How does a diesel engine work?

Answer 1

Air is taken in to the engine, the intake valve closes. The piston now starts its way up forcing all of the air in to a vary small space. By doing this the air is now super heated. An injector sprays the diesel fuel into the cylinder. The heat from the air makes the diesel fuel burn (explode). Thus driving your piston down.

Answer 2

Here's an example . Take an air rifle. Empty barrel by the way. Preset the gun ( can't say c**k ? stupid yahoo rules? ) and run a trace of 3 in one oil down the firing chamber. Wait a few minutes then (AIMED SKYWARD which is basic etiquette with ANY firearm, loaded or not.!!)....
.... when you pull the trigger releasing the highly compressed air,you will notice a distinct bang and trace of smoke, as opposed to the usual airgun sound of just air being released. That is known as "dieselling." A deisel engine simply runs on highly compressed fresh air with the injection of oil, a very fine jetison also highly pressurised, added at the point of "firing", i.e. point of intense compression, which forces the piston back down to create the cycle of crankshaft, pistons ,etc etc. The diesel pump is callibrated too for timing purposes. The rest of the cycle goes similar to that of the internal combustion petrol engine. A diesel has injectors and not spark plugs. Diesel oil is very slow burning and nowhere near as volatile as petrol. Point to note : do you notice how difficult it is to cold start a diesel engine, hence the invention of glow plugs?

Answer 3

If you study a little further, you'll learn that flame propagation is a critical parameter in Spark Ignition (SI or Gasoline) engines. You should know that Spark Ignition Engines fire many degrees before top dead center (TDC) to allow time for combustion in the 2 or 3 milliseconds prior to the commencement of the power stroke. The timing of ignition (and the resulting power) is a function of engine speed, and flame front propagation rate. Diesel combustion (Compression Ignition) is more or less simultaneous. The Cetane rating of the fuel (resistance to ignition under pressure) determines the point in the cycle when the fuel ignites and begins exerting pressure on the piston. The time and effort which has gone into these calculations would by now have identified any potential benefit from hybridization.

Answer 4

or try howthingswork.com and search for diesel engines... I could try to explain it but without being able to draw pictures is kinda hard... the difference between a diesel engine and a gasoline engine is in the combustion cycle mainly, the gas engine has a spark plug that ignites the fuel causing an explosion and thus power. A diesel engine has a glow plug and uses compression to ignite the fuel.

Answer 5

The same way as a petrol engine, using an explosive mixture of petrol gases and air to push the machine forward, apart from the fact that no direct ignition via spark is needed to cause the explosion. Compression increases the pressure in the cylinder head, which increases temparature to explode the gases.

Answer 6

Simply it's pretty much the same as a 4 stroke petrol engine, but it only inducts air (not the fuel as well) which it compresses to greatly raise the temperature and then injects high pressure fuel which the hot air ignites to give the power stroke.

Answer 7

The principle is the same as petrol except that the fuel is volatile when subjected to compression , so instead of a timed spark to ignite the fuel , the fuel is compressed by the pistons and it explodes and drives the piston down creating the thrust

Answer 8

Same as a gas engine except COMPRESSION of the fuel/air explodes the mixture not a spark plug.

Answer 9

the same as any internal combustion engine except it burns diesel instead of other fuels.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine



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Answer 10

One of the best places to educate yourself on this is the link below:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/diesel.htm