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uk 1
EDEXCEL HNC/D
PLANT and PROCESS PRINCIPLES

OUTCOME 4 - POWER SUPPLY EQUIPMENT

TUTORIAL 1 DIESEL ENGINES


Power supply equipment

Diesel engines: specific applications of diesel engines and analysis of relevant performance
parameters (eg compression ratio, fuel cut-off ratio, air standard efficiency for low speed and
medium/high speed diesel engines, engine trials, 2 and 4 stroke effect on output,
indicated and brake mean effective pressure, indicated and brake power, indicated and brake
thermal efficiency, mechanical efficiency, relative efficiency, specific fuel consumption)

Steam turbines: measurement of power output; effect of temperature change across turbine;
impulse and reaction principles; pass out; back pressure and condensing turbines; avoidance of wet
steam; limitations on efficiency

Gas turbines: single and double shaft; regeneration and reheat; efficiency with and without
regeneration; economics of gas turbine



It is assumed that the student is familiar with gas laws.

You will find a wealth of information on the history and development of the Diesel engine at this
web site.
http://www.speedace.info/diesel.htm

You will find many pictures of Diesel Engines at this web address.
http://www.mdeltd.com/product.php?product=Generator%20Sets

You will find some description of diesel engine theory at this web site.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/diesel-two-stroke1.htm
COMPRESSION IGNITION ENGINES

The invention of compression ignition engines, commonly known as diesel engines, was credited to
Rudolf Diesel.

A TYPICAL DIESEL GENERATOR SET



The most powerful diesel engine in the world produces 81 MW at 102 rev/min.
(http://www.ultimatestupidity.com/pics/1/diesel/)

Diesel engines have long been the main power source for railway locomotives. Now they have
become the main power source for ships and all marine application. Similarly large road vehicles
and mobile plant machinery almost entirely use diesel engines. Increasingly large diesels are also
being used for electric generation and the exhaust gas is used to generate hot water or process
steam. With their high thermal efficiencies of 50% or better, Diesel engines have become the engine
of choice for all mobile plant.

The basic principle is that when high compression ratios are used, the air becomes hot enough to
make the fuel ignite without a spark. In modern engines the fuel oil is injected directly into the
cylinder as fine droplets. The details of the combustion process depend on the size of the engine.
Large engines run slowly and at constant speed so the fuel injection and burning is highly
controllable. Smaller engines (typically car engines) run at fast and variable speeds so controlling
the fuel injection is more difficult.

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INJECTION and COMBUSTION

The injector sprays fine droplets of oil into the combustions space. You will find a demonstration of
fuel injection at http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-injection3.htm.

On electronic systems the nozzle is opened by an electro-magnet and this is switched by the engine
management computer which is capable of controlling the duration and timing of the injection.

Purely mechanical systems use nozzles that open against a spring when pressure is applied and the
duration is controlled by the mechanics of the pump.

INJECTOR NOZZLE

A fixed time is required for the droplets to absorb
heat from the surrounding air and ignite. If the engine
is running fast, this time delay covers a larger part of
the cycle time than when the engine is running slow.


Depending on the speed and injector characteristic, an accumulation of fuel occurs in the
combustion space during the time delay. When the droplets ignite, heat is released and radiated to
all the accumulated fuel and this detonates spontaneously causing the characteristic diesel knock.
The injection timing must be advanced for higher speeds if the detonation is to occur at the right
moment.

On large slow running engines such as ship engines, the time delay period occupies a much shorter
part of the cycle and the accumulation of fuel is relatively small. Consequently the detonation is less
obvious.

Once ignition has occurred the fuel will burn as it is injected so combustion can be maintained
during the power stroke thus raising the average pressure on the piston. Once the fuel injection is
cut off, the hot gasses in the cylinder will expand naturally with pressure falling as the volume
increases. The plots of pressure against volume of gas show the effect of detonation of accumulated
fuel. When the speed is fast the detonation produces a sharp rise in pressure followed by burning.
The slow running engine has a smaller rise due to the smaller detonation.

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TURBOCHARGERS and SUPERCHARGERS

A turbocharger typically consists of a compressor or blower fan driven by a turbine. The turbine is
driven by the exhaust gas and the blower blows air into the engine. This means that a greater mass
of air is supplied to the combustion space so more fuel can be injected and more power produced. A
supercharger serves the same function but the compressor is mechanically driven by a belt
connected to the engine crank shaft


There are two basic mechanical designs 4 stroke and 2 stroke. In both cases a crank and
connecting rod is used to convert the reciprocating motion of the piston into rotation of the crank
shaft.



