A V6 internal combustion engine from a Mercedes car

An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion.^[1][2] Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines (such as steam engines) burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to create motion. Electric motors convert electrical energy into mechanical motion, pneumatic motors use compressed air and others, such as clockwork motors in wind-up toys use elastic energy. In biological systems, molecular motors like myosins in muscles use chemical energy to create motion.

Terminology[link]

Originally an engine was a mechanical device that converted force into motion. Military devices such as catapults, trebuchets and battering rams are referred to as siege engines. The term "gin" as in cotton gin is recognised as a short form of the Old French word engin, in turn from the Latin ingenium, related to ingenious. Most devices used in the industrial revolution were referred to as engines, and this is where the steam engine gained its name.^{[citation needed]}

In modern usage, the term is used to describe devices capable of performing mechanical work, as in the original steam engine. In most cases the work is produced by exerting a torque or linear force, which is used to operate other machinery which can generate electricity, pump water, or compress gas. In the context of propulsion systems, an air-breathing engine is one that uses atmospheric air to oxidise the fuel carried rather than supplying an independent oxidizer, as in a rocket.

In common usage, an engine burns or otherwise consumes fuel, and is differentiated from an electric machine (i.e., electric motor) that derives power without changing the composition of matter.^[3] A heat engine may also serve as a prime mover, a component that transforms the flow or changes in pressure of a fluid into mechanical energy.^[4] An automobile powered by an internal combustion engine may make use of various motors and pumps, but ultimately all such devices derive their power from the engine.

The term motor was originally used to distinguish the new internal combustion engine-powered vehicles from earlier vehicles powered by steam engines, such as the steam roller and motor roller, but may be used to refer to any engine.^{[citation needed]}

Devices converting heat energy into motion are commonly referred to simply as engines.^[5]

History[link]

Antiquity[link]

Simple machines, such as the club and oar (examples of the lever), are prehistoric. More complex engines using human power, animal power, water power, wind power and even steam power date back to antiquity. Human power was focused by the use of simple engines, such as the capstan, windlass or treadmill, and with ropes, pulleys, and block and tackle arrangements; this power was transmitted usually with the forces multiplied and the speed reduced. These were used in cranes and aboard ships in Ancient Greece, as well as in mines, water pumps and siege engines in Ancient Rome. The writers of those times, including Vitruvius, Frontinus and Pliny the Elder, treat these engines as commonplace, so their invention may be more ancient. By the 1st century AD, cattle and horses were used in mills, driving machines similar to those powered by humans in earlier times.

According to Strabo, a water powered mill was built in Kaberia of the kingdom of Mithridates during the 1st century BC. Use of water wheels in mills spread throughout the Roman Empire over the next few centuries. Some were quite complex, with aqueducts, dams, and sluices to maintain and channel the water, along with systems of gears, or toothed-wheels made of wood and metal to regulate the speed of rotation. In a poem by Ausonius in the 4th century AD, he mentions a stone-cutting saw powered by water. Hero of Alexandria is credited with many such wind and steam powered machines in the 1st century AD, including the Aeolipile, but it is not known if any of these were put to practical use.

Medieval[link]

Medieval Muslim engineers employed gears in mills and water-raising machines, and used dams as a source of water power to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising machines.^[6] Such advances made it possible for many industrial tasks that were previously driven by manual labour to be mechanized and driven by machinery to some extent in the medieval Islamic world.

In 1206, al-Jazari employed a crank-conrod system for two of his water-raising machines. A rudimentary steam turbine device was described by Taqi al-Din^[6] in 1551 and by Giovanni Branca^[7] in 1629.^[8]

In the 13th century, the solid rocket motor was invented in China. Driven by gunpowder, this, the simplest form of internal combustion engine was unable to deliver sustained power, but was useful for propelling weaponry at high speeds towards enemies in battle and for fireworks. After invention, this innovation spread throughout Europe.

Industrial Revolution[link]

Boulton & Watt engine of 1788

The Watt steam engine was the first type of steam engine to make use of steam at a pressure just above atmospheric to drive the piston helped by a partial vacuum. Improving on the design of the 1712 Newcomen steam engine, the Watt steam engine, developed sporadically from 1763 to 1775, was a great step in the development of the steam engine. Offering a dramatic increase in fuel efficiency, James Watt's design became synonymous with steam engines, due in no small part to his business partner, Matthew Boulton. It enabled rapid development of efficient semi-automated factories on a previously unimaginable scale in places where waterpower was not available. Later development led to steam locomotives and great expansion of railway transportation.

