THERMODYNAMIC CYCLES

Exercise #08
A four-cylinder, four-stroke, 2 liter operates on Otto cycle with a compression ratio of 11. At the
beginning of the compression process, air is at 1 bar and 50C, the engine speed is 5000 rpm. The
maximum temperature during the cycle is 1800C. Compression and expansion efficiency is 0.8.
Represent the cycle on p-V and T-s diagram and then calculate:
the ideal and real cycle efficiency;
the mass air flow;
the heat transferred to air during the constant-volume heat-addition process.
Consider air an ideal diatomic gas (cp=7/2R and mw 28.9 g/mol).
Solution:
First of all we must draw the cycle on the ideal thermodynamic diagram.

the ideal cycle has 2 reversible adiabatic transformation (1-2 and 3-4) and 2 isochoric (2-3 and 4-
1). The irreversibility cause the movement of the point 3 and 4 on the isochoric transformation to
the point 2 and 3.
The air mass in the cycle is given by eq. (1.1):
m air N n mw (1.1)

where N is the engine speed (take into account that air intakes is every 2 rotation of the engine),
mw is the molecular weight of air and n is the number of mol processed by the engine.
The number of mol is given by the state ideal gas equation, where the volume is the capacity of
the engine (defined as the difference between V1 and V2).

p1 V1 V2 105 Pa 2 103 m3
n 0.074mol
R T1 8.314 J mol 1 K 1 323K

5000
m air N n mw rpm s 1 0.074mol 28.9 103 kg mol 1 0.089kg s 1
2 60
The cycle efficiency is a function of T so we must calculate all the temperature of the cycle
(point 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the diagram) both for the ideal and real transformation.
The first step is to evaluate V1 and V2 from the definition of engine capacity and from the
compression ratio. Dividing the capacity equation for V2 we have:

V1 V2 2 103 m3

V2 V2

V1 2 103 m3
1 1
V2 V2

2 103 m3 2 103 m3
V2 2 104 m3
1 10

V1 2 103 m3 V2 2 103 m3 2 104 m3 2.2 103 m3

Transformation from 1 to 2 is adiabatic. We consider it at the beginning ideal, so reversible and

driven by the polytrophic equation of ideal gases, where is the ratio between cp and cv:

pv const (1.2)

Using ideal gas equation in eq. (1.2):

T V 1 const

T1 V1 1 T2 V2 1 (1.3)

V1 1 T2
1

V2 T1

1
V1 1 V
T2 T1 1
T1 1 T1 1
V2 V2

T2 T1 1 323K 110.4 843K

The real transformation is not isentropic; therefore we must take into account the isentropic
compression efficiency defined as the ratio between the ideal work and the real work done on the
air.

wtid hid c p T id T2 T1

wrid h r
c p T r T2 T1

T2 T1 843 323
T2 T1 323K K 973K
0.8
the maximum temperature of the cycle is given by the problem (1800C). The last transformation
4-1 is adiabatic, as we did before we consider at the beginning ideal (reversible) using eq. (1.3)
and then the real.

T4 V4 1 T3 V3 1

1 1
V3 1 V 1 1
0.4
T4 T3 T3 3 T3 2073K 794 K
V4 1 V4 11

taking into account the irreversibility:

T4 T3 T4 T3 2073K 0.8 794 2073 K 1050 K

Now we can evaluate the thermodynamic cycle efficiency:

w3t 4 q23 q41 q

th cycle 1 41
q2 3 q2 3 q2 3

where Q4-1 and Q2-3 are the heat given to the ambient and the heat taken from the combustible.

q41 c T T T T
thcycle 1 1 v 4 1 1 4 1 (1.4)
q2 3 cv T3 T2 T3 T2

Eq. (1.4) can be applied to both the ideal and the real cycle.
T4 T1 794 K 323K
thidcycle 1 1 0.617
T3 T2 2073K 843K

T4 T1 1050 K 323K
thr cycle 1 1 0.339
T3 T2 2073K 973K

the ideal heat transferred to air is Q2-3

5
Q23 m air cv T23 m air R T3 T2
2

5 8.314 J mol 1 K 1
0.089 kg s 1 2073 843 K 78.7 kW
2 28.9 10 3 kg mol 1

the real one is:

5
Q23 m air cv T23 m air R T3 T2
2

5 8.314 J mol 1 K 1
0.089 kg s 1 2073 973 K 70.4 kW
2 28.9 103 kg mol 1
Exercise #09
A four-cylinder, four-stroke, 2.4 liter operates on Diesel cycle with a main compression ratio of
17 () and intermediate compression ratio of 2.5 (). The inlet air conditions are 1 bar and 80C,
the engine speed is 2750 rpm. The efficiency of the compression process is 0.8 and of the
expansion is 0.9. Represent the cycle on p-V and T-s diagram and then calculate:
the volume of the cycle (V1, V2 and V3);
the ideal and real cycle efficiency;
the mass air flow;
the heat transferred to air during the constant-pressure heat-addition process.
Consider air an ideal diatomic gas (cp = 7/2 R and mw = 28.9 g/mol)
Solution:
This cycle is characterized by 2 adiabatic transformation, 1 isobaric and 1 isochoric.

and then consider the real transformations. The ideal cycle can be solved as we did for the Otto
cycle but we must pay attention to the real process.
The mass airflow used in the cycle is given by:

m air N n mw

where N is the engine speed, mw is the molecular weight of air and n is the number of mol
processed by the engine.
The number of mol is given by the state ideal gas equation, where the volume is the capacity of
the engine (defined as the difference between V1 and V2).

p1 V1 V2 105 Pa 2.4 103 m3

n 0.074mol
R T1 8.314 J mol 1 K 1 353K

So m air is:
 2750
m air N n mw rpm s 1 0.082mol 28.9 103 kg mol 1 0.054kg s 1 (1.5)
2 60
Now we must determinate the T of the cycle (point 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the diagram) in both cases
(ideal and real transformation). The first step is to evaluate V1, V2 and V3 from the definition of
engine capacity, main and intermediate compression ratio. Dividing the capacity equation for V2
we have:

V1 V2 2.4 103 m3

V1 V2 2.4 10 3 m3

V2 V2

2.4 103 m3 2.4 103 m3

V2 1.5 104 m3
1 16

V1 V2 2.4 103 m3 0.15 103 m3 2.4 103 m3 2.55 103 m3

V3
2.5
V2

V3 V2 2.5

V3 V2 2.5 1.50 104 m3 3.75 104 m3

the transformation from 1 to 2 is adiabatic, using the same procedure of the previous exercise, we
get eq. (1.6):

T V 1 const (1.6)

T1 V1 1 T2 V2 1

V1 1 T2
1

V2 T1

1
V1 1 V
T2 T1 1
T1 1 T1 1
V2 V2

T2 T1 1 353K 170.4 1096 K

But the real transformation is not isentropic; therefore we must take into account the isentropic
compression efficiency:
 wtid hid c p T id T2 T1

wrid h r
c p T r T2 T1

T2 T1 1096 353
T2 T1 353K K 1282 K
0.8

the maximum temperature reached by the cycle is now unknown. In the Diesel cycle the heat
addition is isobaric (2-3) and from the ideal gas equation:
T
const
V
T2 T3

V2 V3

V3
T3 T2 T2 2.5 1096 K 2740 K (1.7)
V2

and the real maximum temperature comes from eq. (1.7) using T2 instead of T2
V3
T3' T2' T2' 2.5 1282 K 3205K
V2

The last transformation 4-1 is adiabatic:

T3 V3 1 T4 V4 1

1 1 1
V V V V V
T4 T3 3 T3 3 2 T3 3 2
V4 V2 V4 V2 V1
1 2
2.5 5
T3 2740 K 1273 K
17

taking into account the irreversibility, we must, first of all, calculate the T4* which is the
corresponding temperature of the isentropic expansion from T3'.
1 1 2
V 2.5 5
T4* T3' 3 T3' 3205 K 1489 K
V4 17

and then from using the isentropic expansion efficiency T4' is calculated:

wtr h r c p T r T4' T3'

c p T T4* T3'
id
wrid h
id
 T4 ' T3' esp T4* T3' 3205 K 0.9 1489 3205 K 1661 K

Now we can evaluate the thermodynamic cycle efficiency:

q41 c T T T T
thcycle 1 1 v 4 1 1 4 1
q2 3 cv T3 T2 T3 T2

where Q4-1 and Q2-3 are the heat given to the ambient and the heat taken from the combustible.

Q41 c T T
thidcycle 1 1 v 4 1
Q23 c p T3 T2
5
R T4 T1 5 1273 353 K
1 2 1 60%
7
R T3 T2 7 2740 1096 K
2
the efficiency of the real cycle is:
5
2

R T4' T1 5 1661 353 K
thr cycle 1 1 51.4%
7

'
R T3 T2 '
7 3205 1282 K
2
the heat transferred to air in the ideal cycle is:
7
Q m air c p T3 T2 m air R T3 T2
2
7 8.314 J mol 1 K 1
0.054 kg s 1 2740 1096 K 89.39 kW
2 28.9 103 kg mol 1

in the real cycle:

7
Q m air c p T3' T2 ' m air R T3' T2 '
2
7 8.314 J mol 1 K 1
0.054 kg s 1 3205 1282 K 104.56 kW
2 28.9 103 kg mol 1