A thermodynamics model for the compression and expansion

process during the engines motoring and a new method for

the determination of TDC with simulation technique
Wang Xi-Bo
*
, Deng Kang-Yao, He Fang-Zheng, Zhou Zhen-Hua
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Received 12 September 2005; accepted 8 December 2006
Available online 8 January 2007
Abstract
In this paper, a thermodynamics model describes the pressure change during the motoring process of the internal combustion engine
was given based on the mass conservation, energy conservation law and the state equation of perfect gas. The factors that aect the max-
imal pressure point position relative to the minimal volume point (top dead center) were analysed with the thermodynamics model. The
one to one correspondence between the geometrical characteristics of the pressure diagram and the maximum pressure point position
relative to the top dead center (TDC) was proven. Based on the model described, a new method for the determination of the TDC
of the internal combustion engine was given. The simulation and experimental results indicate that the new method could determine
the top dead center with an error smaller than 0.05 crank angle.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Top dead center; Pressure diagram; Internal combustion engine; Thermodynamics model; Engine simulation
1. Introduction
The determination of the top dead center is particularly
important when calculating heat release rate and other
engine performance characteristics with experimentally
measured pressure diagram. Researches indicate that 1
crank angle error in TDC position can lead to 10%
deviation in accumulative heat release rate, 58% error
in indicated pressure and 510% error in maximal heat
release rate. Therefore, it is demanded that the TDC
position error should be less than 0.1 crank angle in
designing modern high performance internal combustion
engines [13].
Because of the heat transfer and gas leakage in the
engine cylinder, the maximal pressure point on the pressure
diagram of the engines motoring process occurs before the
TDC instead of at the TDC. The angle between the maxi-
mal pressure and the TDC is called heat lose angle [4].
The heat transfer and the gas leakage phenomena are so
complicated that it is impossible to calculating the heat
transfer rate and the heat lose angle directly. Thus, the
methods such as microphone method, thermodynamic
method and photoelectric sensor method, etc. are all have
to face up the trouble of heat lose angle.
Some excellent methods try to avoid the heat transfer
diculties in determining the TDC. For example, Stas
takes the expansion and compression stroke as poly-tropi-
cal processes with constant poly-tropical indexes then the
TDC is determined with the inection points on pressure
diagram [5]. Some researchers tried to determine the
TDC with the combinations of the poly-tropical indexes
of the compression and expansion strokes [3,6]. The meth-
ods mentioned above have expanded the idea for TDC
determination.
In this paper, a new and logical reasonable method for
TDC determination was given.
1359-4311/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2006.12.012
*
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 21 64075359.
E-mail address: wangxipo@sohu.com (X.-B. Wang).
www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng
Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 20032010
2. Mathematical model of pressure change of compression
and expansion process during the engines motoring
Take the engines cylinder as a thermal dynamics system
and make the assumption that the gas in the cylinder is per-
fect gas. The system studied obeys mass conservation law
and energy conservation law and the gas in the cylinder sat-
ises the perfect gas state equation:
dm dm
in
dm
out
1
dQ dE
CV

j
h
c
2
f
2
gz
_ _
out
dm
out

i
h
c
2
f
2
gz
_ _
in
dm
in
dW
i
2
PV mRT 3
During the compression and expansion process of the
engines motoring, the gas pressure in the cylinder is higher
than that in the manifold and crankcase. Thus the gas only
leaks from the cylinder to the manifold and crankcase.
Based on the perfect gas assumption, the enthalpy and
the inner energy are only functions of temperature. The
energy equation becomes
dQ
k
2
c
p
_ _
T dm
c
v
R
V dP
c
p
R
P dV 4
let,
dQ
extent
dQ
k
2
c
p
_ _
T dm 5
then the energy conservation equation can be changed
into
dQ
extent