As for internal combustion piston engines, these were tested in France in 1807 by de Rivaz and independently, by the Niépce brothers . They were theoretically advanced by Carnot in 1824.^{[citation needed]} The Otto cycle in 1877 was capable of giving a far higher power to weight ratio than steam engines and worked much better for many transportation applications such as cars and aircraft.

Automobiles[link]

The first commercially successful automobile, created by Karl Benz, added to the interest in light and powerful engines. The lightweight petrol internal combustion engine, operating on a four-stroke Otto cycle, has been the most successful for light automobiles, while the more efficient Diesel engine is used for trucks and buses.

Horizontally opposed pistons[link]

In 1896, Karl Benz was granted a patent for his design of the first engine with horizontally opposed pistons. His design created an engine in which the corresponding pistons move in horizontal cylinders and reach top dead center simultaneously, thus automatically balancing each other with respect to their individual momentum. Engines of this design are often referred to as flat engines because of their shape and lower profile. They are or were used in: the Volkswagen Beetle, some Porsche and Subaru cars, many BMW and Honda motorcycles, and aircraft engines (for propeller driven aircraft), etc.

Advancement[link]

Continuance of the use of the internal combustion engine for automobiles is partly due to the improvement of engine control systems (onboard computers providing engine management processes, and electronically controlled fuel injection). Forced air induction by turbocharging and supercharging have increased power outputs and engine efficiencies. Similar changes have been applied to smaller diesel engines giving them almost the same power characteristics as petrol engines. This is especially evident with the popularity of smaller diesel engine propelled cars in Europe. Larger diesel engines are still often used in trucks and heavy machinery, although they require special machining not available in most factories. They do not burn as clean as gasoline engines, however they have far more torque. The internal combustion engine was originally selected for the automobile due to its flexibility over a wide range of speeds. Also, the power developed for a given weight engine was reasonable; it could be produced by economical mass-production methods; and it used a readily available, moderately priced fuel - petrol.

Increasing power[link]

The first half of the 20th century saw a trend to increasing engine power, particularly in the American models. Design changes incorporated all known methods of raising engine capacity, including increasing the pressure in the cylinders to improve efficiency, increasing the size of the engine, and increasing the speed at which power is generated. The higher forces and pressures created by these changes created engine vibration and size problems that led to stiffer, more compact engines with V and opposed cylinder layouts replacing longer straight-line arrangements.

Combustion efficiency[link]

The design principles favoured in Europe, because of economic and other restraints such as smaller and twistier roads, leant toward smaller cars and corresponding to the design principles that concentrated on increasing the combustion efficiency of smaller engines. This produced more economical engines with earlier four-cylinder designs rated at 40 horsepower (30 kW) and six-cylinder designs rated as low as 80 horsepower (60 kW), compared with the large volume V-8 American engines with power ratings in the range from 250 to 350 hp (190 to 260 kW).^{[citation needed]}

Engine configuration[link]

Earlier automobile engine development produced a much larger range of engines than is in common use today. Engines have ranged from 1- to 16-cylinder designs with corresponding differences in overall size, weight, piston displacement, and cylinder bores. Four cylinders and power ratings from 19 to 120 hp (14 to 90 kW) were followed in a majority of the models. Several three-cylinder, two-stroke-cycle models were built while most engines had straight or in-line cylinders. There were several V-type models and horizontally opposed two- and four-cylinder makes too. Overhead camshafts were frequently employed. The smaller engines were commonly air-cooled and located at the rear of the vehicle; compression ratios were relatively low. The 1970s and '80s saw an increased interest in improved fuel economy which brought in a return to smaller V-6 and four-cylinder layouts, with as many as five valves per cylinder to improve efficiency. The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 operates with a W16 engine meaning that two V8 cylinder layouts are positioned next to each other to create the W shape sharing the same crankshaft.

The largest internal combustion engine ever built is the Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C, a 14-cylinder, 2-stroke turbocharged diesel engine that was designed to power the Emma Maersk, the largest container ship in the world. This engine weighs 2300 tons, and when running at 102 RPM produces 109,000 bhp (80,080 kW) consuming some 13.7 tons of fuel each hour.

Heat engine[link]

Combustion engine[link]

Combustion engines are heat engines driven by the heat of a combustion process.

