The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high temperature and pressure gases, which are produced by the combustion, directly applies force to a movable component of the engine, such as the pistons or turbine blades and by moving it over a distance, generate useful mechanical energy.[1][2][3][4]
The term internal combustion engine usually refers to an engine in which combustion is intermittent, such as the more familiar four-stroke and two-stroke piston engines, along with variants, such as the Wankel rotary engine. A second class of internal combustion engines use continuous combustion: gas turbines, jet engines and most rocket engines, each of which are internal combustion engines on the same principle as previously described.[1][2][3][4]
The internal combustion engine (or ICE) is quite different from external combustion engines, such as steam or Stirling engines, in which the energy is delivered to a working fluid not consisting of, mixed with or contaminated by combustion products. Working fluids can be air, hot water, pressurised water or even liquid sodium, heated in some kind of boiler by fossil fuel, wood-burning, nuclear, solar etc.
A large number of different designs for ICEs have been developed and built, with a variety of different strengths and weaknesses. Powered by an energy-dense fuel (which is very frequently a liquid derived from fossil fuels) the ICE delivers an excellent power-to-weight ratio with few safety or other disadvantages. While there have been and still are many stationary applications, the real strength of internal combustion engines is in mobile applications and they dominate as a power supply for cars, aircraft, and boats, from the smallest to the biggest. Only for hand-held power tools do they share part of the market with battery powered devices.
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Q. Why do ordinary car engines waste so much Fuel/Gas per Km? Can you explain to me what the engine does to take away so much, and what does it go through from the reserve into the engine? I will maybe try to come up with a way to waste less.
Asked by Alec S - Thu Oct 16 23:51:04 2008 - - 6 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Gasoline engines are as efficient as they'll ever be nowadays so good luck on your quest. By nature, the engines are highly inefficient as they create a lot of heat from burning fuel that is wasted away and not used to make power. Don't quote me on it but only about 60-70% of the energy (gas) you put into a car comes out as power to the wheel. There are many places for energy to be lost including: the engine (as heat), The transmission (not all the power from the from the engine makes it through the transmission, especially on automatics), and the differential (connects the transmission to wheels, another set of gears where power is further lost).In case you were wondering the most efficient vehicle on earth is the bicycle, a bicycle such… [cont.]
Answered by Z - Fri Oct 17 00:17:03 2008