c
v
R
V dP
c
p
R
P dV 6
And the pressure change in the cylinder can be modeled as
dP
R
C
v
dQ
extent
kP dV
_ __
V 7
3. The advancement of the maximal pressure point position
relative to the TDC
On the pressure diagram of the engines motoring pro-
cess, there is only one maximal pressure point, which sat-
isfy dP = 0. And there is only one point that is the
smallest volume around the TDC, which satises dV = 0.
Thereby, the TDC of the pressure diagram can be deter-
mined by the position relationship between the maximal
pressure point and the TDC.
If there does not exist heat transfer and gas leakage dur-
ing the engines motoring, the gas in the cylinder experi-
ences an adiabatic process. And the energy carried out by
heat transfer and gas leakage is zero. Then,
dQ 0
dm 0
dQ
extent
dQ
k
2
c
p
_ _
T dm 0
_

_
8
At the maximal pressure point, the pressure diagram and
the cylinder volume curve meet
dP 0
V dP kP dV 0
_
9
Nomenclature
C
v
heat capacity at constant volume (J K
1
)
E
CV
internal energy of the control volume (J)
L connecting rod length (m)
P pressure (Pa)
P
en
environment pressure (Pa)
P
ave
variable describes the unsymmetrical property
of the pressure diagram (Pa)
Q heat (J)
R perfect gas specic constant (J kg
1
K
1
)
S heat transfer area (m
2
)
S
c
gas leakage cross area (m
2
)
T absolute temperature (K)
T
en
environment temperature (K)
T
w
cylinder wall temperature (K)
U inner energy (J)
U
0
inner energy at absolute zero temperature (J)
V volume (m
3
)
W power (W)
c
f
gas velocity (m s
1
)
c
p
specic heat at constant pressure (J kg
1
K
1
)
c
v
specic heat at constant volume (J kg
1
K
1
)
g gravitational acceleration (m s
2
)
h specic enthalpy (J kg
1
)
k heat capacity ratio
m mass (kg)
t time (s)
z altitude
dQ heat transfer rate (W)
dQ
extent
combined energy transfer rate (W)
dm mass transfer rate (kg s
1
)
dP pressure change rate (Pa s
1
)
dV volume change rate (m
3
s
1
)
e compression ratio of the engine
Subscripts
i index
in ow into the control volume
out ow out of the control volume
t state at time t
0 state at the start time
2004 X.-B. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 20032010
It can be gotten from equation set (9) that dV = 0 at the
maximal pressure point. So the maximal pressure point
and the minimal volume point is the same point. The max-
imal pressure point is the TDC exactly.
However, heat transfer and leakage are inevitable in the
engines real motoring process. And in the vicinity of TDC,
the gas pressure and temperature in the cylinder are higher
than that in the crankcase and manifold. Then, the energy
change due to heat transfer and mass change due to gas
leakage are negative. So,
dQ < 0
dm < 0
dQ
extent
dQ
k
2
c
p
_ _
T dm < 0
_

