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The Physics of a Diesel Engine Essay

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The Physics of a Diesel Engine

The world we live in is surrounded by diesel engines. They are on the freeways, railways, airways, and are one of the leading electricity producers in the world. They are also becoming more popular in automobiles. These engines are efficient and reliable and they are getting very sophisticated. However, the physics behind these engines has not changed.

By way of definition, courtesy of Diesel Engine
Engineering: [a] diesel engine is an internal combustion engine in which the chemical energy of fuel is transformed into thermal energy of the cylinder charge, in consequence of the self-ignition and combustion of fuel in the engine cylinder after compression of the air charge in the cylinder (p1 …show more content…

The piston then travels down pulling in fresh air, (third stroke), after the piston bottoms again it travels up compressing the fresh air, (fourth stroke). The fuel is then injected and one cycle is completed in 720 degrees or two full rotations of the crankshaft.

The disadvantage of two-stroke engines is their dependency on a blower to force air into the chamber and their inefficiency. A four-stroke engine does not have an expansion stroke every 360 degrees but it is more efficient because it has more time to completely burn the fuel injected into the cylinder.

There are mechanical and fundamental differences between the two-stroke and four-stroke engines but the physics remain the same. They both rely upon the compressed air to ignite the pressurized fuel and the resulting expansion for their power. At first glance it may look like the explosion in the chamber does the work but upon further inspection you can see the physics involved. There are two questions I would like to address. The first question is what is the physics behind the compressed air raising the temperature upwards of 900 degrees. The second question is what is the physics behind the rapid expansion of the ignited air fuel mixture.

The physics behind the temperature increase of compressed air begins with a fresh charge of air. The air fills the combustion chamber when the cylinder is at bottom dead center. As the

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