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Diesel Cycle

Diesel Cycle
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Did you know that there are two major types of

automobile engines? Ones that run on petrol
and the other that run on diesel. What's
interesting about the two fuels is that petrol can
ignite easily with a spark. Hence petrol engines
are also called spark ignition or SI engines.
Diesel, on the other hand, will not ignite with a
simple spark. The ignition for diesel will take
place only at very high pressure. This gives
diesel engines the name compression-ignition
or CI engines. The diesel cycle is named after
the German inventor Rudolf Diesel. He
proposed a thermodynamic cycle that explained
the working of a diesel engine. Now then let's
see, how the Diesel cycle explains the workings
of a CI engine.

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Diesel Cycle Definition

Definition

The Diesel cycle is a thermodynamic

cycle that best represents the working of
a diesel internal combustion engine.

Before we understand how it does this, let's

briefly look at the working of a CI engine - this
will help you in relating to the processes of the
Diesel cycle that we will be explaining in
subsequent sections.

Deep dive
How do Diesel engines work?

This animation of a CI engine

piston shows how the linear
motion of the prison is
converted into rotation, which
rotates the driveshaft to
produce the power output. The
4 "strokes" of the cycle are also
shown, and will be explained
later. Wikimedia Commons CC-
BY-SA-3.0
There are three important parts
that we need to know for us to
understand the basic principle
of how a CI engine works: The
piston, the crankshaft, and the
combustion chamber. The
piston slides up and down,
inside the combustion chamber.
This chamber is sealed and
airtight, and changes in volume
as the piston slides up and
down. The other end of the
piston is connected to the
crankshaft. Clever engineering
converts the linear motion of
the piston into rotation of the
crankshaft that provides the
power output of the engine.
The most important difference
between a gasoline engine and a
diesel engine is in the ignition of
the fuel. Diesel engines have a
high compression ratio. This
compresses the air-fuel mixture to
very high pressure, usually
assisted by a turbocharger. At
this stage, the temperature of the
fuel reaches a point where it can
ignite without any spark plugs.

Now let's see how the chemical

energy in the Diesel fuel is
converted into mechanical
energy. The internal combustion
engine takes four steps to
achieve this. Each step is called a
stroke as it represents a single
upwards or downwards motion of
the piston.

Diesel cycle Process

The diesel cycle has four processes. These can
each be observed in the animation above, and in
the PV diagram in the next section.

1. Process 1 [suction stroke] - This is when

the piston first moves downward, creating
a vacuum that sucks air into the
combustion chamber.
2. Process 2 [compression stroke] - Once the
piston reaches the lowest point it moves
up again and compresses the air in the
combustion chamber to very high
pressure. The pressure is so high that it
heats up the air to beyond the temperature
at which diesel ignites.
3. Process 3 [power stroke] - The power
stroke starts with a bang, as at the end of
the compression cycle (process 2) the fuel
is injected into the combustion chamber
via the fuel injector. The fuel ignites as it
mixes with the high-temperature air inside
the chamber. This controlled explosion
forces the piston back downwards
producing work.
4. Process 4 [exhaust stroke] - Finally, this is
when the piston moves back up and
pushes the by-products of combustion
(mainly and heat) out of the
combustion chamber. This is called the
exhaust stroke. After this, the piston
repeats process 1 and follows the same
cycle once again.

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Diesel Cycle Diagram

Now let's explain the above paragraph in terms
of thermodynamics. Here we have a PV
(pressure-volume) diagram that depicts an ideal
Diesel cycle. The processes mentioned above
can be identified in the figure below.

PV Diagrams
PV Diagrams (click on the link for an in-depth
understanding of PV diagrams) are used to
graphically represent various different
thermodynamic cycles. The pressure is
measured on the y-axis and the volume is
measured on the x-axis. This makes it a
convenient way to represent the change in
volume and pressure, which is usually important
when we're looking at thermodynamic cycles.

Here are a few important properties of the PV

diagram:

The y-axis represents the pressure,

and the x-axis represents the volume.
Increasing pressure values follow a
down-to-up direction, and increasing
volume values follow left to right.
An arrow indicates the direction of the
processes.

Some thermodynamic terms that are used to

describe processes in PV diagrams are defined
below:

Definition

An isobaric process is a thermodynamic

process where pressure remains
constant.

Definition

An adiabatic process is a thermodynamic

process where there is no transfer of
heat or mass to the surroundings.

Definition

An isentropic process is a
thermodynamic process that is both
adiabatic and reversible.

Definition

The ignition point is a temperature and

pressure combination at which a fuel
spontaneously ignites.

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Diesel Cycle PV Diagram

Below we have a PV diagram that depicts a
theoretically ideal Diesel cycle. The processes
mentioned above can be identified in the figure
below.

PV Diagram of a Diesel cycle, StudySmarter

Originals

Now that you have an understanding of how a

diesel engine operates, we will explain the
working of the diesel engine using the diesel
cycle.

Suction stroke
The horizontal blue line represents the suction
stroke (intake stroke) - starting on the left of the
blue line at at volume, the volume of the
chamber increases because the piston moves
downward, drawing air into the combustion
chamber. This process is isobaric as the
pressure remains constant.

