Four-stroke engine

A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is

an internal combustion (IC) engine in which
the piston completes four separate
strokes while turning the crankshaft. A
stroke refers to the full travel of the piston
along the cylinder, in either direction. The
four separate strokes are termed:

1. Intake: Also known as induction or

suction. This stroke of the piston
 begins at top dead center (T.D.C.) and
ends at bottom dead center (B.D.C.).
In this stroke the intake valve must be
in the open position while the piston
pulls an air-fuel mixture into the
cylinder by producing a partial
vacuum (negative pressure) in the
cylinder through its downward
motion.
2. Compression: This stroke begins at
B.D.C, or just at the end of the suction
stroke, and ends at T.D.C. In this
stroke the piston compresses the air-
fuel mixture in preparation for ignition
during the power stroke (below). Both
 the intake and exhaust valves are
closed during this stage.
3. Combustion: Also known as power or
ignition. This is the start of the
second revolution of the four stroke
cycle. At this point the crankshaft has
completed a full 360 degree
revolution. While the piston is at
T.D.C. (the end of the compression
stroke) the compressed air-fuel
mixture is ignited by a spark plug (in a
gasoline engine) or by heat generated
by high compression (diesel engines),
forcefully returning the piston to
B.D.C. This stroke produces
 mechanical work from the engine to
turn the crankshaft.
4. Exhaust: Also known as outlet. During
the exhaust stroke, the piston, once
again, returns from B.D.C. to T.D.C.
while the exhaust valve is open. This
action expels the spent air-fuel
mixture through the exhaust port.
 Four-stroke cycle used in
gasoline/petrol engines: intake (1),
compression (2), power (3), and
exhaust (4). The right blue side is the
intake port and the left brown side is
the exhaust port. The cylinder wall is a
thin sleeve surrounding the piston
head which creates a space for the
combustion of fuel and the genesis of
mechanical energy.

Four-stroke engines are the most common

internal combustion engine design for
motorized land transport,[1] being used in
automobiles, trucks, diesel trains, light
aircraft and motorcycles. The major
alternative design is the two-stroke
cycle.[1]
History

Otto cycle

An Otto Engine from 1880s US

Manufacture

Nikolaus August Otto was a traveling

salesman for a grocery concern. In his
travels, he encountered the internal
combustion engine built in Paris by Belgian
expatriate Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir. In
1860, Lenoir successfully created a
double-acting engine that ran on
illuminating gas at 4% efficiency. The
18 litre Lenoir Engine produced only
2 horsepower. The Lenoir engine ran on
illuminating gas made from coal, which
had been developed in Paris by Philip
Lebon.[2]

In testing a replica of the Lenoir engine in

1861, Otto became aware of the effects of
compression on the fuel charge. In 1862,
Otto attempted to produce an engine to
improve on the poor efficiency and
reliability of the Lenoir engine. He tried to
create an engine that would compress the
fuel mixture prior to ignition, but failed as
that engine would run no more than a few
minutes prior to its destruction. Many
other engineers were trying to solve the
problem, with no success.[2]

In 1864, Otto and Eugen Langen founded

the first internal combustion engine
production company, NA Otto and Cie (NA
Otto and Company). Otto and Cie
succeeded in creating a successful
atmospheric engine that same year.[2] The
factory ran out of space and was moved
to the town of Deutz, Germany in 1869,
where the company was renamed to Deutz
Gasmotorenfabrik AG (The Deutz Gas
Engine Manufacturing Company).[2] In
1872, Gottlieb Daimler was technical
director and Wilhelm Maybach was the
head of engine design. Daimler was a
gunsmith who had worked on the Lenoir
engine. By 1876, Otto and Langen
succeeded in creating the first internal
combustion engine that compressed the
fuel mixture prior to combustion for far
higher efficiency than any engine created
to this time.

Daimler and Maybach left their employ at

Otto and Cie and developed the first high-
speed Otto engine in 1883. In 1885, they
produced the first automobile to be
equipped with an Otto engine. The Daimler
Reitwagen used a hot-tube ignition system
and the fuel known as Ligroin to become
the world's first vehicle powered by an
internal combustion engine. It used a four-
stroke engine based on Otto's design. The
following year, Karl Benz produced a four-
stroke engined automobile that is regarded
as the first car.[3]

In 1884, Otto's company, then known as

Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz (GFD), developed
electric ignition and the carburetor. In
1890, Daimler and Maybach formed a
company known as Daimler Motoren
Gesellschaft. Today, that company is
Daimler-Benz.
Atkinson cycle

