Internal Combustion Engines

Watson

Preface

The energy crisis of the early 1970s and the gradually increasing levels of pollution of the environment have focused attention and financial resources on the better understanding of the combustion process in gasoline and diesel engines as means of improving fuel consumption and reducing exhaust emissions. Considerable research has been performed in academic institutions and industrial laboratories to identify the mechanisms which influence combustion efficiency; e.g. the pre-ignition fluid mechanics, the ignition characteristics and combustion chamber geometry. Classical research tools have been complemented by advanced laser diagnostics and zero or multidimensional computer modelling. As a result of this effort a better understanding of the physics and chemistry of combustion has been obtained as well as an improved design of internal combustion engines with shorter development times.

This book was conceived as an attempt to incorporate in a single volume the current trends in engine design and technology, and a number of colleagues in Europe and in the United States were invited to write chapters in their areas of expertise. Some undertook the task without further questioning; others wanted first to be convinced that the book would be different from the many already available in the literature. My response was that a need does exist for a reference book which concentrates on methods of improving engine efficiency through the interaction of combustion with the in-cylinder flow rather than through the thermodynamics of the engine cycle. In the process of editing the various drafts, I realized that some of the authors have pursued the above line of approach more closely than others. In all cases, however, the importance of the in-cylinder fluid mechanics as the controlling parameter of combustion has been given particular emphasis. Overall, the engine was treated as the central and most important component of the total car system, independently of power transmission and car body aerodynamics. This allowed the subject to be covered in a single volume and each chapter to be self-contained.

Since there are wide variations in the existing types of engines, the passenger car engine has been chosen as the representative engine of today’s power generating systems and separate chapters have been devoted to passenger car gasoline, diesel and turbocharged engines (Chapters Two–Four). The basic principles that govern their operation are assumed to be known to the reader and consequently the chapters are relatively short. The automotive fuels that make these engines run are reviewed in Chapter Five and emphasis is placed on the different requirements of the various types of engines. Chapter Six presents the most recent research developments in both the experimental and computational fronts and discusses the application of modern research methods on engine design. The future trends in engine technology are described in Chapter Seven with respect to both conventional and less conventional types of engines. Overall, Chapters Two–Seven describe the present and the future of passenger car engines while their past is covered by Chapter One which is a historical overview of the various phases of automotive industry from the very early years to its current levels of car production.

The book is aimed at graduate engineering students, who are either taking graduate courses or are involved in research, and engineers in the automotive industry who need a compact reference volume on passenger car engines.

I would like to thank Professor J.H. Whitelaw, the series editor, for inviting me to edit this volume and for the many years of fruitful cooperation. Thanks are also due to the Society of Automotive Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Pergamon Press, John Wiley & Sons and Butterworth who have granted permission to the authors of the various chapters to reproduce figures from their respective publications.

Constantine Arcoumanis

London, May 1988

Chapter One

Introduction

M.L. MONAGHAN,     Ricardo Consulting Engineers plc, Bridge Works, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex BN4 5FG, UK

Publisher Summary

This chapter outlines the underlying principles of operation of an engine, the consequences in terms of performance, economy and pollutant emission, and the means available for further development and improvement. The internal combustion engine is widely used in applications ranging from marine propulsion to generating powers in small hand-held tools. Car passenger engine is a lightweight engine with compact fuel storage. The chapter also discusses the spread of passenger car engines. Automobiles have huge impact on the energy use of most industrialized countries because the fuel taxes are a major source of government revenue. Its impact on the fossil fuel reserves of the world is such that major swings in national energy policy extending to changes in the use of nuclear power, and the amount of coal mined and burnt are involved. The magnitude of its use of oil means that environmental pollution ranging from relatively local air quality problems to consideration of the greenhouse effect on the global climate has large influence on the total design of the car and most particularly, the design, the construction and the operation of the engine.

