Internal Combustion (IC) Engine And its Principle of Working

You can Define Combustion Engine through various definitions. I explained few of them to give you complete explanation about this. Here are the definitions.

An engine that burns the air/fuel mixture in a chamber inside the engine cylinder, like a conventional reciprocating engine or a rotary engine.

OR

A heat engine in which combustion occurs inside the engine rather than in a separate furnace; heat expands a gas that either moves a piston or turns a gas turbine

OR

An engine, such as an automotive gasoline piston engine or a diesel, in which fuel is burned within the engine proper rather than in an external furnace, as in a steam engine.

OR

Any engine in which a fuel-air mixture is burned in the engine proper so that the hot gaseous products of combustion act directly on the surfaces of its moving parts, such as those of pistons or turbine rotor blades. Internal-combustion engines include gasoline engines, diesel engines, gas turbine engines etc.

History of Internal Combustion Engine

The most common type of heat engine is the Internal Combustion Engine. This engine is inveted by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir in 1860. For more details about IC engine visit this link.

Working Principle of Internal Combustion (IC) ENGINE:

The transformation of Heat Energy to Mechanical Energy by the engine is based on the fundamental law of physics which states that gas expands when heated. The law also states that when gas is compressed, the temperature of the gas increases. If the gas is confined with no outlet for expansion, then the pressure of the gas increases when heat is applied. In the internal combustion engine, the burning of fuel with in an enclosed cylinder results in an expansion of gases.This expansion creates pressure on top of the piston, causing it to move downward.
Characteristic features common to all commercially successful internal combustion engines include

1. Intake
2. Compression
3. Blast / Combustion (Work)
4. Exahust

This video shows the working of IC engine in details. I hope you find this very helpful.