This 2004 Toyota Prius hybrid has an

Atkinson-cycle engine as the petrol-
electric hybrid engine

The Atkinson Gas Cycle

The Atkinson-cycle engine is a type of

single stroke internal combustion engine
invented by James Atkinson in 1882. The
Atkinson cycle is designed to provide
efficiency at the expense of power density,
and is used in some modern hybrid electric
applications.
The original Atkinson-cycle piston engine
allowed the intake, compression, power,
and exhaust strokes of the four-stroke
cycle to occur in a single turn of the
crankshaft and was designed to avoid
infringing certain patents covering Otto-
cycle engines.[4]

Due to the unique crankshaft design of the

Atkinson, its expansion ratio can differ
from its compression ratio and, with a
power stroke longer than its compression
stroke, the engine can achieve greater
thermal efficiency than a traditional piston
engine. While Atkinson's original design is
no more than a historical curiosity, many
modern engines use unconventional valve
timing to produce the effect of a shorter
compression stroke/longer power stroke,
thus realizing the fuel economy
improvements the Atkinson cycle can
provide.[5]

Diesel cycle

Audi Diesel R15 at Le Mans

The diesel engine is a technical refinement

of the 1876 Otto-cycle engine. Where Otto
had realized in 1861 that the efficiency of
the engine could be increased by first
compressing the fuel mixture prior to its
ignition, Rudolf Diesel wanted to develop a
more efficient type of engine that could run
on much heavier fuel. The Lenoir, Otto
Atmospheric, and Otto Compression
engines (both 1861 and 1876) were
designed to run on Illuminating Gas (coal
gas). With the same motivation as Otto,
Diesel wanted to create an engine that
would give small industrial companies
their own power source to enable them to
compete against larger companies, and
like Otto, to get away from the requirement
to be tied to a municipal fuel supply. Like
Otto, it took more than a decade to
produce the high-compression engine that
could self-ignite fuel sprayed into the
cylinder. Diesel used an air spray
combined with fuel in his first engine.

During initial development, one of the

engines burst, nearly killing Diesel. He
persisted, and finally created a successful
engine in 1893. The high-compression
engine, which ignites its fuel by the heat of
compression, is now called the diesel
engine, whether a four-stroke or two-stroke
design.

The four-stroke diesel engine has been

used in the majority of heavy-duty
applications for many decades. It uses a
heavy fuel containing more energy and
requiring less refinement to produce. The
most efficient Otto-cycle engines run near
30% thermal efficiency.

Thermodynamic analysis

The idealized four-stroke Otto cycle p-V diagram:

the intake (A) stroke is performed by an isobaric
expansion, followed by the compression (B)
stroke, performed as an adiabatic compression.
Through the combustion of fuel an isochoric
process is produced, followed by an adiabatic
expansion, characterizing the power (C) stroke.
The cycle is closed by an isochoric process and an
isobaric compression, characterizing the exhaust
(D) stroke.
The thermodynamic analysis of the actual
four-stroke and two-stroke cycles is not a
simple task. However, the analysis can be
simplified significantly if air standard
assumptions[6] are utilized. The resulting
cycle, which closely resembles the actual
operating conditions, is the Otto cycle.

During normal operation of the engine, as

the air/fuel mixture is being compressed,
an electric spark is created to ignite the
mixture. At low rpm this occurs close to
TDC (Top Dead Centre). As engine rpm
rises, the speed of the flame front does
not change so the spark point is advanced
earlier in the cycle to allow a greater
proportion of the cycle for the charge to
combust before the power stroke
commences. This advantage is reflected in
the various Otto engine designs; the
atmospheric (non-compression) engine
operates at 12% efficiency whereas the
compressed-charge engine has an
operating efficiency around 30%.

Fuel considerations

A problem with compressed charge

engines is that the temperature rise of the
compressed charge can cause pre-
ignition. If this occurs at the wrong time
and is too energetic, it can damage the
engine. Different fractions of petroleum
have widely varying flash points (the
temperatures at which the fuel may self-
ignite). This must be taken into account in
engine and fuel design.

The tendency for the compressed fuel

mixture to ignite early is limited by the
chemical composition of the fuel. There
are several grades of fuel to
accommodate differing performance
levels of engines. The fuel is altered to
change its self ignition temperature. There
are several ways to do this. As engines are
designed with higher compression ratios
the result is that pre-ignition is much more
likely to occur since the fuel mixture is
compressed to a higher temperature prior
to deliberate ignition. The higher
temperature more effectively evaporates
fuels such as gasoline, which increases
the efficiency of the compression engine.
Higher compression ratios also mean that
the distance that the piston can push to
produce power is greater (which is called
the expansion ratio).