I. The passenger car engine

II. The birth of the internal combustion engine

III. The concept of the passenger car engine

IV. The spread of the passenger car industry

V. The pressures on the engine

A. Survival in service

B. Improved power and economy via the fuel

C. Improved power and economy via the engine

D. Cost reductions

E. Requirement for better economy — early diesels

F. Variety and experiment

G. Environmental pressures

H. Oil crises and energy conservation

I. More refinement and power

J. Electronics

K. The future

I. The passenger car engine

The internal combustion engine is the dominant prime mover in our society and it is used in applications ranging from marine propulsion and generating sets in powers of nearly 100 MW to hand-held tools where the power delivered can be as little as 100 W. The former requires the use of large, slow-speed diesels with cylinder bores of around 1000 mm while the latter normally involves the use of gasoline-fuelled, two-strokes with cylinder bores around 20 mm. Within these two extremes lie medium speed diesel engines, heavy automotive diesel engines, aircraft engines, engines for passenger cars and motorcycles and small industrial engines — a complete study of the internal combustion engine would require many volumes. For this book, the decision was taken to concentrate on the passenger car engine. The sheer number of passenger car engines produced and the influence the car has had (and will continue to have) on our social and economic life means that the passenger car engine is often considered as synonymous with internal combustion engine. The volume of research into the passenger car engine ensures that much published literature deals with that engine, and the serious student of the internal combustion engine will invariably need to place a knowledge of the passenger car engine at the core of his studies.

II. The birth of the internal combustion engine

The origin of the concept of the internal combustion engine is probably impossible to trace, but it seems that the experiments of Christiaan Huygens (the Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer, perhaps better known for his work in astronomy and horology) with gunpowder engines in the early seventeenth century were the first indications that anyone had approached a working engine. The experiments were recorded in a letter he wrote to his brother in 1673 and in which he described a gunpower-fired cylinder which raised weights (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Huygen’s gunpowder engine.

The cylinder, closed by a free piston, had a combustion chamber at its lower end and the charge of gunpowder and air resided in this chamber. On ignition the piston flew to the top of the cylinder uncovering exhaust ports which allowed the heated gases to escape. The piston then fell back partly under its own weight and partly due to the cooling of the residual gases. The descent of the piston was arranged to raise weights by pulling a rope round a drum.

For almost 200 years after the experiments of Huygens prime movers were external combustion engines such as steam engines and hot air engines. The technology and thinking of power plant engineers was dominated by the concepts required for the production and operation of these engines. By the 1860s, however, the industry had become sufficiently mature to establish the conditions for the emergence of the passenger car engine.

Lenoir’s non-compressing gas engine of 1860 was the first production internal combustion engine. Its manufacture in France, Germany, England and even the USA signalled the commercial awareness which would facilitate international licensing arrangements and the same awareness would spur the moves towards mobile power plants. Engineers began to experiment with a wide variety of fuels and engine concepts. The understanding was such that Beau de Rochas was able to file (but not publish) his four-stroke patent and competition and interest promoted such exhibitions as the International Exposition in Paris of 1867.

It was at that 1867 exhibition that Otto and Langen exhibited their atmospheric gas engine which demonstrated so convincingly the efficiency advantages to be obtained from a high expansion ratio. Orthodoxy at that time had adopted the piston crank mechanism so well proven in steam engine service but the Otto and Langen engine reverted to the free piston principle of Huygens and it was this which permitted the high expansion ratio. Like Huygens’s engine, a vertical cylinder was used to guide the piston and the power was extracted on the descending stroke of the piston. The power takeoff was through an overrunning clutch driving a flywheel rather than the rope and drum system of Huygens. Otto and Langen’s engine was so successful that licences were granted to producers in virtually every industrialized country and almost 3000 had been made by 1880. The significance of this can be judged against the usual production volumes of 10 or 20 at that time.

The next real step came with Otto’s four-stroke engine of 1876. It was at least 25% more efficient than the atmospheric engine, had less than a tenth the swept volume and ran at least twice as fast. It would also be recognized by any modern engineer since it had a piston crank mechanism, flywheel and positively actuated inlet and exhaust valves. Like the atmospheric engine the model A from the Deutz company, as Otto’s company had now become, set a world standard and licences were again negotiated world-wide. The engine was produced in tens of thousands and its very success provoked the challenges to the four-stroke patent which led to the collapse of Otto’s case in 1886 and the recognition of the insight of Beau de Rochas. By this time the internal combustion engine industry had become firmly established and many engineers were sufficiently knowledgeable to take advantage of the release from the Otto patent.

