A diesel engine (sometimes capitalized as Diesel engine) is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber during the final stage of compression. This is in contrast to a petrol engine (known as a gasoline engine in North America) or gas engine, which uses the Otto cycle, in which an air-fuel mixture is ignited by a spark plug.
The diesel cycle was invented by Rudolf Diesel and it has the highest thermal efficiency of any internal or external combustion engine, mostly due to its very high compression ratio. Low-speed diesel engines (as used in ships and other applications where overall engine weight is relatively unimportant) often have a thermal efficiency which exceeds 50%.
Diesel engines are manufactured in two stroke and four stroke versions. They were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have been used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, large trucks and electric generating plants followed later. In the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of diesel engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the USA increased. As of 2007, about 50 percent of all new car sales in Europe are diesel.
History
Rudolf Diesel, of German nationality, was born in 1858 in Paris where his parents were Bavarian immigrants. He was educated at Munich Polytechnic. After graduation he was employed as a refrigerator engineer but his true love lay in engine design. Diesel designed many heat engines, including a solar-powered air engine. In 1893, he published a paper describing an engine with combustion within a cylinder, the internal combustion engine. In 1894, he filed for a patent for his new invention, dubbed the Diesel engine. His engine was the first to prove that fuel could be ignited without a spark. He operated his first successful engine in 1897.
In 1898, Diesel was granted U.S. Patent 608,845 for an "internal combustion engine".
Though best known for his invention of the pressure-ignited heat engine that bears his name, Rudolf Diesel was also a well-respected thermal engineer and a social theorist. Diesel's inventions have three points in common: they relate to heat transfer by natural physical processes or laws; they involve markedly creative mechanical design; and they were initially motivated by the inventor's concept of sociological needs. Rudolf Diesel originally conceived the diesel engine to enable independent craftsmen and artisans to compete with industry.[8]
At Augsburg, on August 10, 1893, Rudolf Diesel's prime model, a single 10-foot (3.0 m) iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time. Diesel spent two more years making improvements and in 1896 demonstrated another model with a theoretical efficiency of 75 percent, in contrast to the 10 percent efficiency of the steam engine. By 1898, Diesel had become a millionaire. His engines were used to power pipelines, electric and water plants, automobiles and trucks, and marine craft. They were soon to be used in mines, oil fields, factories, and transoceanic shipping.
History timeline
History of the internal combustion engine:
- 1892: February 23, Rudolf Diesel obtains a patent (RP 67207) titled "Arbeitsverfahren und Ausführungsart für Verbrennungsmaschinen".
- 1893: Diesel's essay titled Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat-engine to Replace the Steam Engine and Combustion Engines Known Today
- 1897: On August 10 Diesel builds his first working prototype in Augsburg
- 1898 Diesel licenses his engine to Branobel, Russian oil company, that is interested in the engine which can consume non-distilled oil. Branobel's engineers spent 4 years designing ship-mounted engine.
- 1899: Diesel licenses his engine to builders Krupp and Sulzer, who quickly become major manufacturers.
- 1902: until 1910 MAN produced 82 copies of the stationary diesel engine.
- 1903: Sormovo Shipbuilding Yard launches "Vandal" oil-tanker - first ship propelled by diesel engine.
- 1904: The French build the first diesel submarine, the Z.
- 1905: Four diesel engines turbochargers and intercoolers were manufactured by Büchl (CH), as well as a scroll loader from Creux (F) company.
- 1908: Prosper L'Orange develops with Deutz a precisely controlled injection pump with a needle injection nozzle.
- 1909: The prechamber with hemispherical combustion chamber is developed by Prosper L'Orange with Benz.
- 1910: The Norwegian research ship Fram is the first ship of the world with a diesel drive, afterwards Selandia was the first trading vessel. By 1960 the diesel drive had displaced steam turbine and coal fired steam engines.
- 1912: The Danish built first diesel ship MS Selandia. The first locomotive with a diesel engine.
- 1913: U.S. Navy submarines use NELSECO units. Rudolf Diesel died mysteriously when he crossed the English Channel on the SS Dresden.
- 1914: German U-boats are powered by MAN diesels.
- 1919: Prosper L'Orange obtains a patent on a prechamber insert and makes a needle injection nozzle. First diesel engine from Cummins.
- 1921: Prosper L'Orange builds a continuous variable output injection pump.
- 1922: First vehicle with (pre-chamber) diesel engine is the Agricultural tractor type 6 of Mercedes-Benz agricultural tractor OE Benz Sendling.
