ME 401 Internal Combustion Engines

Spring 2017
Homework 2
Problems 3, 4 and 7 are due on April 11, 2017; In class
The rest are study problems

1. Hydrogen is mixed into the air/fuel mixture of a spark ignition engine in the inlet
manifold such that 25% of the energy is supplied by the fuel is from hydrogen. The
gasoline contains 86.5% carbon and 13.5% hydrogen on a mass basis and has a molecular
weight of 110 kg/kmol.
a) Write the chemical equation representing the stoichiometric combustion reaction
based on one mole of mixed fuel.
b) Calculate the theoretical air/fuel ratio of the mixture.
c) Calculate the specific gas constant of the mixture.

2. The operation of a spark ignition engine using a lean mixture ( = 1.1) is estimated
by an idealized cycle. The temperature and pressure at the start of the compression are
310K and 90 kPa, respectively. The temperature and pressure at the end of compression
are 600K and 1442 kPa, respectively. The fuel used may be approximated as C8 H18 . The
temperature of the products is 2200K. Assume that the composition of the products is
fixed at the state they are at the end of combustion. The polytropic gas constant during
expansion can be taken as 1.18.
a) Calculate the heat loss per kilogram mixture during compression
b) Calculate the mean effective pressure of the idealized cycle

3. An air-standard dual cycle has a compression ratio of 14 and a maximum pressure of

8 MPa. One fourth of the heat addition takes place at constant volume and the rest at
constant pressure. If the temperature and the pressure at the beginning of compression
are 300K and 0.1 MPa, respectively. Determine;
a) The displacement (swept volume) per kg of air.
b) The cycle thermal efficiency.
c) The mean effective pressure

4. Consider a mixture of ethanol (C2 H5 OH) with gasoline for use as a spark ignition
engine fuel. Assume that the mixture contain 20% ethanol by volume, the gasoline has
a molecular weight of 110 kg/kmol and contains 84.5% carbon and 15.5% hydrogen on a
mass basis. Calculate the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio for this fuel mixture.

5. A four cylinder, four stroke cycle spark ignition engine has a compression ratio of
8. The temperature and pressure at the beginning of the compression process are 20 C
and 90kPa, respectively. The engine works with a stoichiometric mixture and the fuel is
assumed to be C8 H18 . The fuel consumption rate is 3 g/s. The volumetric efficiency is
70%. The polytropic index during compression is 1.3. Calculate the rate of heat transfer
during compression (R0 = 8.314 kJ/kmol K).

6. For a fuel/air Otto cycle temperature and pressure at the start of compression are
300K and 80kPa and at the end of compression is 600K and 1600kPa. The temperature

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at the end of combustion is 2600K and the pressure at the end of expansion is 450kPa.
The excess air coefficient is 1.2 and the fuel used is C8 H18 . Find the mean effective
pressure.

7. Find the heat loss during compression for a spark ignition engine with an excess air
coefficient of 0.8. The temperature and pressure at the start of compression are 320K and
80 kPa. The compression ratio is 11 and the polytropic gas constant during compression
is 1.32. The fuel is iso-octane (C8 H18 ) and R0 = 8.314 kJ/kmol K.

8. Find the specific gas constant of a lean mixture ( = 0.8) of air and a fuel which has
20% ethyl alcohol - 80% gasoline on a volume basis (gasoline has 86% carbon and 14%
on a mass basis with a molecular weight of 110kg/kmol).

9. Find the mass based air/fuel ratio of a stoichiometric mixture of air and fuel made of
20% diesel fuel(C10.8 H18.7 ) and 80% methane (CH4 ) on a mass basis.