III. The concept of the passenger car engine

The engine is the key to the achievement of a viable passenger car and although Cugnot’s steam-powered gun carriage of 1769 and even Siegfried Marcus’s gas-engine driven carriage demonstrated in Vienna in 1875 had shown that powered vehicles were feasible, it required the concept of a light–weight engine with compact fuel storage (liquid) to obtain a true passenger car. That is a vehicle which can be used by the general population for all purposes from business through domestic and pleasure to sport.

In 1882 three engineers who had grasped that engine concept set the foundations of the passenger car industry. Those engineers were Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), Wilhelm Maybach (1846–1929) and Karl Benz (1844–1929).

Daimler, who had been Technical Director at the Deutz works, left in that year and was joined by Maybach also from Deutz. Together they set out to develop a range of high speed, lightweight engines. They brought expertise in four-stroke engines, surface carburettors and hot tube ignition systems from their old factory, and from their general design of Standuhr engine they evolved the variant which powered their first car in 1886.

The engine (see Figure 2 for main features) was 70 mm bore by 100 mm stroke and developed just over 1 hp at 650 rev min–1. It weighed around 100 kg. The name Standuhr derived from the resemblance of the engine to an upright clock and, although multi-cylinder models were eventually produced for many applications to the general Standuhr design, the details differed in many respects from modern engines and even the engines developed in the next few years by other engineers. The most significant differences were in the areas of valve operation and scavenging.

Figure 2 Daimler 1886 Standuhr engine.

The inlet valve was automatic, being operated by intake depression as became standard for a short time, but the exhaust valve was operated by a face-cam machined in the flywheel face. Most contemporary engines used cams and tappets in a similar manner to modern engines or copied steam engine practice with eccentrics or slide-valves. By 1893 the successor to the Standuhr, the Phoenix had fallen into line with convention and used a normal camshaft driven by gears — this arrangement carried the extra weight and cost of a pair of gears but it made governing (via the exhaust valve) much simpler.

Perhaps the most radical departure from convention was the inclusion of the scavenge valve in the piston. This was added to provide a positive exhaust action and avoid infringement of the apparently valid Otto patent. The crankcase of the Standuhr engine was well filled by packing pieces on the crank cheeks and this permitted significant crankcase compression. As the piston approached bottom dead centre, the scavenge valve was tripped open by a stop located from the crankcase and this permitted the compressed crankcase air to pass up into the cylinder and assist in the expulsion of the residual gases. In fact, valve timing and porting expertise at that time was such that most engines were quite poorly scavenged and this feature actually gave a significant advantage in performance.

It was the Standuhr engine which powered the first Daimler car in 1886.

The third engineer, Karl Benz, founded his Gasmotorenfabrik in Mannheim (G. F. M.) in 1881. By 1886 he had developed electric ignition and a simple surface carburettor, with float control of fuel level, to the point where he could contemplate modifying one of his gas engines to burn liquid fuel and install it in a vehicle. The engine he used was 90 mm bore by 120 mm stroke and, like Daimler’s, used the four-stroke cycle. It ran at 250–300 rev min–1 producing about 0.5 hp.

Although both the Daimler and Benz vehicles of 1886 used engines which were light in weight, gave high specific power and used liquid fuel, there was one very significant difference in concept between the two. Daimler produced high speed engines for a variety of applications and his engine was fitted into what was virtually a modified horse-drawn cart. Benz designed his tricycle and engine as a total system from the outset and although his engine was indeed based on the standard gas engines, its design was modified according to the vehicle concept. This total system concept was to remain neglected for almost 90 years when the combination of economic and environmental pressures on the car and engine brought about its revival.

The two vehicles appeared in 1886, the year of the final defeat of Otto’s patent claims. The progress of the passenger car engine from that point to the present would be associated with a mixture of technical, economic, social and environmental effects.