_
10
At the maximal pressure point:
dP 0
dQ
extent
< 0
R
C
v
dQ
extent
kP dV 0
_

_
11
from the unequal relations of (10) and (11), it can be gotten
that dV < 0 at the maximal pressure point. The maximal
pressure point occurs before the TDC.
4. The equivalence and the indistinguishability of the heat
transfer and gas leakages eects on the maximal pressure
point position relative to TDC
4.1. The equivalence of the heat transfer and gas leakages
eects on the maximal pressure point position relative to
TDC
It can be seen from part 2 and part 3 that the analysis of
dQ
extent
is necessary in determining the TDC.
The system of the in-cylinder gas has three ways of
energy exchanging with the outside. One is volume work,
one is heat transfer and the other is gas leakage. According
to thermodynamics theory, the characteristics of the system
can be determined by three independent parameters. On the
other hand, there are four parameters in the states equation
of perfect gas (3). So only three of the four parameters are
independent. The last parameter is a function of the three
independent parameters. Both thermodynamics theory
and the state equation indicate that the in-cylinder thermal
parameters are all interactional and restricted from each
other. So the thermodynamics analysis of the in-cylinder
gas is necessary for the calculation of dQ
extent
.
According to (3), m and T are restricted to each other if
P and V are denite. With the perfect gas assumption it can
be gotten that
U c
v
mT U
0
12
The inner energy U is one to one correspond with the pres-
sure P and volume V. For denite pressure P and volume
V, the inner energy U is denite and vice versa. The change
of the inner energy U with the change of the crank angle
implies the pressure change with the change of the crank
angle and implies the maximal pressure point position rel-
ative to TDC. From (12), the change of the mass m and the
change of temperature T can both aect the inner energy.
The mass m change and temperature T change are equal
on the eects to the inner energy.
At the maximal pressure point of the pressure diagram,
pressure P and volume V satisfy (11). For denite dV there
are innite number of dQ and dm couples that satisfy the
energy equation. dQ and dm are equal in the sense of being
the energy equations solution.
Both algebra and dierential relations indicate that the
mass and temperatures eect on the change of the inner
energy is equal.
4.2. The indistinguishability of the heat transfer and gas
leakages eects on the maximal pressure point position
relative to TDC
During the engines motoring, the heat transfer between
the gas in the cylinder and the cylinder wall are aected by
the gas temperature, cylinder wall temperature and the gas
ow states in the cylinder, etc., the heat transfer rate at time
t can be modeled as
dQ
t
f P
t
; T
t
; S
t
; T
wt
; . . . 13
The heat transfer is so complicated that it has never
found a precise model to describe the heat transfer phe-
nomena in the engines motoring. The gas leakage is mainly
dependent on the pressure in the cylinder and the leakage
ow area. The gas leakage rate at time t can be described
by
dm
t
gP
t
; S
ct
; . . .: 14
It is dicult and inconvenient to measure the ow area of
the gas leakage of the cylinder. And the ow area varies
with the varying of the engines and engines wearing states.
It has never been able to measure the ow area of the leak-
age exactly.
Since it is impossible to get a clear expression of dQ and
dm. So the equation set of (6) is not closed. It is impossible
to nd out a solution of each parameter of dQ, dm and dV
just with the equation mentioned above. Inuences of dQ
and dm on the maximal pressure point position relative
to TDC are closely coupled and indistinguishable.
5. One to one correspondence between the pressure diagrams
geometrical characteristics and the maximal pressure point
position relative to TDC
From the analysis in part 3 and part 4, the equations
above are not enough to determine the TDC. Further rela-
tions are necessary for the determination of TDC.
The dierence in the geometrical characteristics of two
pressure diagrams is that the dP or P, etc. is dierent at
the same crank angle. On the pressure diagram the pressure
satisfy
X.-B. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 20032010 2005
P
2
P
1

_
2
1
dP 15
From (6), (7), (13), (14) and (15), it can be deduced that the
pressure P
t
and pressure change dP
t
at time t is a function
of the pressure and pressure change of the time before this
point:
P
t
pP
0
$ P
t
; dP
0
$ dP
t
16
dP
t
dpP
0
$ P
t
; dP
0
$ dP
t
17
From (15)(17), in the crank angle range that is studied, if
there exist a point that dP or P is dierent on dierent pres-
sure diagrams, then dP or P is dierent in the whole crank
angle range except for the inuence of the measuring er-
rors. Therefore, on the pressure diagrams of dierent geo-
metrical characteristics, the point that dP = 0 is on
dierent crank angle. Dierent pressure diagram geometri-
cal characteristics have dierent maximal pressure point
position relative to the TDC. And the geometrical charac-
teristic of the pressure diagram is one to one correspon-
dence with the maximal pressure point position relative
to the TDC.
6. Determining the TDC with the unsymmetrical
characteristics of the pressure diagram
Since the geometrical characteristics of the pressure dia-
gram is one to one corresponding with the maximal pres-
sure point position relative to the TDC, the TDC can be
determined with the geometrical characteristics of the pres-
sure diagram.
The key for the determination of TDC with the pressure
diagram geometrical characteristics is nding a parameter
or a relationship to describe the relation between the geo-
metrical characteristics and the maximal pressure point
position relative to the TDC. Since there are dierent prop-
erties to describe the geometrical characteristics of the pres-
sure diagram, there may exist dierent relations between
the geometrical characteristics and the maximal pressure
point position relative to the TDC.
In this paper, the unsymmetrical property of the pres-
sure diagram on each side of the maximal pressure point
is applied to determine the TDC. Arbitrarily take two
points a
1
and a
2
on the pressure diagram that is symmetri-
cal in crank angle about the maximal pressure point a
0
(Fig. 1). Then the pressure dierence between a
1
and a
2
is
DP P
a
1
P
a
2

