International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

Effect of Compression Ratio on Performance of a

Four-Stroke Spark-Ignition Engine - A Theoretical
and Experimental Study
Vijayashree

Tamil Porai P

Internal Combustion Engines Division,

Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Anna University, Chennai, India.

Internal Combustion Engines Division,

Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Anna University, Chennai, India.

Mahalakshmi N V

Ganesan V

Internal Combustion Engines Division,

Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Anna University, Chennai, India.

Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory,

Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai, India.

Abstract Researchers strive to improve the

performance characteristics such as power, thermal
efficiency, mean effective pressure etc. of automotive
engines. As the emission norms are becoming
stringent day by day, the car manufacturers try their
best to decrease the emissions and improve the
performance without major compromise on
performance. Improvements in the performance of
an engine are can be achieved by increasing the
compression ratio below detonating values. In this
study influence of compression ratio on cylinder peak
pressure, power, efficiency, and work for a fourstroke spark-ignition engine is reported. Both
experimental and theoretical studies have been
undertaken. Theoretical work is carried out using
thermodynamic modelling techniques. Compression
ratios ranging between 6.3 and 10.3 are considered in
the speed range of 1200 and 2800 rpm. Experiments
have been carried out on a single cylinder engine for
a compression of 8.3 over the above speed range. The
investigation is carried out particularly at such low
speeds since in city driving the vehicles run only at
part throttle in the above range of engine speed. The
general conclusion is that the increase in compression
ratio increases the performance.

engines to get more work from the same amount of fuel

burnt.
It is to be noted that only a part of energy
present in the combustion chamber gets converted to
useful power output. Most of the energy produced is
wasted as heat and frictional losses. Apart from these
losses, other parameters that affect the thermal
efficiency are the lower calorific value of the fuel,
compression ratio as well as specific heat ratio [1].
Compression ratio is the ratio of the total
cylinder volume the clearance volume
[2].
Theoretically, increasing the compression ratio of an
engine can improve the thermal efficiency of the engine
by producing more power output. In theoretical ideal
Otto cycle of a SI engine, thermal efficiency, th
increases with increase in compression ratio, rc [3],
which is given by
1
(1)
1

Keywords: Compression ratio, power

thermal efficiency, volumetric efficiency

output,

I. INTRODUCTION

Automobile manufacturers strive to reduce

emissions and fuel consumption without compromising
on the engine performance to meet the increasing
requirements imposed by the governments and the
customers. Improving internal combustion (IC) engine
efficiency is a prime concern today. A lot of research is
being conducted to improve the thermal efficiency of

where is ratio of specific heats (for air = 1.4).

However, changing the compression ratio affects the
combustion rate of actual engines. The overall effect of
the compression ratio can be arrived at only by
conducting testing. Further, knocking has a limitation
for increasing the compression ratio [4].
Mario Martins and Hua Zhao [5] have studied
the controlled auto-ignition (CAI) combustion on a
standard four-cylinder gasoline engine with valve
overlap for analyzing its performance and emission
characteristics. The major modification was the
replacement of the camshafts for a new set. The results
showed a fair range of load and speed under CAI
combustion with reduced brake specific consumption
and ultra-low levels of NOx emissions. CO reduction
and HC emissions increase were noticed. The results
pointed out some drawbacks of CAI combustion. The

ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
181

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

technological challenges of this advanced combustion

process.
Asif Ali Mirani et al. [6] have done a research
study on the evaluation of performance of a single
cylinder four stroke gasolene engine. Based on the
actual engine parameters the indicated horse power
(ihp), brake horse power (bhp) and friction horse power
(fhp) was determined The mechanical efficiency and
thermal efficiency was also calculated.
Yuh and Tohru [7] have done a research on the
effect of higher compression ratios in two-stroke
engines. The results show that the actual fuel
consumption improvements for each unit increase in the
compression ratio range of 6.6 to 13.6. It was concluded
that the rate of improvement was smaller as compared to
the theoretical values. The discrepancies were mainly
due to increased mechanical and cooling losses, shortcircuiting at low loads and increased time losses at
heavy loads are also reported. Power output improved,
but the maximum compression ratio was limited due to
knock and the increase in thermal load.
Influence of compression ratio on power and
thermal efficiency in a four stroke spark ignition engine
are studied both theoretically and experimentally and
presented in this paper. The theoretical performance
characteristics for the engine are obtained from derived
equations.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

A four-stroke single cylinder spark ignition

engine with direct current electric dynamometer is used
for conducting the experiments. The details of the
engine is given in Table 1.
TABLE 1
DETAILS OF THE ENGINE

Fuel
Compression ratio
Cylinder bore (mm)
Stroke (mm)
Connecting rod length (mm)
Crank radius (mm)
Number of cylinders
Engine speed (rpm)
Inlet pressure (bar)
Equivalence ratio
Ignition timing
Duration of combustion

C8H18
8.3
70
90
160
45
1
12002400
1
1
158.4 BTDC
59.4

III. THEORETICAL DETERMINATION OF PERFORMANCE

CHARACTERISTICS

During combustion process, chemical energy in

the fuel is converted to mechanical power. It will be

better if all the heat stored in the fuel may be completely

converted to power. The power developed can be
and
expressed as the product of the fuel mass flow,
the heating value of the fuel, QLV. However, there will be
some losses during the energy conversion.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENTS

The brake load was measured through a

dynamometer using the following procedure:
The engine is motor-started when the transformer was
switched on. Therefore, the motor becomes the load to
the engine. It absorbs the engines power (as a
dynamometer). The torque arm was measured; the brake
load and time taken for 50 ml of the fuel consumption
were taken and recorded. The experimental values for
the brake power, brake mean effective pressure, brake
thermal efficiency and specific fuel consumption were
similarly calculated. Using the break thermal efficiency
indicated values are calculated. The pressure variation
were measured using a pressure transducer.
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A graphical user interface developed to simulate

the various performance characteristics of the engine
incorporating various combustion models is shown in
Fig.1. Provision is given in the GUI to get the output or
the result either as graphs or tables.
Figures 2 to 4 are the theoretically obtained
graphs for the power output, thermal efficiency and
volumetric efficiency for the compression ratios between
5.3 and 11.3 in steps of one for various speeds between
1400 to 2800 rpm.
Figures 5 to 7 show the comparisons between
the predicted and experimental values at 2800 rpm for a
compression ratio of 8.3. It can be seen from the figures
that with increase in compression ratio, the power
output, volumetric efficiency and thermal efficiency
increase. And the predicted results are reasonably
matching with experimental values.
Theoretical simulation involves modelling of
all the process to obtain p- variation. The novelty of
this study is the use of different combustion models and
the best model was selected. The predicted results are
based on the best combustion model which was obtained
by comparing the prediction and experiments. Because
of the space restriction, the details are not elaborated.
From Fig.2, it is seen that the engine power
increases with compression ratio (CR) as well as speed.
This is due to higher brake torque at higher CR as well
as more number of cycles executed per second with
speed. Increase in CR induces greater turning effect on
the cylinder crank. This means that the engine is giving

ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
182

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

more push on the piston, and more torque is generated. It

should be noted that the engine torque is directly related
to the brake power. Further, with increase in
compression ratio the expansion ratio also increases.
This will also provide additional power.
In Fig.3, it can be seen that the maximum
thermal efficiency increases with compression ratio. By
compressing the available air and fuel mixture into a
smaller space, with the heat of compression, causes
better mixing and evaporation of the fuel. Greater
combustion efficiency from increase in compression
ratio means that the combustion of the fuel pays greater
dividends by more energy release from the fuel. The net
result is that the increase in energy available is greater.

As the compression ratio increases, the fuel mixture is

sufficiently compressed thereby increasing the thermal
efficiency, so that comparatively less fuel is required to
produce the same amount of energy. It is to be noted that
with increase in speed, the thermal efficiency decreases
due to decrease in volumetric efficiency (Fig.4).
It can be seen from Fig.4, that with increase in
speed the volumetric efficiency starts decreasing due to
less breathing ability caused by lower available time.
Figures 5 to 7 show the validation of the predicted
results with the experiment. The predicted results are
reasonably in good agreement with the experiment
value.

Fig.1 GUI for SI engine simulation

Fig. 3 Variation of thermal efficiency with speed for different

compression ratios

Fig. 2 Variation of power with speed for different

compression ratios

ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
183

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

Fig.
F 4 Variationn of volumetricc efficiency wiith speed for
d
different
comprression ratios

Fig.5 Vaalidation of pow

wer Vs Speed with
w compresssion ratio
8.3 at enggine speed of 2800
2
rpm

Fig.6 Validationn of volumetricc efficiency Vs Speed with

compressionn ratio 8.3 at en
ngine speed of 2800 rpm

Fig.7 Vaariation of therm

mal efficiency with compresssion ratio
8.3 at enggine speed of 2800
2
rpm

VI. CONCL
LUSION

[4] D. Chaiyot annd K. Somrrat K. Expeerimental

The general conclusions draw

wn from the results of thiis
worrk are as follows:
Increase in compresssion ratio increases th
he
power and
a
thermal efficiency and
a
the worrk
output. It
I means that higher comp
pression ratioos
make it possible to improve thee performancce
characterristics of sparrk ignition enggines.
There iss only a smaall deviation
n between thhe
theoretical and exxperimental values annd
thereforee it may be stated that there
t
is good
agreemennt betweenn the theoretical annd
experimeental perform
mance charactteristics of thhe
engine.
VI. REFER
RENCES

[1] S. Mohit and

a
S. Lamaar, Making more
m
efficiennt

[5]

[6]

[7]

combustion engines, Brigght Hub Publiisher, 2010

[2] V. Ganesann. Internal Combustion

C
E
Engines,
Tatta
McGraw Hiill Publishing Co. Ltd, Indiia, 2012
[3] V. Ganesann. Simulation of Spark iggnition enginee,
University Press,
P
India, 1996
1

[8]

ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
184

Influ
uence of Com
mpression Rattio on to Perfformance
andd Emission off Compressed
d Natural Gass Retrofit
Eng
gine, King Mongkuts
M
Insstitute of Tecchnology
Norrth Bangkok, 2005
2
Marrio Martins aand Hua Zh
hao, Performaance and
emissions of a 4-cylinder gasoline
g
enggine with
Conntrolled Auto--Ignition, J. Braz.
B
Soc. Mech.
M
Sci.
& Eng.
E
vol.34 noo.4 Rio de Janneiro Oct./Decc. 2012
Asiff Ali Miranni, Jandool Khan,
K
Saeedd Ahmed
Solaangi and Ali Akbar Channar, Perfformance
evalluation of a single cylindder four strokke petrol
engiine, ARPN Joournal of Eng
gineering andd Applied
Scieences, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2008, pp.88-92
M. Yuh and G.
G Tohru, The
Th Effect off Higher
Com
Engines,
mpression Ratio
R
in Two-Stroke
T
Yam
maha Motor Co,
C Ltd. pp 35
55-362, 2010
T.D
D.Eastop and A.McConkeey Applied Thermodynaamics for E
Engineering Technologistss, ELBS
withh Longman, E
Ed.5, 420-4399, 1995