IV. The spread of the passenger car industry

In 1886 the horse was the main form of personal transport. The horse was also a rich man’s form of transport and the passenger cars of Daimler, Benz and the early French and English manufacturers such as Peugeot, Panhard et Levassor and Simms were essentially rich men’s toys. At that time Europe was the centre of the world’s passenger car industry but even the most commercially minded of the European makers saw his future market in terms of the number of vehicles he could sell for recreational purposes. By 1900 the world production of motor vehicles was around 20 000 and most of that was still in Europe, but the technology had, by then, crossed the Atlantic and real production was established in the USA when Ransom Olds founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company Inc. in 1897.

It was in the USA in fact, that a new vision of the passenger car arose. The American industrialists and engineers were well aware of mass production methods and the reduction in cost which they could achieve. The gun, sewing machine and piano industries which were all highly developed in the USA and where the potential price reductions associated with high volume could be seen, had demonstrated other features which would be important to the future car industry. Those American companies in such industries had seen the need for control of material quality, precision machining and monitoring of tolerances to give interchangeable parts, stock control and planned assembly. The first licence granted in the USA by Daimler was actually to William Steinway, the piano maker and the contract was signed in 1888 only two years after the first Daimler car. In fact the first US-made Daimler engines were produced at the Underwood works in Hartford, Connecticut — the factory where the precision, mass production of piano components had been pioneered.

It was Olds, whose Olds Motor Vehicle Company Inc. became the Oldsmobile Company, who really grasped the volume potential of the passenger car and set about producing a low cost, light-weight vehicle which all could afford. The Oldsmobile Curved Dash model of 1902 was possibly the first car to be aimed at the mass market. Production figures for the little Oldsmobile are thought to have been about 2000 in 1902 and 4000 in 1903 — volumes which dwarfed those of any other manufacturer, anywhere in the world, at that time. Henry Ford, beginning to see the same possibilities, formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903 from his Detroit Automobile Company: he wanted to emulate Olds and then go further. At about the same time Leland, the founder of Cadillac, was planning the first car to use fully interchangeable parts and by 1906 he had succeeded to the point where, as a demonstration, three cars could be completely stripped and then reassembled from a mixture of their mutual components and shown to work perfectly reliably. Ford, continuing the development, combined the concepts of mass market, mass production and assembly line work to produce the first Model T in 1908.

Europe continued for the most part with its large, luxury cars for the rich and only a few far-sighted Europeans such as Wilhelm von Opel and André Citroën visited Olds and Ford and understood what they saw in the American factories. Production figures, however, speak for themselves: in 1910 world car production had reached nearly 200 000, or ten times the volume of 1900. Eighty per cent of the 1910 production was in the USA and 20% was in Europe — a complete reversal of the proportions 10 years previously.

In the next few years the American car industry continued to grow at an astonishing rate and had begun to influence the social life of all by bringing improved mobility to a significant part of the population and by creating secondary employment such as road improvement, vehicle servicing, etc. The improved communications brought benefits in terms of transport costs to other industries and the whole American economy grew rapidly after 1908. In Europe a wide variety of models was produced but in small numbers for that part of the population which could afford the craftsman-built toys.

The 1914–18 war brought European civilian production to a standstill while the American producers continued to increase their volumes and reduce their costs. Henry Ford, for instance, halved the cost of the Model T as it grew from its initial volume of less than 10 000 in 1908 to 300 000 in 1914. When hostilities ceased the motor car and its cousins had been used for logistic support vehicles of all types in all kinds of difficult conditions and had been demonstrated as useable tools. The European industry was in a position to grasp the principles of the American industry and pioneers such as Citroën, Opel and Austin began to produce smaller, more readily purchased cars such as the Citroën Type C, the Opel Type 4/12S and the Austin Seven. The Austin Seven was actually aimed so well at the market sector identified by Ford that it was licensed for production in the USA, France and Germany and it hit the Model T sales to the extent that it forced the introduction of the Tin Lizzie’s successor, the Model A.

It was during the 1920s that national governments began to be aware of the economic potential of the motor car industry and tariffs were imposed to limit imports and protect the home industry. The USA still dominated the production numbers at some 80% of the typical 1920s volume of 2 million, but the Europeans were producing virtually all the remaining 400 000. From 1930 through to 1940, the start of the Second World War, the distribution of the motor industry remained more or less the same, but the tariffs brought the first tastes of multi-national operation as General Motors bought Vauxhall in 1925 and Opel in 1929. Ford, using slightly different tactics, established plants at Dagenham and Cologne in 1931.

