ME 418 - Combustion Engines

Instructor:                Sundar Krishnan

E-mail:                    krish003@bama.ua.edu

Office Hours:            Tue-Thu 10-11:30 a.m.

NOTE: The following lecture notes and homework solutions are available as "pdf" files.  You can use Adobe Acrobat (available here) to view and download the files.  If you are unable to download them for any reason, you can come by my office and I will help you out.  I will try to update this webpage periodically.

Chapter 1: Engine Types and Operation

1. Engine Classifications
2. Engine Operating Cycles
3. Basic Engine Operation and Examples

Chapter 2: Engine Design and Operating Parameters

1. Geometrical Definitions and Parameters
2. Engine Power, BMEP, Efficiencies

3. Correction Factors, Emissions Parameters, Peformance Relationships

Chapter 3: Thermochemistry

1. Flame Types and Basic Combustion Stoichiometry

2. Balancing Global Chemical Reactions, First Law Applied to Combustion

3. Enthalpy of Formation, Heating Values, Adiabatic Combustion Processes

4. Adiabatic Flame Temperature Example and Combustion Efficiency of an IC Engine

5. Second Law Applied to Combustion, Availability Conversion Efficiency

6. Chemical Equilibrium

Chapter 5: Ideal Models of Engine Cycles

1. Introduction, Constant-volume cycle

2. Constant-volume cycle (Contd.) and Limited-pressure cycle

3. Further discussion on the Limited-pressure cycle

4. Fuel-air cycle analysis, Overexpanded cycles, Inadequacies of ideal engine cycle models

Chapter 9: Combustion in SI Engines

1. Introduction, four phases of SI engine combustion, MBT timing

2. Effect of turbulence, abnormal combustion - knock and surface ignition

3. Important parameters affecting SI engine combustion - effects of compression ratio, engine speed, combustion chamber design, equivalence ratio.

4. Parameters (Contd) - Intake temperature, manifold pressure/throttle position, cylinder wall temperature, spark plug location, in-cylinder flow.

5. Parameters (Contd) - Fuel Type, Octane Number (RON & MON), EGR & REG, and Spark Timing.

6. Cycle-to-cycle variations and engine operation limits.

7. Engine Combustion Modeling - An Introduction

Chapter 10: Combustion in CI Engines

1. Introduction, types of diesel combustion systems (DI and IDI), phases of diesel combustion

2. Types of diesel injection systems (mechanical and electronic), Electronic unit injection (EUI), Common rail injection (CRI)

3. Fuel spray structure and characteristics, Sauter mean diameter (SMD), spray penetration

4. Ignition delay and its importance, Cetane number, factors affecting ignition delay

Chapter 11: Pollutant Formation and Control

1. Introduction, pollutant formation sequence in SI engines, importance of fuel-air equivalence ratio

2. Overview of diesel engine pollutant formation, Basics of thermal NO formation, NO formation in SI engines

3. NO formation in CI engines, CO emissions, unburned hydrocarbon emissions in SI engines

4. Diesel engine HC emissions, exhaust gas treatment, catalytic converters, three-way catalysts, and thermal reactors

1. Some typical engine pressure curves, P-V and logP-logV diagrams

2. P-θ and logP-logV curves for different spark timings

3. Pictures of a typical SI engine piston and knock damage in a piston used in a dual fuel CIDI engine

4. Typical BMEP, SFC curves vs. fuel-air equivalence ratio at constant speed, WOT for a 4-stroke SI Engine

5. Sir Harry Ricardo's imaginative journey into a diesel engine combustion chamber

Last Update: Wednesday June 30, 2004 02:46 PM