Internal combustion engine[link]

Animation showing the four stages of the 4-stroke combustion engine cycle:
1. Induction (Fuel enters)
2. Compression
3. Ignition (Fuel is burnt)
4. Emission (Exhaust out)

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel (generally, fossil fuel) occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high temperature and high pressure gases, which are produced by the combustion, directly applies force to components of the engine, such as the pistons or turbine blades or a nozzle, and by moving it over a distance, generates useful mechanical energy.^{[9][10][11][12]}

External combustion engine[link]

An external combustion engine (EC engine) is a heat engine where an internal working fluid is heated by combustion of an external source, through the engine wall or a heat exchanger. The fluid then, by expanding and acting on the mechanism of the engine produces motion and usable work.^[13] The fluid is then cooled, compressed and reused (closed cycle), or (less commonly) dumped, and cool fluid pulled in (open cycle air engine).

"Combustion" refers to burning fuel with an oxidizer, to supply the heat. Engines of similar (or even identical) configuration and operation may use a supply of heat from other sources such as nuclear, solar, geothermal or exothermic reactions not involving combustion; but are not then strictly classed as external combustion engines, but as external thermal engines.

The working fluid can be a gas as in a Stirling engine, or steam as in a steam engine or an organic liquid such as n-pentane in an Organic Rankine cycle. The fluid can be of any composition; gas is by far the most common, although even single-phase liquid is sometimes used. In the case of the steam engine, the fluid changes phases between liquid and gas...

Air-breathing combustion engines[link]

Air-breathing engines are combustion engines that use the oxygen in atmospheric air to oxidise ('burn') the fuel carried, rather than carrying an oxidiser, as in a rocket. Theoretically, this should result in a better specific impulse than for rocket engines.

A continuous stream of air flows through the Air-breathing engine. This air is compressed, mixed with fuel, ignited and expelled as the exhaust gas.

Examples

Typical air-breathing engines include:

• Reciprocating engine
• Steam engine
• Gas turbine

duct jet engine

Turbo-propeller engine

• Pulse detonation engine
• Pulse jet
• Ramjet
• Scramjet
• Liquid air cycle engine/Reaction Engines SABRE

Environmental effects[link]

The operation of engines typically has a negative impact upon air quality and ambient sound levels. There has been a growing emphasis on the pollution producing features of automotive power systems. This has created new interest in alternate power sources and internal-combustion engine refinements. Although a few limited-production battery-powered electric vehicles have appeared, they have not proved to be competitive owing to costs and operating characteristics. In the 21st century the diesel engine has been increasing in popularity with automobile owners. However, the gasoline engine, with its new emission-control devices to improve emission performance, has not yet been significantly challenged.

Air quality[link]

Exhaust from a spark ignition engine consists of the following: nitrogen 70 to 75% (by volume), water vapor 10 to 12%, carbon dioxide 10 to 13.5%, hydrogen 0.5 to 2%, oxygen 0.2 to 2%, carbon monoxide: 0.1 to 6%, unburnt hydrocarbons and partial oxidation products (e.g. aldehydes) 0.5 to 1%, nitrogen monoxide 0.01 to 0.4%, nitrous oxide <100 ppm, sulfur dioxide 15 to 60 ppm, traces of other compounds such as fuel additives and lubricants, also halogen and metallic compounds, and other particles.^[14] Carbon monoxide is highly toxic, and can cause carbon monoxide poisoning, so it is important to avoid any build-up of the gas in a confined space. Catalytic converters can reduce toxic emissions, but not completely eliminate them. Also, resulting greenhouse gas emissions, chiefly carbon dioxide, from the widespread use of engines in the modern industrialized world is contributing to the global greenhouse effect – a primary concern regarding global warming.

Noncombustive heat engines[link]

Some engines convert heat from noncombustive processes into mechanical work, for example a nuclear power plant uses the heat from the nuclear reaction to produce steam and drive a steam engine, or a gas turbine in a rocket engine may be driven by decomposing hydrogen peroxide. Apart from the different energy source, the engine is often engineered much the same as an internal or external combustion engine.

Nonthermal chemically powered motor[link]

Nonthermal motors usually are powered by a chemical reaction, but are not heat engines. Examples include:

• Molecular motor - motors found in living things
• Synthetic molecular motor

Electric motor[link]

An electric motor uses electrical energy to produce mechanical energy, usually through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors. The reverse process, producing electrical energy from mechanical energy, is accomplished by a generator or dynamo. Traction motors used on vehicles often perform both tasks. Electric motors can be run as generators and vice versa, although this is not always practical. Electric motors are ubiquitous, being found in applications as diverse as industrial fans, blowers and pumps, machine tools, household appliances, power tools, and disk drives. They may be powered by direct current (for example a battery powered portable device or motor vehicle), or by alternating current from a central electrical distribution grid. The smallest motors may be found in electric wristwatches. Medium-size motors of highly standardized dimensions and characteristics provide convenient mechanical power for industrial uses. The very largest electric motors are used for propulsion of large ships, and for such purposes as pipeline compressors, with ratings in the thousands of kilowatts. Electric motors may be classified by the source of electric power, by their internal construction, and by their application.