The growth in passenger car ownership during the 1930s was most rapid in Europe. In 1930 approximately 1 in 10 Americans had a car compared with 1 in 100 Europeans. The depression of the early 1930s brought about a fall in car production in the USA and Americans learned to make their cars last longer so that by 1939 it was still about 1 in 10 Americans who owned a car while car ownership throughout France, Germany, Italy and the UK had risen to almost 1 in 30. The European motor industry was less affected by the depression, partly because the reduction in incomes was less in Europe and partly because the market was seeing the low cost, mass produced cars for the first time. Besides bringing the population of the industrialized European nations to the point where they could view the car in a similar manner to the Americans this also had the effect of bringing European production in 1938 up to almost 1 million at a time when US production had actually dropped from its 1929 peak of just under 5 million to 2.1 million. At this time the European industry was still sharply differentiated from its American counterpart by the production volumes in the factories and, in fact, costs and variety were greater than in the USA.

September 1939 saw world annual car production at about 5 million with the Europeans producing almost 1 million of those and the USSR contributing 500 000. The same month saw the start of the Second World War and an effective halt to any technical or commercial growth in Europe as virtually all the manufacturers turned to the production of military vehicles.

When the war finished the US industry was able to return to manufacturing cars for a mass market, but Europe, shattered by the effects of the war, could not resume so easily. The physical damage meant that only the UK was in any position to start manufacturing cars as in the 1930s and the war years had almost accentuated the national differences so that any European products were aimed at their own local and nationally characterized markets. Thus in 1946 the USA was to get back to the relatively comfortable volume of 2 million while the whole of Europe produced less than 300 000 and 200 000 of those were from the UK.

In Europe the motor factories were able to rebuild and plan new models, if still to a national requirement, and Austin in England, Renault in France, Volkswagen in Germany and Fiat in Italy all dominated their local markets.

By 1950 the US market had expanded smoothly to more than 7 million vehicles; Europe, struggling to generate the purchasing powers, production facilities and large enough volumes had reached just over 1 million; the Communist Bloc had now reached about 100 000 and a country which had been insignificant as a car producer, Japan, produced some 2000 cars. National governments had long realized the importance of the car industry and this had influenced the tariff laws of the 1930s but by 1950 almost 10% of the workforce in the USA and the UK was involved in the production of cars and the industry was far and away the largest buyer of steel and other products related to the car so that its impact on the economy was visible to all.

The importance of the car industry to national economies had been grasped by all the industrialized nations of the world by 1960 and most governments, by support of nationalized companies, by subtle tariffs and by long-term financial aid set out to support their national industries. The result is that the 1980 world production figures show Japan producing 7 million cars, the same number as the USA, and Western Europe producing 10 million. The Communist countries had also realized that motor cars could be a source of foreign exchange and more than 2 million cars were made, essentially for sale to the Western countries by the Communist Bloc.

Japan’s rise to being a major force in the world’s car industry is worth noting. As a country with no oil of its own and a high population density in its habitable area, there was a need to generate foreign exchange to pay for the import of oil and a need for small cars in the domestic market.

The Japanese government decided in 1950, after a debate lasting several years, that the passenger car industry would be one of the industries to receive favourable treatment through low cost loans, tax concessions and a sheltered home market. The industry was already familiar with American practices and technology since both Ford and General Motors had built plants in Japan in the 1920s and had only pulled out in 1939 after the government of that time had passed a number of laws attempting to reduce the US influence in the vehicle industry. The Japanese industry in 1950 was thus in a position to attempt to apply production engineering as learned from the US manufacturers to a product more suitable for its home market. The local traffic conditions made the adoption of those methods to small cars a necessity and by 1960 the annual production had reached nearly 200 000 and exportation to the USA had begun. The revival of the industry had involved the licensing of tooling and designs from American and European manufacturers and the concept of the smaller European car was readily received in Japan and modified within the strategy of the industry.