Compression stroke
Isentropic compression from a to b - this is the
compression stroke we mentioned in the above
section. The air gets compressed by the piston
as it moves up and the combustion chamber
volume decreases, increasing the pressure
rapidly. However, there is no exchange of heat.
This makes it an adiabatic process. The
combustion chamber only contains air at this
stage. Due to the increase in pressure, the air is
heated beyond the ignition point of diesel.

Power stroke
Heat addition at constant pressure, b to c

This process covers the first part of the power

stroke. Right before the beginning of the power
stroke, the fuel injectors inject droplets of fuel
into the combustion chamber. The contact
between the diesel and heated air auto ignites
the mixture, with the controlled explosion driving
the power stroke. The combustion of the fuel is
completed at point c. The heat being added to
the system is represented by . This process
lasts for a very short amount of time. As the
piston moves downwards to increase the
combustion chamber volume during the power
stroke, the heat added to the engine happens at
a constant pressure. This makes it an isobaric
process.

Due to the heat addition happening at

constant pressure, the diesel cycle is also
known as the constant pressure cycle.

Isentropic expansion, c to d

This is the final part of the power stroke. The

high pressure after the explosion continues to
push down the piston, increasing the
combustion chamber volume. Here the thermal
energy from the combustion is converted into
mechanical work. This process is also an
adiabatic process.

Heat rejection at constant volume, d to a

This is where the heat is expelled from the
combustion chamber as the piston reaches the
bottom of the power stroke. The volume remains
constant hence it is an isochoric process. The
heat that is expelled is represented by . At
this stage, the pressure also reduces
significantly. This is very similar to the final
process of the Otto cycle.

Exhaust stroke
The blue line in the opposite direction to the
suction stroke represents the final exhaust
stroke where the gases are expelled as the
piston moves back upwards, ready to begin the
cycle again.

Diesel Cycle Efficiency

The formula for the efficiency of the Diesel
cycle is given by the following equation.

Definition

A heat engine's thermal efficiency is

defined as the ratio of useful work done
, to the heat input at high temperature,
.

In order to see how the thermal efficiency of an

idealized diesel cycle changes when varying
properties of the engine, there are two key ratios
we can define; the cut-off ratio and
compression ratio.

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Compression Ratio

Definition

The compression ratio is the ratio of

the volume of the combustion chamber
when the piston is at the bottom to the
volume when it is at the top, measured
during the compression stroke.

Compression ratio in a diesel engine,

StudySmarter Originals
It helps us understand how much the air is
compressed inside the engine before the power
stroke. Commonly, diesel engines have a
compression ratio from 16:1 to 20:1. This is very
high compared to the Otto cycle. It is given by
the following equation,

Fuel Cut-Off Ratio

Definition

The fuel cut-off ratio is the volume

after combustion to the volume before
combustion, .

Cut off ratio of a diesel cycle, StudySmarter

Originals

The volume is the volume at which the fuel

injection is cut off, hence the name. Remember
fuel is supplied by the injector to the hot air. This
ratio can help us understand how much the
chamber expands during the combustion
process.

By applying the conditions of the idealized

diesel cycle, we can rewrite these ratios in
various ways:

We know that the volumes at points a and d

(heat rejection at constant volume) are equal, as
it is an isochoric process.

This means that the compression ratio can also

be written as:

And we can also rewrite the expansion ratio as:

Diesel Cycle Formula and

Equation

Equations used in the diesel cycle, StudySmarter

Originals

What if we wanted to define the efficiency of the

diesel cycle using its temperature? We can
calculate the heat added and released to the
system by using the specific heat of air and
temperatures at each point in the cycle.

Apply this equation for both processes where

heat is added and released. Since the heat is
added at a constant pressure between b to c, we
use , which is the specific heat of air at
constant pressure.

Heat rejection happens at constant volume from

d to a, hence we use , which is the specific
heat of air at constant volume.

Substitute these expressions into our earlier

equation for thermal efficiency, and we obtain:

To make the equation simpler, we can say that

gamma is the ratio of the specific heats of air
at constant pressure and constant volume
:

Simplifying the above equation for efficiency, we

get:

We now have the thermal efficiency in terms of

temperature, but the ratios we defined earlier
are in terms of volume! How can we express the
efficiency formula in terms of volumes? First, we
need to further rearrange the equation:

By applying the thermodynamic process

conditions to these temperature ratios, we can
write them as the volume ratios we defined
earlier. As the compression stroke from a to b is
isentropic, the temperatures and volumes have
the following relation:

Similarly, the isentropic expansion from c to d in

the power stroke means that:

And finally, we need to rewrite the expression for

the cut-off ratio in terms of temperatures. By
applying the ideal gas equation and
seeing that the pressures at points b & c are the
same, we can write the ratio as:

Having defined these temperature ratios in

terms of the compression and cut-off ratios, we
now use algebra to simplify the efficiency
equation to these parameters.

This simplifies to a final efficiency equation of:

The value mostly remains constant for

automobile engines on the earth as the ratio of
specific heat for air is about 1.4. As you can see,
the above equation for the efficiency of the
diesel cycle shows the relationship between the
thermal efficiency of the diesel cycle and the
compression and cut-off ratios. When the cut-off
ratio increases the thermal
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