%,
while CI engines are generally about 98% efficient.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

5. The blowdown process requires a finite real time and a finite cycle
time, and
does not occur at constant volume as in air-standard analysis.
For this reason, the exhaust valve must open 40 to 60 bBDC, and
output work at the latter end of expansion is lost.

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

6. In an actual engine, the intake valve is not closed until after
bottom-dead Center at the end of the intake stroke.
Because of the flow restriction of the valve, air is still entering the
cylinder at BDC, and volumetric efficiency would be lower if the valve
closed here.
Because of this, however, actual compression does not start at BDC
but only after the inlet valve closes.
With ignition then occurring before top dead-center, temperature and
pressure rise before combustion is less than predicted by air-

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

7. Engine valves require a finite time to actuate.
Ideally, valves would open and close instantaneously, but this is not
possible when using a camshaft.
Cam profiles must allow for smooth interaction with the cam follower,
and this results in fast but finite valve actuation.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

To assure that the intake valve is fully open at the start of the
induction stroke, it must start to open before TDC.
Likewise, the exhaust valve must remain fully open until the end of
the exhaust stroke, with final closure Occurring after TDC.
The resulting valve overlap period causes a deviation from the ideal
cycle.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

Because of these differences which real air-fuel cycles have from the
ideal cycles, results from air-standard analysis will have errors and
will deviate from actual conditions.
Interestingly, however, the errors are not great, and property values
of temperature and pressure are very representative of actual engine
values, depending on the geometry and operating conditions of the
real engine.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

By changing operating variables such as inlet temperature and/or
pressure, compression ratio, peak temperature, etc., in Otto cycle
analysis, good approximations can be obtained for output changes
that will Occur in a real engine as these variables are changed.
Good approximation of power output, thermal efficiency, and mep
can be expected.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

Indicated thermal efficiency of a real four-stroke SI engine is always
somewhat less than what air-standard Otto cycle analysis predicts.
This is caused by the heat losses,. friction, ignition timing, valve
timing, finite time of combustion and blowdown, and deviation from
ideal gas behavior of the real engine.

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

REAL AIR-FUEL ENGINE CYCLES

Reference [120] shows that over a large range of operating variables
the indicated thermal efficiency of an actual SI four-stroke cycle
engine can be approximated by;
(1Jt)actual = 0.85 (1Jt)OTTO (3-32)
This will be correct to within a few percent for large ranges of air-fuel
equivalence ratio, ignition timing, engine speed, compression ratio,
inlet pressure, exhaust pressure, and valve timing.

References
[120] TAYLOR,C. F., The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and
Practice. Cambridge,
MA: M.LT. Press, 1977.

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5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real

Therminology
Top-Dead-Center (TDC) Position of the piston when it stops at the furthest point away from the
crankshaft. Top because this position is at the top of most engines (not always), and dead
because the piston stops at this point. Because in some engines top-de ad-center is not at the
top of the engine (e.g., horizontally opposed engines, radial engines, etc.), some Sources call
this position
Head-End-Dead-Center (HEDC). Some sources call this position Top-Center (TC). When an
occurrence in a cycle happens before TDC, it is often abbreviated bTDC or bTe. When the
occurrence happens after TDC, it will be abbreviated aTDC or aTe. When the piston is at TDC,
the volume in the cylinder is a minimum called the clearance volume.
Bottom-Dead-Center (BDC) Position of the piston when it stops at the point closest to the
crankshaft. Some sources call this Crank-End-Dead-Center (CEDC) because it is not always at
the bottom of the engine. Some sources call this point Bottom-Center (BC). During an engine
cycle things can happen before abBotet.om-dead-center, bBDC or bBC, and after bottom-de adcenter, aBDC or abe.

Fundamentos de Motores de Combustin Interna

5.3 Consideraciones para el Ciclo Real
Engineering Fundamentals of the Internal Combustion Engine.
Willard W. Pulkrabek
University of Wisconsin- .. Platteville
Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458