The physical principle of production of mechanical force by the interactions of an electric current and a magnetic field was known as early as 1821. Electric motors of increasing efficiency were constructed throughout the 19th century, but commercial exploitation of electric motors on a large scale required efficient electrical generators and electrical distribution networks.

To reduce the electric energy consumption from motors and their associated carbon footprints, various regulatory authorities in many countries have introduced and implemented legislation to encourage the manufacture and use of higher efficiency electric motors. A well-designed motor can convert over 90% of its input energy into useful power for decades.^[15] When the efficiency of a motor is raised by even a few percentage points, the savings, in kilowatt hours (and therefore in cost), are enormous. The electrical energy efficiency of a typical industrial induction motor can be improved by: 1) reducing the electrical losses in the stator windings (e.g., by increasing the cross-sectional area of the conductor, improving the winding technique, and using materials with higher electrical conductivities, such as copper), 2) reducing the electrical losses in the rotor coil or casting (e.g., by using materials with higher electrical conductivities, such as copper), 3) reducing magnetic losses by using better quality magnetic steel, 4) improving the aerodynamics of motors to reduce mechanical windage losses, 5) improving bearings to reduce friction losses, and 6) minimizing manufacturing tolerances. For further discussion on this subject, see Premium efficiency and Copper in energy efficient motors.)

By convention, electric engine refers to a railroad electric locomotive, rather than an electric motor.

Physically powered motor[link]

Some motors are powered by potential energy, for example some funiculars, gravity plane and ropeway conveyors have used potential energy of water or rocks, and some clocks have a weight that falls under gravity. Other forms of potential energy include compressed gases (such as pneumatic motors), springs (clockwork motors) and elastic bands.

Historic military siege engines included large catapults, trebuchets, and (to some extent) battering rams were powered by potential energy.

Pneumatic motor[link]

A pneumatic motor is a machine which converts potential energy in the form of compressed air into mechanical work. Pneumatic motors generally convert the compressed air to mechanical work though either linear or rotary motion. Linear motion can come from either a diaphragm or piston actuator, while rotary motion is supplied by either a vane type air motor or piston air motor. Pneumatic motors have found widespread success in the hand-held tool industry and continual attempts are being made to expand their use to the transportation industry. However, pneumatic motors must overcome efficiency deficiencies before being seen as a viable option in the transportation industry.

Hydraulic motor[link]

A hydraulic motor is one that derives its power from a pressurized fluid. This type of engine can be used to move heavy loads or produce motion.^[16]

Sound levels[link]

In the case of sound levels, engine operation is of greatest impact with respect to mobile sources such as automobiles and trucks. Engine noise is a particularly large component of mobile source noise for vehicles operating at lower speeds, where aerodynamic and tire noise is less significant.^[17] Petrol and diesel engines are fitted with mufflers (silencers) to reduce noise.

Efficiency[link]

Depending on the type of engine employed, different rates of efficiency are attained.

The energy of traditional heat engine, doing work only one-dimensional in three-dimensional thermal motion, mechanics, 1/3, so the efficiency of heat engine, usually 1/3, 33% = η, the rest of the 2-D, 66%, as uselessthe heat is wasted.^[18][19]

Engines by use[link]

Particularly notable kinds of engines include:

• Aircraft engine
• Automobile engine
• model engine
• Motorcycle engine
• Marine propulsion engines such as Outboard motor
• Railway locomotive engine
• Spacecraft propulsion engines such as Rocket engine
• Traction engine

Engine speed[link]

Engine speed is measured in revolutions per minute (RPM). Engines may be classified as low-speed, medium-speed or high-speed but these terms are inexact and depend on the type of engine being described.

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Engines

Look up engine in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up motor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• U.S. Patent 194,047
• Detailed Engine Animations
• How Car Engines Work
• Animated Engines, four-stroke another explanation of the four-stroke engine
• CDX eTextbook – some videos of car components in action
• Video from inside a four-stroke engine cylinder.
• Working 4-Stroke Engine - Animation
• Animated illustrations of various engines
• Aircraft Engine Photographic Reference – includes specifications
• JDM B16a Engines Information Site
• Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library (KMODDL) - Movies and photos of hundreds of working mechanical-systems models at Cornell University. Also includes an e-book library of classic texts on mechanical design and engineering.
• 5 Ways to Redesign the Internal Combustion Engine