The octane rating of a given fuel is a

measure of the fuel's resistance to self-
ignition. A fuel with a higher numerical
octane rating allows for a higher
compression ratio, which extracts more
energy from the fuel and more effectively
converts that energy into useful work while
at the same time preventing engine
damage from pre-ignition. High Octane
fuel is also more expensive.

Many modern four-stroke engines employ

gasoline direct injection or GDI. In a
gasoline direct-injected engine, the injector
nozzle protrudes into the combustion
chamber. The direct fuel injector injects
gasoline under a very high pressure into
the cylinder during the compression stroke,
when the piston is closer to the top.[7]
Diesel engines by their nature do not have
concerns with pre-ignition. They have a
concern with whether or not combustion
can be started. The description of how
likely Diesel fuel is to ignite is called the
Cetane rating. Because Diesel fuels are of
low volatility, they can be very hard to start
when cold. Various techniques are used to
start a cold Diesel engine, the most
common being the use of a glow plug.
Design and engineering
principles

Power output limitations

The four-stroke cycle

1=TDC
2=BDC
A: Intake
B: Compression
C: Power
D: Exhaust

The maximum amount of power generated

by an engine is determined by the
maximum amount of air ingested. The
amount of power generated by a piston
engine is related to its size (cylinder
volume), whether it is a two-stroke engine
or four-stroke design, volumetric efficiency,
losses, air-to-fuel ratio, the calorific value
of the fuel, oxygen content of the air and
speed (RPM). The speed is ultimately
limited by material strength and
lubrication. Valves, pistons and connecting
rods suffer severe acceleration forces. At
high engine speed, physical breakage and
piston ring flutter can occur, resulting in
power loss or even engine destruction.
Piston ring flutter occurs when the rings
oscillate vertically within the piston
grooves they reside in. Ring flutter
compromises the seal between the ring
and the cylinder wall, which causes a loss
of cylinder pressure and power. If an
engine spins too quickly, valve springs
cannot act quickly enough to close the
valves. This is commonly referred to as
'valve float', and it can result in piston to
valve contact, severely damaging the
engine. At high speeds the lubrication of
piston cylinder wall interface tends to
break down. This limits the piston speed
for industrial engines to about 10 m/s.
Intake/exhaust port flow

The output power of an engine is

dependent on the ability of intake (air–fuel
mixture) and exhaust matter to move
quickly through valve ports, typically
located in the cylinder head. To increase
an engine's output power, irregularities in
the intake and exhaust paths, such as
casting flaws, can be removed, and, with
the aid of an air flow bench, the radii of
valve port turns and valve seat
configuration can be modified to reduce
resistance. This process is called porting,
and it can be done by hand or with a CNC
machine.
Waste heat recovery of an internal
combustion engine

An internal combustion engine is on

average capable of converting only 40-45%
of supplied energy into mechanical work. A
large part of the waste energy is in the
form of heat that is released to the
environment through coolant, fins etc. If
somehow waste heat could be captured
and turned to mechanical energy, the
engine's performance and/or fuel
efficiency could be improved by improving
the overall efficiency of the cycle. It has
been found that even if 6% of the entirely
wasted heat is recovered it can increase
the engine efficiency greatly.[8]

Many methods have been devised in order

to extract waste heat out of an engine
exhaust and use it further to extract some
useful work, decreasing the exhaust
pollutants at the same time. Use of the
Rankine Cycle, turbocharging and
thermoelectric generation can be very
useful as a waste heat recovery system.

Supercharging

One way to increase engine power is to

force more air into the cylinder so that
more power can be produced from each
power stroke. This can be done using
some type of air compression device
known as a supercharger, which can be
powered by the engine crankshaft.

Supercharging increases the power output

limits of an internal combustion engine
relative to its displacement. Most
commonly, the supercharger is always
running, but there have been designs that
allow it to be cut out or run at varying
speeds (relative to engine speed).
Mechanically driven supercharging has the
disadvantage that some of the output
power is used to drive the supercharger,
while power is wasted in the high pressure
exhaust, as the air has been compressed
twice and then gains more potential
volume in the combustion but it is only
expanded in one stage.

Turbocharging

A turbocharger is a supercharger that is

driven by the engine's exhaust gases, by
means of a turbine. A turbocharger is
incorporated into the exhaust system of a
vehicle to make use of the expelled
exhaust. It consists of a two piece, high-
speed turbine assembly with one side that
compresses the intake air, and the other
side that is powered by the exhaust gas
outflow.

