Frederic P Miller

Four-Stroke Engine Frederic P Miller

Publisher Marketing: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Today, internal combustion engines in cars, trucks, motorcycles, aircraft, construction machinery and many others, most commonly use a four-stroke cycle. The four strokes refer to intake, compression, combustion (power), and exhaust strokes that occur during two crankshaft rotations per working cycle of the gasoline engine and diesel engine. The cycle begins at top dead center (TDC), when the piston is farthest away from the axis of the crankshaft. On the intake or induction stroke of the piston, the piston descends from the top of the cylinder, reducing the pressure inside the cylinder. A mixture of fuel and air is forced (by atmospheric or greater pressure) into the cylinder through the intake (inlet) port. The intake (inlet) valve (or valves) then close(s), and the compression stroke compresses the fuel-air mixture. The air-fuel mixture is then ignited near the end of the compression stroke, usually by a spark plug (for a gasoline or Otto cycle engine) or by the heat and pressure of compression (for a Diesel cycle or compression ignition engine). The resulting pressure of burning gases pushes the piston through the power stroke.