_
a
1
a
0
dP
_
a
2
a
0
dP 18
substitute (6) and (7) into the pressure dierence relation
get:
DP
_
a
1
a
0
R
C
v
dQ
k
2
c
p
_ _
T dm
_ _
kPdV
_ __
V

_
a
2
a
0
R
C
v
dQ
k
2
c
p
_ _
T dm
_ _
kPdV
_ __
V
19
Based on (19) and (6), (7), the bigger the numerical value
of the heat transfer rate dQ or gas leakage rate dm, the big-
ger the pressure dierence DP is, and the more unsymmet-
rical the pressure diagram is, and the more advanced the
maximal pressure point position occurs relative to the
TDC. The unsymmetrical property of the pressure diagram
can be applied to determine the TDC. And the unsymmet-
rical property is dened as
P
ave

_
angle
angle 0
Px Pxdx
_ __
angle angle 0
20
And angle_0 is the maximal pressure point, angle is the
crank angle range studied.
7. Simulation method and steps for TDC determination
It is rather dicult to get a quantity to describe the
unsymmetrical property of the pressure diagram and the
maximal pressure point position relative to the TDC. In
this paper, the internal combustion engines working pro-
cess simulation technology is applied to help determine
the TDC.
The engines simulation technique is quite successful and
is widely validated by experiments nowadays. Calculated
pressure diagrams under dierent heat transfer rate can be
gotten by simulation software and thus corresponding maps
between the unsymmetrical property of the pressure dia-
grams and the maximal pressure point position relative to
the TDC can be established. The maximal pressure points
position relative to TDC of the measured pressure diagram
can be gotten by comparing the measured pressure dia-
grams unsymmetrical characteristics with that of the simu-
lated pressure diagrams. Then the TDC of the measured
pressure diagram is determined.
The steps of the TDC determination with simulation
technique are as follows:
Fig. 1. Sketch of the points for pressure dierence calculation.
2006 X.-B. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 20032010
(1) Simulating the same engine that is experimented with
dierent heat transfer rate to get dierent calculated
pressure diagrams.
(2) Fitting the calculated and experimentally measured
pressure diagram with smoothing splines and nding
the maximal pressure point on each pressure
diagram.
(3) With the mathematical formula gotten by curve t-
ting, calculating the pressure with very small crank
angle increment in the crank angle range studied.
(4) Compare the pressure diagram on each side of the
maximal pressure point and get the pressure dier-
ence curves.
(5) Map the pressure dierence curves gotten from cal-
culated pressure diagrams.
(6) Compare the experimentally measured pressure dia-
grams pressure dierence curve with the calculated
maps.
(7) Determine the TDC by interpolating on the calcu-
lated maps.
8. Verication of the TDC determination method with
simulated pressure diagrams
For the experimentally measured pressure diagrams, the
actual position of the TDC is unknown. So it is impossible
to judge the precision of the TDC determining method only
with experimental pressure diagrams. However, the actual
position of the TDC is known on a simulated pressure dia-
gram. It is convenient to test the TDC determination
method with simulated pressure diagrams.
The heat transfer rate is dierent when dierent simula-
tion codes or heat transfer model was used to simulate the
pressure diagram of motoring. Then the position of the
maximal pressure point is dierent. In this paper, two
groups of pressure diagrams and their maximal pressure
points position were gotten from GT-Power and Vipre
simulating codes with dierent heat transfer rates. Dierent
heat transfer rates are gotten by multiplying factors rang-
ing from 0 to 2.4. The specications, heat transfer model
