ENGINES
1.1. INTRODUCTION
The term, Engine, coined from the French word Engin, is nothing new to engineers. Motors converting heat energy into motion are usually referred to as engines (Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition, 2010). The type of engine being focused on in this report is an Internal Combustion Engine (as shown in Fig 1.1) in which a fuel is burnt along with air to produce hot gases which are then used to generate the necessary power.
Fig 1.1. An Internal Combustion Engine (Wikimedia Commons, 2006)
IC Engines have been the focus of attention for engineers for more than a decade now. With the vast majority of vehicles on the planet using them for mobile propulsion, IC engines have seen a lot of development through the years. The operation of an IC engine usually follows four processes- Intake, Compression, Combustion and Exhaust. Based on the number of strokes it needs to complete all these processes, IC Engines can be classified into 2- * Two Stroke Engine * Four Stroke Engine * Six Stroke Engines have also been developed since the 1990’s, which actually are modified four stroke engines.
On the basis of the type of fuel used, an IC engine can be further classified into 2- * Diesel Engine (Also called Compression Ignition Engines) * Petrol Engine (Also called Spark Ignition Engine)
The above mentioned engine types also fall into the category called ‘Reciprocating Engines’, as all of them employ the use of a reciprocating piston to transfer power. There are other types of engines as well- * Wankel Engine * Gas Turbine * Jet Engine
1.1.1. Engine Configurations
Along with the above mentioned classifications among engines, they can again be divided into different types on the basis of the arrangement of the cylinders. * Single Cylinder Engine * Inline Engine Design * Straight Inline Engine - Where all the cylinders are arranged in a line. There can be