When idling, and at low-to-moderate

speeds, the turbine produces little power
from the small exhaust volume, the
turbocharger has little effect and the
engine operates nearly in a naturally
aspirated manner. When much more power
output is required, the engine speed and
throttle opening are increased until the
exhaust gases are sufficient to 'spool up'
the turbocharger's turbine to start
compressing much more air than normal
into the intake manifold. Thus, additional
power (and speed) is expelled through the
function of this turbine.

Turbocharging allows for more efficient

engine operation because it is driven by
exhaust pressure that would otherwise be
(mostly) wasted, but there is a design
limitation known as turbo lag. The
increased engine power is not immediately
available due to the need to sharply
increase engine RPM, to build up pressure
and to spin up the turbo, before the turbo
starts to do any useful air compression.
The increased intake volume causes
increased exhaust and spins the turbo
faster, and so forth until steady high power
operation is reached. Another difficulty is
that the higher exhaust pressure causes
the exhaust gas to transfer more of its
heat to the mechanical parts of the engine.

Rod and piston-to-stroke ratio

The rod-to-stroke ratio is the ratio of the

length of the connecting rod to the length
of the piston stroke. A longer rod reduces
sidewise pressure of the piston on the
cylinder wall and the stress forces,
increasing engine life. It also increases the
cost and engine height and weight.
A "square engine" is an engine with a bore
diameter equal to its stroke length. An
engine where the bore diameter is larger
than its stroke length is an oversquare
engine, conversely, an engine with a bore
diameter that is smaller than its stroke
length is an undersquare engine.

Valve train

The valves are typically operated by a

camshaft rotating at half the speed of the
crankshaft. It has a series of cams along
its length, each designed to open a valve
during the appropriate part of an intake or
exhaust stroke. A tappet between valve
and cam is a contact surface on which the
cam slides to open the valve. Many
engines use one or more camshafts
"above" a row (or each row) of cylinders,
as in the illustration, in which each cam
directly actuates a valve through a flat
tappet. In other engine designs the
camshaft is in the crankcase, in which
case each cam usually contacts a push
rod, which contacts a rocker arm that
opens a valve, or in case of a flathead
engine a push rod is not necessary. The
overhead cam design typically allows
higher engine speeds because it provides
the most direct path between cam and
valve.
Valve clearance

Valve clearance refers to the small gap

between a valve lifter and a valve stem
that ensures that the valve completely
closes. On engines with mechanical valve
adjustment, excessive clearance causes
noise from the valve train. A too-small
valve clearance can result in the valves not
closing properly. This results in a loss of
performance and possibly overheating of
exhaust valves. Typically, the clearance
must be readjusted each 20,000 miles
(32,000 km) with a feeler gauge.
Most modern production engines use
hydraulic lifters to automatically
compensate for valve train component
wear. Dirty engine oil may cause lifter
failure.

Energy balance

Otto engines are about 30% efficient; in

other words, 30% of the energy generated
by combustion is converted into useful
rotational energy at the output shaft of the
engine, while the remainder being lost due
to waste heat, friction and engine
accessories.[9] There are a number of
ways to recover some of the energy lost to
waste heat. The use of a turbocharger in
diesel engines is very effective by boosting
incoming air pressure and in effect,
provides the same increase in
performance as having more
displacement. The Mack Truck company,
decades ago, developed a turbine system
that converted waste heat into kinetic
energy that it fed back into the engine's
transmission. In 2005, BMW announced
the development of the turbosteamer, a
two-stage heat-recovery system similar to
the Mack system that recovers 80% of the
energy in the exhaust gas and raises the
efficiency of an Otto engine by 15%.[10] By
contrast, a six-stroke engine may reduce
fuel consumption by as much as 40%.

Modern engines are often intentionally

built to be slightly less efficient than they
could otherwise be. This is necessary for
emission controls such as exhaust gas
recirculation and catalytic converters that
reduce smog and other atmospheric
pollutants. Reductions in efficiency may be
counteracted with an engine control unit
using lean burn techniques.[11]

In the United States, the Corporate Average

Fuel Economy mandates that vehicles
must achieve an average of 34.9 mpg‑US
(6.7 L/100 km; 41.9 mpg‑imp) compared to
the current standard of 25 mpg‑US
(9.4 L/100 km; 30.0 mpg‑imp).[12] As
automakers look to meet these standards
by 2016, new ways of engineering the
traditional internal combustion engine
(ICE) have to be considered. Some
potential solutions to increase fuel
efficiency to meet new mandates include
firing after the piston is farthest from the
crankshaft, known as top dead centre, and
applying the Miller cycle. Together, this
redesign could significantly reduce fuel
consumption and NOx emissions.
 Starting position, intake stroke, and
compression stroke.

Ignition of fuel, power stroke, and exhaust

stroke.

