Sooo.. Can somebody explain the chemistry behind the internal combustion engine.

[Anonymous No.3023344]

Pic kinda related.

[Anonymous No.3023347]

OP, I'm not trying to be rude, but this is a question that could be answered with a quick google/wikipedia search.

[Anonymous No.3023353]

Its called combustion. Combustion is the science word for "on fire". It requires an ignition, energy source, and oxygen.

[Anonymous No.3023355]

Gasoline has a lot of chemical potential energy in it. Exploding the gas in a chamber releases enough energy to overcome with friction of the vehicle and any extra energy is transformed to the wheels

[Anonymous No.3023356]

simplest explanation: tiny droplets of gasoline are ignited in a chamber of pistons. when the droplets 'blow up' they drive the pistons up and down. the up and down motion of the pistons turns a shaft which in turn spins the wheels!

[Anonymous No.3023363]

>Air is drawn in
>Fuel is injected/drawn somehow
>Both enter a combustion chamber inside the engine, where they burn (hence, "internal combustion")
>The heat generated causes gases to expand, doing work which is extracted and put to good use
If that's not what you're looking for, you're gonna have to be more specific. I'd be happy to help out if I knew what it is you wanted.

Pic tangentally related; it's a type of external combustion engine.

[Anonymous No.3023364]

>>3023356 chamber of pistons

[Anonymous No.3023366]

>>3023364

i'm no car expert. i am using my own dumbed-down understanding.

[Anonymous No.3023369]

Air mixes with petrol and is ignited. The explosion pushes a piston which in turn pushes the various drive shafts and gears and makes the wheels turn

That's in simplest terms, for how valves, cylinders, forced induction etc do not go to /o/

For simpler learnings see Diesel engine*
For simpler than that see electric motor**

*Caution: Causes irrational fear in Americans
**Caution: People are afraid of change/ progress

[Anonymous No.3023377]

>>3023369
>Diesel
>Simpler than Otto Cycle
BAH
Also, turbine master race reporting in.

[Anonymous No.3023387]

>>3023347
I am talking more about the chemistry behind the combustion rather than the engineering of the engine itself.

The fuel is also sucked in through a fuel pump.

[Anonymous No.3023388]

>>3023387
Fuel vaporizes, then it combusts.

[Anonymous No.3023401]

/sci/ - be aware that the air/fuel ratio is compressed, this wasn't mentioned in the thread. The compression is very important. Too much and the ignition occurs prematurely, too little and the ignition doesn't complete.

[Anonymous No.3023404]

>>3023387

C8H18 + O2 --> CO2 + H2O

[amerifag + !!UmX1DFY3dEE No.3023442]

tiny droplets are released into a small chamber of air where pistons pressurize the air causing it and the gasoline droplet to heat up hot enough to explode which creates force

http://www.howstuffworks.com/engine.htm

[Anonymous No.3023450]

>>3023442
If it explodes under compression it's Diesel. Petrol/ LPG requires a spark to ignite it (see spark plugs)

[Anonymous No.3023543]

>>3023404
>>3023387
Heat of combustion of octane: 5430 kJ/mol, or 44 kJ/g.
In practice, gasoline is a cocktail of hydrocarbons, of which isooctane (AKA 2,2,4 trimethylpentane) is merely a component of and a good model of the physical behavior of. Real gasoline actually has the slightly higher energy content of 47.0 kJ/g. A molar heat of combustion is essentially impossible to assign since it is not a pure chemical.

Also note that gasoline is NOT the only ICE fuel in existence; diesel, kerosene and other heavier hydrocarbons see use in non-otto ICE engines (i.e. diesel engines and turbines), and lighter hydrocarbons such as propane or natural gas are common enough. Alcohols are often run in Otto-cycle engines with little difficulty, and high-performance fuels such as nitromethane are sometimes used in racing applications as well. In the end, all of them do the same thing though - they combust inside the engine, generating heat which expands gasses and performs work.
>>3023450
>If it explodes under compression it's Diesel.
>explodes
NO. Knocking is bad - always. Yes, diesels ignite off of compression temperature rather than a spark, but they use direct fuel injection to control timing - they do not inject fuel until the moment it is to be burned. In practice, this is actually more complicated than an Otto cycle's spark circuit, but the gains (being able to run efficient high compression on low-grade fuel) are generally worth it.