The engine is the key component in a vehicle. In this article, I will discuss the engine and its terms.

 

Engine and its terms-

Internal combustion engines are those heat engines that burn fuel inside the engine cylinder. On the other side, external combustion engines are those heat engines that burn their energy outside the engine cylinder. Even though reciprocating internal combustion engines look pretty simple, they are highly complex machines.

There are hundreds of components that have to perform their functions satisfactorily to produce output power. Let us now go through the important engine components and the terminology associated with an engine.

Terms-

Both I.C engines and E.C engines are basically heat engines and convert heat energy into mechanical energy. The heat transfers and other operations depend on the mechanical design of an engine.

The main designing functions are-

• Bore-

The internal diameter of a cylinder is called a bore. The cylinder in which the piston moves in reciprocating motion is hollow. So the bore denotes – πr2h.

• Stroke-

The linear distance along the cylinder axis between two limiting positions is called a stroke. It is the distance between T.D.C and B.D.C. The stroke length is determined by the cranks of the crankshaft.

• Clearance volume-

The volume contained in the cylinder above the top of the piston, when the piston is at the T.D.C, is called the clearance volume. The maximum compression pressure in the piston is controlled by the clearance
volume.

• Swept volume-

The volume swept by the piston while moving from one T.D.C to B.D.C. Swept volume is also called the displacement volume.