13.1.

BACKGROUND
Not all the work transferred to the piston from the high-pressure gases contained inside the cylinder—the indicated work—is
available at the drive shaft for actual use. That portion of the work transferred, which is not available, is usually termed friction
work. It is dissipated in a variety of ways within the engine and engine auxiliaries. The friction work or power is a sufficiently
large fraction of the indicated work or power—varying between about 10% at full load and lower speeds, through 50% at light
load, to 100% at idle or no-load—for the topic to be of great practical importance. Friction losses affect the maximum brake
torque and minimum brake specific fuel consumption directly. A large part of the friction losses appear as thermal energy in
the coolant and oil which must be removed in the radiator and oil cooler system. Thus, friction losses influence the size of the
engine coolant systems. A knowledge of friction power is required to relate the combustion characteristics of an engine—
which influence the indicated power—and the useful output—the brake power, as illustrated in Fig. 13.1.

Figure 13.1 Work flow within the engine: Indicated work is transferred from the in-cylinder gases to
the piston; a portion of this, the friction work, is dissipated; the brake work is then available at the
drive shaft.

The friction work, defined as the difference between the work delivered to the piston from the working fluid within the
cylinder, and the useable work delivered to the drive shaft, is expended as follows:

To draw the fresh mixture through the intake system and into the cylinder, and to expel the burned gases from the cylinder
and out of the exhaust system. This is usually called the pumping work.

To overcome the resistance to relative motion of all the moving parts of the engine. This includes the friction between the
piston rings, piston skirt, and cylinder wall; friction in the piston pin, connecting rod small and big ends, crankshaft and
camshaft bearings and seals; friction in the valve actuation mechanism; friction in the gears, or pulleys and belts, which
drive the camshaft and engine accessories.

To drive the engine accessories. These usually include: the water pump, the oil pump, the fuel pump, a secondary air pump
(if used) for emission control, the fan, and the generator. The various pumps are defined as the essential engine

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 accessories.

Pumping work is treated differently in naturally-aspirated and turbocharged engines. In naturally-aspirated engines, the
pressure in the cylinder during the intake stroke is below atmospheric pressure due to flow resistances in the total intake
system, and is higher than atmospheric pressure during the exhaust stroke. The pumping work per cycle (the ∫ pdV over the
exhaust and intake strokes) is therefore negative and thus dissipates part of the gross indicated work (see Fig. 6.1). In
turbocharged engines the same intake and exhaust system flow resistances and pressure drops are present, but the in-
cylinder intake and exhaust stroke pressures are primarily controlled by the turbocharger compressor and turbine behavior.
The air pressure rise the compressor produced at higher engine loads is significantly larger than the intake flow resistance-
induced pressure losses. And at higher engine loads, the pressure difference needed to drive the turbine (which then drives
the compressor) is higher than the exhaust flow resistance pressure drops (see Fig. 6.2). Note that at lighter loads and lower
turbocharged engine speeds, the flow-resistance pressure drops, and the impact of the turbocharger on intake and exhaust
stroke in-cylinder pressures, are small. As load and speed increase, the flow resistances increase (see Sec. 6.2.3) but the
compressor outlet and turbine inlet pressures increase much more. Under these more highly loaded conditions, the pumping
work over the exhaust and intake strokes becomes positive and adds to the gross indicated work. Note that the exhaust gas
temperature in spark-ignition engines is significantly higher than in diesel engines. Thus, the exhaust manifold pressures
required to drive the turbines in diesel engines are higher than in spark-ignition engines. As a consequence, in diesels this
higher-load (positive) pumping work is smaller.

All this work is eventually dissipated into thermal energy: the term friction work or power is therefore appropriate. In this
chapter we will explore the relative importance of these components in typical automotive SI and diesel engines at different
loads and speeds. The absolute value of the total friction work varies with load, and increases as speed increases. The piston
and connecting rod assembly contributes the largest friction component.

The relative importance of the friction components in a naturally-aspirated gasoline SI engine at light load and low-to-mid
speed is illustrated in Fig. 13.2. Typical ranges are crankshaft 10 to 15%, reciprocating (piston and con rod) 25 to 30%,
valvetrain 10 to 15%, auxiliaries 10 to 15%, and pumping 30 to 45%. In a small turbocharged diesel engine at equivalent
operating conditions, the pumping work is much lower (only a few percent) and the reciprocating component is significantly
larger due to higher in-cylinder pressures. The high-pressure fuel pump drive requirement (small in a gasoline engine)
becomes comparable to the water and oil pump requirements.

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 Figure 13.2 Comparison of major categories of friction losses: friction mean effective pressure at
different loads and speeds for 1.6-liter four-cylinder overhead-cam automotive spark-ignition (SI)
and compression-ignition (CI) engines.1

Note that the magnitude of engine friction is important, and has been steadily reduced over the years through engineering
research, development, and design improvements. The relative importance of friction relative to the indicated engine output is
also important. As the specific output of engines has steadily increased, the relative (negative) impact of friction has been
reduced. The pumping work for naturally-aspirated SI engines is larger than for equivalent CI engines and becomes
comparable to rubbing friction at light loads as the engine is increasingly throttled.

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