What is Compression Ratio – Petrol and Diesel
Engine?
Introduction
• We often talk about the power output when it comes
to internal combustion engine, from over a century
various research have been conducted to study and to
modify the factors affecting the power output of an IC
engine, the configuration of the engine like CC, is
decided after these various research.
• Now let’s just ponder, Are there any effects of cylinder
size on the engine’s power output?
• What effects do the engine configuration like cubic
capacity made on engine’s output?
What is Compression Ratio?
• A compression ratio (CR) of an I C engine is the
ratio of the total volume of the combustion
chamber to the volume left after complete
compression i.e. clearance volume. In simple
words it is the ratio between the total volume
of the combustion chamber which is left when
the piston is at its bottom dead center and the
volume left inside the combustion chamber
when the piston moves to its top dead center.
.
• For example- Let’s consider an engine having 1000cc total
volume out of which 900cc is the swept volume i.e. the volume
covered by the piston when it moves from BDC to TDC, and
having 100cc clearance volume i.e. the volume left inside the
cylinder when the piston reached to its TDC. So the
compression ratio of this engine will be 1000:100 or 10:1.
• It is found that greater the compression ratio more will be the
power output of the engine.
• The compression ratio of diesel engine is much higher than that
of petrol engine. i.e. for petrol engine the CR varies from 10:1
to 14:1 and for diesel engines the CR varies from 18:1 to 23:1.
What is the Need of Compression Ratio?
• The compression ratio (CR) of an I C engine is
a design criterion that has to be determined
by the design team while designing
the engine; the CR is selected according to the
output need of the engine as it directly affects
the engine output and also the overall size of
the engine.
1. Petrol Engine
• If we talk about 4-stroke petrol engine the compression ratio has its own
significance that are-
• In petrol engine air-fuel mixture enters the combustion chamber during
the suction stroke and for proper mixing and for proper combustion of
this air-fuel mixture compression of this mixture is required which is done
by the engine in its compression stroke, so a good compression ratio of
the petrol engine is required for proper combustion of the air-fuel mixture
which in turn provides better thermal efficiency.
• The pressure inside the cylinder increases during compression stroke
which in turn raises the temperature of the air-fuel mixture that leads to a
complete or proper combustion of the fuel when the spark plug produces
spark which in turn provide better fuel economy and also prevents the
engine from various defects.
• The petrol engine usually comes with 10:1 to 14:1 compression ratio
depending upon the application and design requirement.
2. Diesel Engine
• In diesel engine a high CR is required as the diesel engine doesn’t have
any spark plug so the combustion of the fuel completely depends upon
the compression of the air provided by the compression stroke of the
diesel cycle because of which diesel engine is also known as compression
ignition engine.
• The diesel engine with high compression ratio provides the engine with
high compression i.e. provides high pressure rise, which is required to
increase the temperature of the compressing air to the extent of the auto
ignition temperature of the fuel that is to be sprayed by the fuel injectors
which in turn provide complete or proper combustion of fuel.
• The diesel engines are known for providing high power output which is
due to the high compression ratio of the diesel engine, as we know
higher the CR higher will be the thermal efficiency or work output.
• A diesel engine with high CR provides high fuel economy due to the
higher thermal efficiency provided by the high compression combustion.
• Diesel engines usually come with higher compression ratios (16:1 to
23:1).
Design Criteria on which the compression ratios depends
• Stroke length – The stroke length of an engine is the length of the
combustion chamber or the distance between the TDC and BDC of an
engine cylinder, the compression ratio depends on the stroke length, as
higher the stroke length of the engine cylinder higher will be its CR.
• Bore diameter – The shape of an engine cylinder is cylindrical so the bore
diameter of an engine is the diameter or inner diameter of the engine’s
cylinder inside which the piston is moving, The compression ratio of an
engine depends upon the bore diameter as higher the bore diameter of an
engine higher will be the compression ratio.
• Number of cylinders – Number of cylinders also affects the CR of an
engine as the engine with higher number of pistons provides higher
compression ratios.
So it can be concluded from the above design criteria that the engines that
are bigger in size has high compression ratio than the engines that are
small.
Due to this bigger size requirement of the in-line engines with the high CR,
V-shape engines are introduced that provides high compression ratio with
