A fundamental difference between gasoline and diesel engines is that a gasoline engine uses spark ignition while a diesel engine uses compression ignition. Before we delve deeper, let's understand how ...

A.Here's a pressure-volume diagram for a combustion engine. Although rough, it is an approximation of the so-called air-standard cycle. '' Point (a) is at atmospheric pressure, after which the air is ...

Apart from the very curious, not many people ask why diesel engines, compared to gasoline, run higher compression ratios. The argument is reasonably straightforward and starts with fuel ...

SAE Transactions, Vol. 96, Section 4: RECIPROCATING ENGINES–SPARK IGNITION AND DIESEL (1987), pp. 614-623 (10 pages) A single-cylinder, variable–compression ratio, direct–injection diesel engine was ...

As Mazda and Infiniti have proved, there's a lot of innovation left in the internal-combustion engine. One of the more wild concepts we've seen is called Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition ...