Internal combustion engines are devices that generate work using the products of combustion as the working fluid

rather than as a heat transfer medium. To produce work,the combustion is carried out in a manner that produces high-pressure combustion products that can be expandedthrough a turbine or piston. The engineering of these highpressure systems introduces a number of features that profoundly influence the formation of pollutants. There are three major types of internal combustion engines in use today: 1. The spark ignition engine, which is used primarily inautomobiles; 2. the diesel engine, which is used in large vehicles and industrial systems wherethe improvements in cycleefficiency make it advantageous over the more compact and lighterweight spark ignitionengine; and 3. the gas turbine, which is used in aircraft due to its highpower/weightratio and also is used for stationary power generation. SPARK IGNITION ENGINES The term spark-ignition engine refers to internal combustion engines, usually petrol engines, where the combustion process of the air-fuel mixture is ignited by a spark from a spark plug. This is in contrast to compression-ignition engines, typically diesel engines, where the heat generated from compression is enough to initiate the combustion process, without needing any external spark. The working cycle of both spark-ignition and compression-ignition engines may be either two-stroke or four-stroke. A four-stroke spark-ignition engine is an Otto cycle engine. It consists of following four strokes: suction or intake stroke, compression stroke, expansion or power stroke, exhaust stroke. Each stroke consists of 180 degree rotation of crankshaft rotation and hence a fourstroke cycle is completed through 720 degree of crank rotation. Thus for one complete cycle there is only one power stroke while the crankshaft turns by two revolutions.

Fig: Two stroke Spark ignition engine The fuel and air mixture is commonly premixed in a carburetor. Figure shows how engine power and fuel consumption depend on equivalence ratio over the range commonly used in internal combustion engines. Ratios below 0.7 and above 1.4 generally are not combustible on the time scales available in reciprocating engines.

Fig.: Four-stroke Spark ignition engine: A. Intake stroke, B. Compression stroke, C. Power stroke, D. Exhaust. The maximum power is obtained at a higher ratiothan is minimum fuel consumption. As avehicle accelerates, high power is needed and a richer mixture is required than whencruising at constant speed. We shall return to the question of theequivalence ratio whenwe consider pollutant formation, since this ratio is one of the key factors governing the type and quantity of pollutants formed in the cylinder. The ignition system is designed to ignite the air-fuel mixture at the optimum instant.Prior to the implementation of emission controls, engine power was the primaryconcern inignition timing. As engine speed increases, optimal power output is achievedby advancing the timeof ignition to a point on the compression stroke before the pistonreaches the top of its motion where thecylinder volume is smallest. This is because thecombustion of the mixture takes a certain amount of time,and optimum power isdeveloped if the completion of the combustion coincides with the piston arriving atso-called top dead center. The spark is automatically advanced as engine speed increases.Also, a pressurediaphragm senses airflow through the carburetor and advances the sparkas airflow increases. Factors other than power output must be taken into account, however, in optimizing the engineoperation. If the fuel-air mixture is compressed to an excessive pressure, the mixture temperature canbecome high enough that the preflame reactions canignite the charge ahead of
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the propagating flame front.This is followed by very rapidcombustion of the remaining charge and a correspondingly fast pressureincrease in thecylinder. The resultant pressure wave reverberates in the cylinder, producing the noisereferred to as knock (By et al., 1981). One characteristic of the fuel composition is itstendency to auto ignites, expressed in terms of an octane rating. High compression ratios and ignition spark timing that optimizes engine power andefficiency leadto high octane requirements. The octane requirement can be reduced byusing lower compression ratiosand by delaying the spark until after the point for optimum engine performance. Emission controls requireadditional compromises in enginedesign and operation, sacrificing some of the potential engineperformance to reduceemissions. Working Principles of a carburetor The carburetor works on Bernoulli's principle: the faster air moves, the lower its static pressure, and the higher its dynamic pressure. The throttle (accelerator) linkage does not directly control the flow of liquid fuel. Instead, it actuates carburetor mechanisms which meter the flow of air being pulled into the engine. The speed of this flow, and therefore its pressure, determines the amount of fuel drawn into the airstream. When carburetors are used in aircraft with piston engines, special designs and features are needed to prevent fuel starvation during inverted flight. Later engines used an early form of fuel injection known as a pressure carburetor. Most production carbureted (as opposed to fuel-injected) engines have a single carburetor and a matching intake manifold that divides and transports the air fuel mixture to the intake valves, though some engines (like motorcycle engines) use multiple carburetors on split heads.

Fig.: Basic Carburetor (Cross section)

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Multiple carburetor engines were also common enhancements for modifying engines in the USA from the 1950s to mid-1960s, as well as during the following decade of highperformance muscle cars fueling different chambers of the engine's intake manifold. Older engines used updraft carburetors, where the air enters from below the carburetor and exits through the top. This had the advantage of never "flooding" the engine, as any liquid fuel droplets would fall out of the carburetor instead of into the intake manifold; it also lent itself to use of an oil bath air cleaner, where a pool of oil below a mesh element below the carburetor is sucked up into the mesh and the air is drawn through the oil-covered mesh; this was an effective system in a time when paper air filters did not exist. Beginning in the late 1930s, downdraft carburetors were the most popular type for automotive use in the United States. In Europe, the sidedraft carburetors replaced downdraft as free space in the engine bay decreased and the use of the SU-type carburetor (and similar units from other manufacturers) increased. Some small propeller-driven aircraft engines still use the updraft carburetor design. Outboard motor carburetors are typically sidedraft, because they must be stacked one on top of the other in order to feed the cylinders in a vertically oriented cylinder block. The main disadvantage of basing a carburetor's operation on Bernoulli's principle is that, being a fluid dynamic device, the pressure reduction in a venturi tends to be proportional to the square of the intake air speed. The fuel jets are much smaller and limited mainly by viscosity, so that the fuel flow tends to be proportional to the pressure difference. So jets sized for full power tend to starve the engine at lower speed and part throttle. Most commonly this has been corrected by using multiple jets. In SU and other movable jet carburetors, it was corrected by varying the jet size. For cold starting, a different principle was used in multi-jet carburetors. A flow resisting valve called a choke, similar to the throttle valve, was placed upstream of the main jet to reduce the intake pressure and suck additional fuel out of the jets.

COMPRESSION IGNITION ENGINE A diesel engine (also known as a compression-ignition engine) is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber. This is in contrast to spark-ignition engines such as a petrol engine (gasoline engine) or gas engine (using a gaseous fuel as opposed to gasoline), which uses a spark plug to ignite an air-fuel mixture. The engine was developed by Rudolf Diesel in 1893. The diesel engine has the highest thermal efficiency of any regular internal or external combustion engine due to its very high compression ratio. Low-speed diesel engines (as used in ships and other applications where overall engine weight is relatively unimportant) can have a thermal efficiency that exceeds 50 percent.
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Diesel engines are manufactured in two-stroke and four-stroke versions. They were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have been used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, trucks, heavy equipment and electric generating plants followed later. In the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of diesel engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the USA increased. As of 2007, about 50 percent of all new car sales in Europe are diesel. The diesel internal combustion engine differs from the gasoline powered Otto cycle by using highly compressed hot air to ignite the fuel rather than using a spark plug (compression ignition rather than spark ignition). In the true diesel engine, only air is initially introduced into the combustion chamber. The air is then compressed with a compression ratio typically between 15:1 and 22:1 resulting in 40bar (4.0 MPa; 580 psi) pressure compared to 8 to 14 bars (0.80 to 1.4 MPa) (about 200 psi) in the petrol engine. This high compression heats the air to 550 C (1,022 F). At about the top of the compression stroke, fuel is injected directly into the compressed air in the combustion chamber. This may be into a (typically toroidal) void in the top of the piston or a pre-chamber depending upon the design of the engine. The fuel injector ensures that the fuel is broken down into small droplets, and that the fuel is distributed evenly. The heat of the compressed air vaporizes fuel from the surface of the droplets. The vapour is then ignited by the heat from the compressed air in the combustion chamber, the droplets continue to vaporise from their surfaces and burn, getting smaller, until all the fuel in the droplets has been burnt. The start of vaporisation causes a delay period during ignition and the characteristic diesel knocking sound as the vapour reaches ignition temperature and causes an abrupt increase in pressure above the piston. The rapid expansion of combustion gases then drives the piston downward, supplying power to the crankshaft.[24] Engines for scale-model aeroplanes use a variant of the Diesel principle but premix fuel and air via a carburation system external to the combustion chambers. As well as the high level of compression allowing combustion to take place without a separate ignition system, a high compression ratio greatly increases the engine's efficiency. Increasing the compression ratio in a spark-ignition engine where fuel and air are mixed before entry to the cylinder is limited by the need to prevent damaging pre-ignition. Since only air is compressed in a diesel engine, and fuel is not introduced into the cylinder until shortly before top dead centre (TDC), premature detonation is not an issue and compression ratios are much higher. Diesel's original engine injected fuel with the assistance of compressed air, which atomized the fuel and forced it into the engine through a nozzle (a similar principle to an aerosol spray). The nozzle opening was closed by a pin valve lifted by the camshaft to initiate the fuel injection before top dead centre (TDC). This is called an air-blast injection. Driving the three stage compressor used some power but the efficiency and net power output was more than any other combustion engine at that time.