See also

Atkinson cycle
Atkinson cycle
Miller cycle
Humphrey pump
Desmodromic valve
History of the internal combustion
engine
Napier Deltic
Poppet valve
Radial engine
Rotary engine
Six-stroke engine
Stirling engine
 Stroke (engine)
Two- and four-stroke engines
Two-stroke engine
Five-stroke engine (uncommon)
Six-stroke engine

References

1. "4-STROKE ENGINES: WHAT ARE THEY

AND HOW DO THEY WORK?" (https://www.
uti.edu/blog/motorcycle/how-4-stroke-engi
nes-work) . UTI. 5 May 2020. Retrieved
19 November 2021.
2. "125 Jahre Viertaktmotor" (https://web.arch
ive.org/web/20110507083259/http://www.
nicolaus-august-otto.de/node/15) [125
Years of the Four Stroke Engine]. Oldtimer
Club Nicolaus August Otto e.V. (in German).
Germany. 2009. Archived from the original
(http://www.nicolaus-august-otto.de/node/
15) on 7 May 2011.

3. Ralph Stein (1967). The Automobile Book.

Paul Hamlyn Ltd

4. US 367496 (https://worldwide.espacenet.c
om/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US36749
6) , J. Atkinson, "Gas Engine", issued 1887-
08-02
5. "Auto Tech: Atkinson Cycle engines and
Hybrids" (http://www.autos.ca/auto-tech/au
to-tech-atkinson-cycle-engines-and-hybrid
s/) . Autos.ca. 14 July 2010. Retrieved
23 February 2013.

6. "Best Place for Engineering and

Technology, Air Standard Assumptions" (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/2011042108501
2/http://www.betp.net/2011/04/air-standar
d-assumptions/) . Archived from the
original (http://www.betp.net/2011/04/air-s
tandard-assumptions/) on 21 April 2011.

7. "Four-stroke engine: how it works,

animation" (https://www.testingautos.com/
car_care/four-stroke-engine.html) .
testingautos.com. Retrieved 25 January
2020.
8. Sprouse III, Charles; Depcik, Christopher (1
March 2013). "Review of organic Rankine
cycles for internal combustion engine
exhaust waste heat recovery". Applied
Thermal Engineering. 51 (1–2): 711–722.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2012.10.017
(https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.applthermale
ng.2012.10.017) .

9. Ferreira, Omar Campos (March 1998).

"Efficiencies of Internal Combustion
Engines" (http://www.ecen.com/content/ee
e7/motoref.htm) . Economia & Energia (in
Portuguese). Brasil. Retrieved 11 April
2016.
10. Neff, John (9 December 2005). "BMW
Turbo Steamer Gets Hot and Goes" (http://
www.autoblog.com/2005/12/09/bmw-turb
osteamer-gets-hot-and-goes/) . Autoblog.
Retrieved 11 April 2016.

11. Faiz, Asif; Weaver, Christopher S.; Walsh,

Michael P. (1996). Air pollution from motor
vehicles: Standards and Technologies for
Controlling Emissions. World Bank
Publications. ISBN 9780821334447.

12. "Fuel Economy" (https://www.nhtsa.gov/fue

l-economy) . US: National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA). Retrieved
11 April 2016.
General sources

Hardenberg, Horst O. (1999). The Middle

Ages of the Internal combustion Engine.
Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).
ISBN 978-0-7680-0391-8.
scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Ott
oCycle.html
Cengel, Yunus A; Michael A Boles; Yaling
He (2009). Thermodynamics An
Engineering Approach. N.p. The McGraw
Hill Companies. ISBN 978-7-121-08478-
2.
Benson, Tom (11 July 2008). "4 Stroke
Internal Combustion Engine" (http://ww
 w.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/en
gopt.html) . p. National Aeronautics and
Space Administration. Retrieved 5 May
2011.

External links

U.S. Patent 194,047 (https://patents.goo

gle.com/patent/US194047)
Four stroke engine animation (https://w
ww.youtube.com/watch?v=GaTj15g6L9
c)
Detailed Engine Animations (http://www.
animatedpiston.com) Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20170625160053/
http://www.animatedpiston.com/) 25
June 2017 at the Wayback Machine
How Car Engines Work (http://auto.hows
tuffworks.com/engine.htm)
Animated Engines, four stroke (http://w
ww.animatedengines.com/otto.html) ,
another explanation of the four-stroke
engine.
CDX eTextbook (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20060929013854/http://www.cd
xetextbook.com/video/video.html) ,
some videos of car components in
action.
New 4 stroke (https://commons.wikime
dia.org/wiki/File:New4stroke.gif)
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Four-
stroke_engine&oldid=1188434019"

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