THE 4 STROKE CYCLE

Engines using the four stroke cycle produce one power stroke every second revolution of the crank
shaft. One revolution is used to efficiently clear out the exhaust gas and refill the cylinder with air.
The following explanation of the 4 stroke cycle does not show the crank shaft and connecting rod
and it is assumed that the student is already familiar with the basic mechanics of a reciprocating
engine.

A - Induction Stroke. The piston moves away from the
cylinder head and draws in air through the inlet
valve. On turbocharged engines, the air is blown in
by a compressor or turbocharger. This means that
more air and oxygen will be present in the cylinder
so more fuel can be burned in it than would
otherwise be possible thus increasing the power of
the engine.

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B - The Compression Stroke. The piston
moves towards the cylinder head and
compresses the air making it hot. Work
is needed to compress the air. Fuel is
then injected into the space above the
piston. The timing of the injection is
important because of the time delay
before the fuel detonates. This produces
a sharp rise in pressure.



C - Expansion Stroke. The pressure forces the piston away from the
cylinder head and powers the engine. Work is extracted from the
system. The way the pressure varies as the piston moves is
controlled by the continued injection of fuel. At some point the
fuel injection is cut off and the pressure falls as the piston moves
towards the extreme position.




D Exhaust Stroke. When the piston starts to move back towards
the cylinder head, the exhaust valve opens and the exhaust
gas is pushed out. The whole cycle is then repeated. On very
large engines, the gas can be used to drive the turbocharger
by forcing it through a turbine connected to it.


PRESSURE VOLUME DIAGRAM

The resulting trace of pressure and volume is shown for the 4 stroke cycle. The induction cycle is
greatly exaggerated to show that when the exhaust is venting the pressure is slightly above
atmospheric pressure and when inducting without a turbocharger, it is slightly below. With a
turbocharger, the pressure rises to the turbo pressure as soon as the exhaust is vented.

The clearance volume is the volume in the combustion chamber when the piston is closest to the
cylinder head. The clearance volume + the swept volume is the volume when the piston is furthest
from the cylinder head. The swept volume is the change in volume. The compression ratio is
defined as:
volume clearance
volume clearance me swept volu
r
v
+
=
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THE TWO STROKE CYCLE

The 2 stroke engine produces a power stroke every revolution of the crank so they are twice as
powerful as the same size 4 stroke engine at the same speed. For this reason 2 stroke engines have
become very popular for large engines although for small engines 4 strokes are more efficient
because of the efficient way they replace the burned gas with fresh air.

The 2 stroke engine has ports in the side of the
cylinder as shown and when the piston is close
to the bottom, they are exposed and air from the
turbocharger is blown into the cylinder. At the
same time the exhaust valve opens and the
exhaust gas still under pressure is vented and
blown out by the incoming air. Some designs
use no valves at all and has exhaust ports
instead.

PRESSURE VOLUME DIAGRAMS

Real engines can be fitted with pressure transducers and position transducers so that the way the
pressure changes with movement of the piston and hence volume of gas, can be traced out. The
diagram shows a typical result.
The injection starts just before the point of
maximum compression. The detonation
produces a sharp rise in pressure then the
fuel burns keeping the pressure high as the
piston moves down the cylinder. The cut off
point is where injection stops and no further
burning takes place. The pressure then falls
as the volume expands further. When the
exhaust port opens the pressure drops to the
turbocharger pressure

The area enclosed by the diagram represents the work output produced each cycle or revolution in
the case of a 2 stroke engine.

Varying the cut off point reduces or increases the work output and this is how the power of the
engine is controlled. The diagram shows how varying the cut off point changes the area and hence
power of the engine.

The THERMAL EFFICIENCY of the engine is based on the net work output W
net
and the amount
of heat released by combustion Q
in
. The thermal efficiency is defined as:
in
net
th
Q
W
=
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AIR STANDARD CYCLE FOR THE DIESEL ENGINE

Theoretical studies use ideal gas processes based on
pure air to simulate the p-V diagram and this produces
the AIR STANDARD CYCLE. The diagram shows the
idealised cycle.
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(1) to (2) is the compression process idealised as an
adiabatic process obeying the law pV
1.4
= constant. This
process requires work to be done.