Fig: Two stroke Compression ignition engine

Fig.: Four-stroke Compression ignition engine

Fig.: Fuel Injector

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Diesel engines in service today raise the fuel to extreme pressures by mechanical pumps and deliver it to the combustion chamber by pressure-activated injectors without compressed air. With direct injected diesels, injectors spray fuel through 4 to 12 small orifices in its nozzle. The early air injection diesels always had a superior combustion without the sharp increase in pressure during combustion. Research is now being performed and patents are being taken out to again use some form of air injection to reduce the nitrogen oxides and pollution, reverting to Diesel's original implementation with its superior combustion and possibly quieter operation. In all major aspects, the modern diesel engine holds true to Rudolf Diesel's original design that of igniting fuel by compression at an extremely high pressure within the cylinder. With much higher pressures and high technology injectors, present-day diesel engines use the so-called solid injection system applied by Herbert Akroyd Stuart for his hot bulb engine. The indirect injection engine could be considered the latest development of these low speed hot bulb ignition engines. A vital component of all diesel engines is a mechanical or electronic governor which regulates the idling speed and maximum speed of the engine by controlling the rate of fuel delivery. Unlike Otto-cycle engines, incoming air is not throttled and a diesel engine without a governor cannot have a stable idling speed and can easily overspeed, resulting in its destruction. Mechanically governed fuel injection systems are driven by the engine's gear train. These systems use a combination of springs and weights to control fuel delivery relative to both load and speed.[25] Modern electronically controlled diesel engines control fuel delivery by use of an electronic control module (ECM) or electronic control unit (ECU). The ECM/ECU receives an engine speed signal, as well as other operating parameters such as intake manifold pressure and fuel temperature, from a sensor and controls the amount of fuel and start of injection timing through actuators to maximise power and efficiency and minimise emissions. Controlling the timing of the start of injection of fuel into the cylinder is a key to minimizing emissions, and maximizing fuel economy (efficiency), of the engine. The timing is measured in degrees of crank angle of the piston before top dead centre. For example, if the ECM/ECU initiates fuel injection when the piston is 10 degrees before TDC, the start of injection, or timing, is said to be 10 BTDC. Optimal timing will depend on the engine design as well as its speed and load. Advancing the start of injection (injecting before the piston reaches to its SOI-TDC) results in higher in-cylinder pressure and temperature, and higher efficiency, but also results in elevated engine noise and increased oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions due to higher combustion temperatures. Delaying start of injection causes incomplete combustion, reduced fuel efficiency and an increase in exhaust smoke, containing a considerable amount of particulate matter and unburned hydrocarbons.