UNIT II PERFORMANCE OF IC ENGINES

INTRODUCTION

The performance of an engine is an indication of the degree of success with which the conversion of
chemical energy contained in the fuel is done into useful mechanical work.

At a design and development stage an engineer would design an engine with certain aims in his mind.
The aims may include the variables like indicated power, brake power, brake specific fuel consumption,
exhaust emissions, cooling of engine, maintenance free operation etc. The other task of the
development engineer is to reduce the cost and improve power output and reliability of an engine. In
trying to achieve these goals he has to try various design concepts. After the design the parts of the
engine are manufactured for the dimensions and surface finish and may be with certain tolerances. In
order verify the designed and developed engine one has to go for testing and performance evaluation
of the engines.

II.1 Performance parameters

Engine performance is an indication of the degree of success of the engine performs its assigned task,
i.e. the conversion of the chemical energy contained in the fuel into the useful mechanical work. The
performance of an engine is evaluated on the basis of the following :

➢ Specific Fuel Consumption ;

➢ Brake Mean Effective Pressure ;
➢ Specific Power Output ;
➢ Specific Weight ;
➢ Exhaust Smoke and Other Emissions.

The particular application of the engine decides the relative importance of these performance
parameters.

For Example : For an aircraft engine specific weight is more important whereas for an industrial engine
specific fuel consumption is more important.

For the evaluation of an engine performance few more parameters are chosen and the effect of various
operating conditions, design concepts and modifications on these parameters are studied. The basic
performance parameters are the following :

➢ Power and Mechanical Efficiency ;

➢ Mean Effective Pressure and Torque ;
Page 1|5
 ➢ Specific Output ;
➢ Volumetric Efficiency ;
➢ Fuel-air Ratio ;
➢ Specific Fuel Consumption ;
➢ Thermal Efficiency and Heat Balance ;
➢ Exhaust Smoke and Other Emissions ;
➢ Specific Weight.

a) Power and Mechanical Efficiency

The main purpose of running an engine is to obtain mechanical power.

➢ Power is defined as the rate of doing work and is equal to the product of force and linear
velocity or the product of torque and angular velocity.
➢ Thus, the measurement of power involves the measurement of force (or torque) as well as
speed. The force or torque is measured with the help of a dynamometer and the speed by a
tachometer.

The power developed by an engine and measured at the output shaft is called the brake power (bp)
and is given by

2.1

where, T is torque in Nm and N is the rotational speed in revolutions per minute.

The total power developed by combustion of fuel in the combustion chamber is, however, more than
the bp and is called indicated power (ip). Of the power developed by the engine, i.e. ip, some power is
consumed in overcoming the friction between moving parts, some in the process of inducting the air
and removing the products of combustion from the engine combustion chamber.

Indicated Power is the power developed in the cylinder and thus, forms the basis of evaluation of
combustion efficiency or the heat release in the cylinder.

Page 2|5
 2.2

Thus, we see that for a given engine the power output can be measured in terms of mean effective
pressure. The difference between the ip and bp is called friction power (fp). It is the indication of the
power lost in the mechanical components of the engine (due to friction) and forms the basis of
mechanical efficiency ; which is defined as follows :

2.3

2.4

2.5

b) Mean Effective Pressure and Torque

Mean effective pressure is defined as a hypothetical/average pressure which is assumed to be acting

on the piston throughout the power stroke. Therefore,

2.6

If the mean effective pressure is based on bp it is called the brake mean effective pressure (bmep =
Pm ; replace ip by bp in Eq.2.6). And if based on ip it is called indicated mean effective pressure (imep).
Similarly , the friction mean effective pressure (fmep) can be defined as,

Page 3|5
 𝒇𝒎𝒆𝒑 = 𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒑 − 𝒃𝒎𝒆𝒑

The torque is related to mean effective pressure by the relation

By Eq.2.6

2.7

Thus, the torque and the mean effective pressure are related by the engine size. A large engine
produces more torque for the same mean effective pressure. For this reason, torque is not the measure
of the ability of an engine to utilize its displacement for producing power from fuel. It is the mean
effective pressure which gives an indication of engine displacement utilization for this conversion.
Higher the mean effective pressure, higher will be the power developed by the engine for a given
displacement.

Again we see that the power of an engine is dependent on its size and speed. Therefore, it is not
possible to compare engines on the basis of either power or torque. Mean effective pressure is the true
indication of the relative performance of different engines.

c) Specific Output

Specific output of an engine is defined as the brake power (output) per unit of piston displacement and
is given by,

2.8

➢ The specific output consists of two elements – the bmep (force) available to work and the
speed with which it is working.
➢ Therefore, for the same piston displacement and bmep an engine operating at higher speed
will give more output.

Page 4|5
 ➢ It is clear that the output of an engine can be increased by increasing either speed or bmep.
Increasing speed involves increase in the mechanical stress of various engine parts whereas
increasing bmep requires better heat release and more load on engine cylinder.
d) Volumetric Efficiency

Volumetric efficiency of an engine is an indication of the measure of the degree to which the engine
fills its swept volume. It is defined as the ratio of the mass of air inducted into the engine cylinder
during the suction stroke to the mass of the air corresponding to the swept volume of the engine at
atmospheric pressure and temperature. Alternatively, it can be defined as the ratio of the actual
volume inhaled during suction stroke measured at intake conditions to the swept volume of the piston.

Volumetric efficiency, 𝜂𝑣 is given by

𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛

𝜂𝑣 =
𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑃 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑇 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠

The amount of air taken inside the cylinder is dependent on the volumetric efficiency of an engine and
hence puts a limit on the amount of fuel which can be efficiently burned and the power output.

For supercharged engine the volumetric efficiency has no meaning as it comes out to be more than
unity.

e) Fuel-Air Ratio (F/A)

Fuel-air ratio (F/A) is the ratio of the mass of fuel to the mass of air in the fuel-air mixture. Air-fuel ratio
(A/F) is reciprocal of fuel-air ratio. Fuel-air ratio of the mixture affects the combustion phenomenon in
that it determines the flame propagation velocity, the heat release in the combustion chamber, the
maximum temperature and the completeness of combustion.

Relative fuel-air ratio is defined as the ratio of the actual fuel-air ratio to that of the stoichiometric fuel-
air ratio required to burn the fuel supplied. Stoichiometric fuel-air ratio is the ratio of fuel to air is one
in which case fuel is completely burned due to minimum quantity of air supplied.

Page 5|5