(2) to (3) is a vertical line with the pressure rising with
no change in volume. This represents the detonation and heat is released into the air. The law is
simply V = constant

(3) to (4) is a horizontal line in which it is idealised that the pressure is constant as the fuel is burned
and more heat is released into the air. Work is also obtained as the pressure pushes the piston. The
law is simply p = constant

Point (4) is the cut off point.

(4) to (5) is an expansion with the pressure falling and the volume increasing. This is idealised as an
adiabatic process obeying the law pV
1.4
= constant. More work is obtained during this process.

(5) to (1) is a vertical line representing the drop in pressure with no change in volume following the
exhaust valve opening. Heat is removed from the system during this process (this is the heat loss in
the exhaust)

You can find a complete derivation of the formula for the efficiency in the tutorials under
thermodynamics on the web site.

In the cycle work is produced by processes (3) to (4) and (4) to (5) and is proportional to the area
under the graph. During the process (1) to (2) work is used to compress the air and again this is
proportional to the area under the graph. The area inside the lines represents the total or net work
output per cycle.

It can be shown that:
( ) ( ) [ ]
4 . 0
v
1.4
th
r 1 k 4 . 1 1 k
1 - k
1
+
=

r
v
is the VOLUME COMPRESSION RATIO. r
v
= V
1
/V
2
is the CUT OFF RATIO. = V
4
/V
3
k is the ratio p
3
/p
2
and this is the process produced by the detonation of the fuel.

This enables us to make theoretical studies to see how the efficiency is affected by the compression
ratio and cut off ratio. Examining this formula shows that a higher compression ratio will produce a
higher efficiency. Diesel engines have higher compression ratios than petrol engines which partly
explain their superior efficiency.

Increasing the cut off ratio increases the work output and also increases the efficiency up to a point.

Slow running large engines have a small detonation so in this case k 1


WORKED EXAMPLE No. 1

In a theoretical diesel engine cycle the compression starts from 1 bar and 20
o
C. The
compression ratio is 18/1 and the cut off ratio is 1.15. The maximum cycle temperature is
1360K. The total heat input is 1 kJ per cycle. Calculate the following.

i. The thermal efficiency of the cycle.
ii. The net work output per cycle.
SOLUTION

Known data.
T
1
= 20 +273 = 293 K The hottest temperature is T
4
= 1360K.
=1.15 r
v
= 18 =1.4

( ) ( ) [ ] ( ) ( ) ( ) [ ]
68% or 0.68
18 x 1 - 1.15 x 1.27 x 1.4 1 - 1.27
1 - 1.15 x 1.27
- 1
r 1 - 1.4k 1 - k
1 - k
- 1
1.27
T
T
k
p
p
K 1183
1.15
1360

T
V
T V
T
K 931 18 x 293 r T T
0.4
1.4
0.4
v
1.4
2
3
2
3
4
4
4 3
3
0.4 1
v 1 2
=
+
=
+
=
= = =
= = = =
= = =


This is theoretical and values like this arenot obtained in reality for a variety of reasons.
W
net
= x Q
in
= 0.68 x 1 = 0.68 kJ per cycle.




WORKED EXAMPLE No. 2

A slow running theoretical Diesel Cycle has a compression ratio of 20/1 and a cut off ratio of 2.
Calculate the theoretical (air standard) efficiency of the cycle. Take k = 1

SOLUTION

Initial data. = 2 r
v
= 20 k = 1


( ) ( ) [ ] ( ) [ ]
0.4
v
1.4
0.4
v
1.4
r 1 - 1.4
1 -
- 1 and 1 k Put
r 1 - 1.4k 1 - k
1 - k
- 1 = =
+
=

64.7% or 0.647
3.314 x 1.4 x 1
1.639
1
20 x 1.4 x 1) (2
1 - 2
1
0.4
1.4
= =

=



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SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE


1. The performance of a compression slow running diesel engine is to be compared to that of the
theoretical cycle. The compression ratio is 20/1 and the cut off ratio is 1.6/1. Take k = 1.
Calculate the theoretical efficiency. (66.6%)


2. A diesel engine uses a compression ratio of 12/1 and cut off ratio 2/1. The pressure ratio k is
1.5.
Calculate the theoretical efficiency. (58%)

3. A diesel engine has a compression ratio is 16 and cut off ratio 1.5. The pressure ratio k is 2.
Calculate the theoretical thermal efficiency. (65.2%)

4. Investigate the detonation characteristics of diesel fuels and explain the use of 'CETANE
VALUES'.

5. Investigate the definition of compression ratio for a 2 stroke engine with ports and find a
definition.