By 1960 the Japanese car industry had seen that success required the bringing together of three important concepts and this was to result in a dramatic penetration of most of the world market in 1980. Those concepts were: (a) production methods combining just-in-time manufacture scheduling and an approach to quality control typified by what were eventually termed quality circles; (b) high volume production sustained by a healthy home market; (c) small car designs which fitted the domestic market and which could find a niche in most other world markets.

In fact it was the oil crises of the 1970s which really spurred the Japanese penetration of the markets of the West and the USA was the area which provided the largest niche. Today the USA continues to be the main export market for the Japanese industry.

The pendulum had begun to swing away from American dominance of the industry in 1960 and by 1983 Japan had achieved the position of being the world’s largest car producer. The Japanese production was 8 million cars against an American figure of 7 million and it was the first time since 1900 that a single nation had produced more cars than the USA.

The rise of the Japanese industry had been accompanied by intense competition within the home market and the giant companies such as Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu and Mazda are forced to introduce new models at such short intervals that the traditional mass production methods incur high manufacturing overheads. Flexible manufacturing systems are now being introduced in an attempt to avoid the penalties associated with relatively small production runs on fixed plant.

The next stage in the spread of the industry is probably the growth of the industries of Korea and similar countries to the point where they have a real impact on the world market and the extension of the world factory principle so that virtually all car industries are involved in multinational sourcing of components and even component design. Ford already carry out engine design and development in Cologne in Germany and Dunton in England and then produce the engines and bodies in various European countries for assembly in Germany, Belgium, Spain or England. Both Volkswagen and Fiat make engines in Brazil for fitment to European cars.

The rise of the car industry from one which supplied a few toys for rich men to one which shapes national economies has brought enormous social and environmental changes. Many econometric models seem to indicate that car ownership beyond 1 person in 3 will result in saturation of the market and, more importantly, insoluble social and environmental problems — the 1 in 3 level is now approached in North America and Western Europe.

The car now dictates the road system of many countries and that in turn dictates the location of industrial activity. Its impact on the energy use of most industrialized countries is such that fuel taxes are a major source of government revenue. Its impact on the fossil fuel reserves of the world is such that major swings in national energy policy extending to changes in the use of nuclear power and the amount of coal mined and burnt are involved. The magnitude of its use of oil means that environmental pollution ranging from relatively local air quality problems to consideration of the greenhouse effect on the global climate has and will increasingly influence the total design of the car and most particularly the design, construction and operation of the engine.

V. The pressures on the engine

A. Survival in service

Before 1900 the view of the passenger car as a rich man’s toy and the novelty of the new market led to much experimentation with engine configurations and this continued to be almost the norm in Europe up to the outbreak of the First World War. For example, Harry Ricardo, in 1908, adapted his Dolphin two-stroke to a four configuration (having one power and one pumping piston per line this meant a V-eight) to drive a number of cars which he built to special order. In the same year the Daimler Car Company in England produced cars with sleeve-valve engines and in 1911 Itala produced a 5.2 litre engine with a rotary valve.

In the USA, where the mainstream market had been perceived first, the need for a simple, low-cost, reliable engine quickly brought about a standard engine. This was a four-stroke, side-valve engine with four or six cylinders in line.

The in-line configuration fitted in neatly with what had become the standard vehicle configuration of a front-mounted, longitudinally aligned engine, driving through a gearbox and propellor shaft to a differential on the rear axle. This arrangement was introduced by Renault in 1899 and, of course, remained the norm for the next 80 years.

A good example of the standard engine is the US-designed Jeffery engine of 1908 (Figure 3). It is a four-stroke, side–valve engine, 3.75 in. bore by 5.25 in. stroke, of 3.8 litres total swept volume. The four-stroke cycle and low compression ratio combine to give low maximum cylinder pressures and low thermal loads. The crankshaft is cast-iron of four simple throws so that it can be cast and machined easily and is supported by three plain bearings of generous length. These were bronze sleeves coated thickly with white metal as the bearing material. This arrangement gave acceptable rigidity and the low bearing pressures enabled the white metal to survive; it also gave the bearings a chance to accommodate the debris carried round by the unfiltered, poor-quality