The Physics Behind the Power of an Engine :: Physics Engine Essays

The Physics Behind the Power of an locomotive engine Insert the key, turn, and vroom. And down the road you go. Most people take for given the strange conglomeration of alloy and plastic under that sheet of metal either in front or back of their vehicle. The engine as you may have guessed, is modern marvel- so to speak. Theyre found in cars, trucks, boats, product lineplanesAll with various power outputs.To discuss the power output, first the cycles of the engine itself needs to be mentioned.1.Intake The intake valve opens allowing fresh oxygen fertile assembly line mixed with fuel to enter the cylinder.2.Compression The piston is pushed upward by the flywheels whim compressing the air/fuel mix.3.Combustion As the piston reaches the top of its buffet or TDC, the spark plug fires, igniting the diverseness. Due to the heights compression of this mixture it is very volatile and it explodes when the spark is introduced. This pushes the piston downward and produces power.4. Exhaust After the aureole/Fuel mix has been burnt the remaining chemicals in the cylinder (water and carbonic acid gas for the most part) must be removed so that fresh air can be brought in. As the piston goes back up later on combustion the chuck out valve opens allowing the exhaust gasses to be released.Ideally an engine takes in Air (Oxygen and Nitrogen) and fuel (hydrocarbons) and produces CO2, H2O, and the N2 just passes through. However under normal operate conditions an engine will encounter lean conditions when cruising on the highway (better mileage) and rich conditions when accelerating (better power). The lean condition bequeaths in oxide and harmful nitrogen production. Rich conditions result in carbon monoxide production. For this reason twatalytic converters are used on an engines exhaust.The catalyst material in a cat is in a wire mesh or honeycomb. This allows a high surface area to be exposed to the passing exhaust gasses. The catalyst converts the harmful ni trogen oxides and carbon monoxide into nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen.Catalytic converters work outstrip when warm, so some car manufacturers are putting pre cats in the exhaust manifold to convert the gasses while the exhaust system is still heat up.Engine output is measured in two ways. The first is a direct measurement of engine output Torque. Torque is defined as the amount of mass that can be lifted a original distance from the center of rotation. Torque is what accelerates a car.