- 1923: first truck with diesel engine made by MAN, Benz and Daimler was tested.
- 1924: The introduction on the truck market of the diesel engine by commercial truck manufacturers in the IAA. Fairbanks-Morse starts building diesel engines.
- 1927: First truck injection pump and injection nozzles of Bosch. First passenger car prototype of Stoewer.
- 1930s: Caterpillar starts building diesels for their tractors.
- 1932: Introduction of strongest diesel truck of the world by MAN with 160 hp (120 kW).
- 1933: of first passenger cars with diesel engine (Citroën Rosalie), Citroën uses an engine of the English diesel pioneer sir Harry Ricardo. The car does not go into production due to legal restrictions in the use of diesel engines.
- 1934: First turbo diesel engine for railway train by Maybach.
- 1934–35: Junkers Motorenwerke in Germany starts production of the Jumo aviation diesel engine family, the most famous of these being the Jumo 205, of which over 900 examples are produced by the outbreak of World War II.
Rudolf Diesel's 1893 patent on his engine design
- 1936: Mercedes-Benz builds the 260D diesel car. AT&SF inaugurates the diesel train Super Chief. Airship Hindenburg is powered by diesel engines. First series manufactured passenger cars with diesel engine (Mercedes-Benz 260 D, Hanomag and Saurer). Daimler Benz airship diesel engine 602LOF6 for airship the LZ129 Hindenburg.
- 1937: Soviet Union chooses diesel engine for its T-34 tank, widely regarded as the best tank of the war.
- 1937: BMW 114 experimental airplane diesel engine development.
- 1938: First turbo diesel engine of Saurer.
- 1944: Development of air cooling for diesel engines by Klöckner Humboldt Deutz AG (KHD) for the production stage and later also for Magirus Deutz.
- 1953: Turbo diesel truck for Mercedes in small series.
- 1954: Turbo-diesel truck in mass production of Volvo. First diesel engine with an overhead cam shaft of Daimler Benz.
- 1968: Peugeot introduces the 204, the first small cars with a transversally mounted diesel engine and front-wheel drive.
- 1973: DAF produces an air-cooled diesel engine.
- 1976 February: Testing of a diesel engine of Volkswagen for the passenger car Volkswagen Golf. The Common Rail injection system was developed by the ETH Zurich from 1976 to 1992.
- 1977: The production of the first passenger car turbo-diesels (Mercedes 300 SD).
- 1985: ATI Intercooler diesel engine from DAF. First Common Rail system with the IFA truck type W50.
- 1986: Electronic Diesel Control (EDC) of Bosch with the BMW 524tD.
- 1987: Most powerful production truck with a 460 hp (340 kW) MAN diesel engine.
- 1988: First turbochargers with direct injection in the diesel engine from Fiat.
- 1991: European emission standards euro 1 met with the truck diesel engine of Scania.
- 1993: Pump nozzle injection introduced in Volvo truck engines.
- 1994: Unit injector system by Bosch for diesel engines.
- 1995: First successful usage of common rail in production vehicle, by Denso in Japan, Hino "Rising ranger" truck.
- 1997: First common rail in passenger car, Alfa Romeo 156.
- 1998: BMW makes history by winning the 24 Hour Nuerburgring race with the 320d, powered by a two-liter, four-cylinder diesel engine. The combination of high-performance with better fuel efficiency allows the team to make fewer pit stops during the long endurance race.
- 1999: euro 3 of Scania and first Common Rail truck diesel engine of Renault.
- 2002: A street-driven Dodge Dakota pickup with a 735 horsepower (548 kW) diesel engine built at Gale banks engineering hauls its own service trailer to the Bonneville Salt Flats and sets an FIA land speed record as the world's fastest pickup truck with a one-way run of 222 mph (357 km/h) and a two-way average of 217 mph (349 km/h).
- 2004: In Western Europe, the ratio of passenger cars with diesel engine exceeds 50%. Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system in Mercedes, Euro 4 with EGR system and particle filters of MAN. Piezoelectric injector technology by Bosch.
- 2006: Audi R10 TDI wins 12 hours running in Sebring and defeats all other engine concepts. Euro 5 for all Iveco trucks.
- 2008: Subaru introduces the first horizontally-opposed diesel engine to be fitted to a passenger car. This is a Euro 5 compliant engine with an EGR system.
- 2009: Volvo claims the worlds strongest truck with their FH16 700. An inline 6 cylinder, 16 litre 700 hp (522 kW) diesel engine producing 3150 Nm (2323,32 lb•ft) of torque and fully complying with Euro 5 emission standards.