How Do Combustion Engines Work?

The invention of the internal combustion engine sprouted from the work of several engineers and inventors across Europe and into America. First, in 1859, Jean-Joseph Etienne Lenoir developed the first practical internal combustion engine which after many modifications and changes, led to the modern engine that plays a crucial role in today’s society. Prior to Lenoir, external combustion engines such as the steam engine and early hydrogen engine

“The engine block houses and links all the engines components, such as the cylinders and pistons.”-(How it’s made engine block) That is cool because if you think about it when you open your car hood you wouldn’t be able to see the pistons. “There are little passages in the engine block that allow coolant to cycle around the engine block.”-(How it’s made engine block) That is great so that the engine block don’t overheat when you are driving it around. “The engine block it where combustion converts into a mechanical energy, this helps drive the transmission propelling the car forward.”-(How it’s made engine block) This is really cool when you think about it. When the pistons go down it sucks in fuel and then when it starts to go back up it starts to press it together then makes a boom and make a force that makes the car

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.

The invention and use of the internal combustion engine was a pivotal point in the history of the automobile. The first attempt at an internal combustion engine was in 1673 by Christian Huygens, using gunpowder as the fuel source, though it was basically worthless as you had to open the engine up and put new gunpowder in it after every single stroke ("The Fuel & Engine"). This lack of a fuel for internal combustion engines sidelined its development for a couple hundred years. In 1860 Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir built the first effective internal combustion engine using natural gas (Bottorff). The ignition of the gas would create a vacuum and the resulting pressure difference between the vacuum and the atmosphere would drive the power stroke (Bottorff). This gas-atmospheric engine, as it is known, was an effective system capable generating 20hp, still it was imperfect. It was further improved with the development

The heat engine I chose to research was the jet engine. The jet engine is a heat engine specialized to use jet propulsion for forward thrust. The first credible theory on jet engines was made by Sir Isaac Newton. He theorized that a backward-siphoned explosion could move a machine forward at a momentous rate of speed. This theory was based off of his third law of motion which is for every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. This law states that for every force there is a reaction force that is equal in size, but in the opposite direction. This early theory on the idea of jet engines gave way to the later inventors who would use Newton’s theory to make the first working jet engines. In 1928 Sir Frank Whittle started developing his first jet engine, and in 1932 he had the idea of his jet engine patented. In 1937 Sir Frank Whittle finally created a working jet engine. Meanwhile in Germany, Dr. Hans Van Ohain was working on his own jet engine unaware of Whittle’s work. Dr. Hans Van Ohain began his project in 1935, finished his first engine in 1937, and it was used in the first ever plane flight in 1939. Sir Frank Whittle is usually accredited to most of the work on early jet engines because not only did he get to start working on the idea a few years before Dr. Hans Van Ohain, but Germany was also being very secretive about their work due to their dislike of the other countries in Europe. Dr. Hans Van Ohain’s work was not shared to the world, but Whittle’s was and

The spark plugs are run by a set of coils, the number of them depends on the amount of cylinders the engine has. The coils receive an electrical current from the engine, and it is run through the distributor which has wires that go to each spark plug. The electricity transfers through the spark plug into the combustion chamber of the cylinder head and ignites the fuel. The cylinder head is where the valves are located. In most internal combustion engines, there are two valves per cylinder. One for the intake of air, and the other to release the gases which are a product of the explosion inside of the cylinder. The valves open and close in synchronization with the pistons in order for the engine to work correctly. There is another part which opens and closes the valves. This part is called the camshaft. The camshaft is much smaller than the crankshaft, and it has lobes which are in offset positions to open and close the intake and exhaust valves at the correct times. The Valves are opened and closed by a set of pushrods for each cylinder. The pushrods are located on top of a part called the lifter. The lifter is what catches the lobes

We've all seen them before, the mysterious chunks of metal under the hoods of our cars. They start when we turn the key and take us where we want to go. But how does an engine work? Internal combustion engines are a very important part of everyday life. We use them in our cars, trucks, airplanes. boats, snowmachines, 4 wheelers, and heavy machinery. These pages will help familiarize you with the basic concepts of how an engine works, an understanding of engine output, and some information on how forced induction or "boost" increases power output.

This investigation used both primary and secondary sources, majority of which being books, websites, videos, surveys and interviews. Interviews were planned to be conducted with

However, this paper will explore the examination of the research problem using a qualitative methodology. It will also restate the

Combustion, also known as rapid burning, is the basic chemical process of releasing energy from any fuel and air mixture. In an internal combustion engine, the ignition and combustion of the fuel occurs within each cylinder of the engine block. The engine then partially converts the energy from the combustion to push the piston down. The engine consists of a fixed cylinder and a moving piston (Springfield.mntm.org, 2017). The expanding combustion gases push the piston, which in turn rotates the crankshaft. Ultimately, through a system of gears in the powertrain, this motion drives the vehicle’s wheels

In the internal combustion engine, the piston starts form the top. As the crankshaft rotates the piston will start to move down which will allow the intake valve to open so air and fuel can flow inside the combustion chamber. In this process, the mixture of air and fuel gets pulled in the combustion chamber.

In order for an internal combustion engine to operate correctly, a mixture of fuel and air needs to enter into the combustion chamber, pressurised and then ignited by a spark ignition which then drives the piston to rotate. The way that the fuel is introduced into the combustion chamber has evolved over the decades. Before electronic fuel injection, carburettors were the primary method of mixing air and fuel. Carburettors work on the Bernoulli’s principle: the faster the air moves, the lower its static pressure and the higher its dynamic pressure. The throttle actuates carburettor mechanisms which meter the flow of air being pulled into the engine, the speed of this flow and therefore its pressure determines the amount of fuel drawn into the airstream.

Although the internal combustion engine vehicle is the most popular vehicle type in the world it has serious problem relating to its exhaust emissions and the drown back of energy resources and high demand of petrol and diesel etc. the motor industry is trying to solve these kind of problem and developed many different kind of vehicle which use alternative energy, compressed natural gas, and solar energy, and electricity etc. The hybrid vehicle, which combines of the internal combustion engine and the battery.

I’m interested on this topic because, I think that the four stroke combustion cycle in Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) revolutionized the way the Man think and Moves. Internal Combustion Engines are also significantly more efficient than the well-known steam engine. Today it has better power than electric batteries and motors, and offers similar overall efficiency. Small, lightweight ICE made personal transportation possible. It transformed how we built cities and did business. Engines are so important for the advancement on any society, nowadays without engines it will be much harder for man to do what it look simple and ordinary in today’s world. More than importance of this topic on my career or profession, is the importance on the topic in our daily live, this paper explains how with the help of physics all grate scientists revolutionized our modern world of engines.

The methodology of the research is qualitative hence secondary resources such books, reference materials, on line articles on BI, IT journals on PDF served as the basis of discussion. Five people were also interviewed to solicit their personal views