and the environment of the simulated engine are shown
in Table 1. The sketch of the model engines in GT-Power
and Vipre are shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The calculated pres-
sure curves from GT-Power are taken as the map (Fig. 4)
for TDC determination and the pressure diagrams gotten
from Vipre are taken as experimentally measured pressure
diagrams. The pressure dierence curves of Vipre group is
shown in Fig. 5.
Fitting the simulated pressure diagrams with smoothing
splines and comparing the pressure on the left side of the
maximal pressure point to that on the right side of the pres-
sure diagram. Some typical pressure dierence curves of the
Table 1
Specications, environment conditions and heat transfer model of the simulated engine
Cylinder number Strokes Stroke (mm) Bore (mm) e L (mm) T
en
(K) P
en
(KPa) Heat transfer model
1 4 100 100 16.5 220 300 101.3 woschni
Fig. 2. Sketch of the engine model in GT-Power.
Fig. 3. Sketch of the engine model in Vipre.
X.-B. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 20032010 2007
pressure diagrams are shown in Fig. 6. The solid lines in
Fig. 6 are the pressure dierence curves of the pressure dia-
grams from GT-Power and the dash lines are those from
Vipre. The crank angle of the maximal pressure point for
each pressure dierence curves is shown on the side of
the curve by an arrow text.
Comparing the pressure dierence curves from Vipre
with those from GT-Power, it was found that the position
of the maximal pressure points crank angle is near when
the shape of the pressure dierence curves is near. Fig. 7
shows the dierence between the 25th curve in the group
calculated by Vipre and all the curves calculated by GT-
Power. The calculation nds that the dierence between
the 20th curve in GT-Power and the 25th curve in Vipre
is the smallest. And the crank angle of the two near curve
is that of 0.5940 and 0.5740. The error is 0.02CA if
the 25th pressure diagrams maximal pressure point posi-
tion in Vipre group is estimated by the 20th pressure curve
in GT-Power group. All the position errors of the pressure
diagrams in Vipre that gotten from dierent heat transfer
rate is shown in Fig. 8. The error in Fig. 8 is less than
0.05 crank angle. The crank angle error satises the
demand of modern engine research. The TDC determina-
tion method is applicable.
9. The experimental analysis of the TDC determination
method
The TDC determination method was analysed with real
engine experiment. The specication of the engine is shown
in Table 2. The layout of the experiment is shown in Fig. 9.
The temperature of the cooling water can be regulated with
control valve on the outlet pipe of the heat exchanger. The
speed of the engine was controlled by the control system of
the engine. The signal of the cylinder pressure sensor and
the signal of the crankshaft encoder are acquired into the
PC computer with data acquisition card. The cylinder pres-
Fig. 4. The pressure dierence map from simulated pressure diagrams.
Fig. 5. Pressure dierence curves of Vipre group.
Fig. 6. Illustration of mapping the pressure dierence curves.
Fig. 7. Comparing results of pressure dierence curves.
Fig. 8. Crank angle error of the simulated pressure diagrams.
2008 X.-B. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 20032010
sure during engines motoring can be measured in varying
engine speed and varying cooling water temperature.
The cylinder pressure was measured with the cooling
water temperature controlled at 40, 50, 60, 70 C with the
engine speed of 800 rpm, 1200 rpm, respectively. The mea-
sured pressure diagrams were tted with smoothing splines
and compared with simulated maps. The results were
shown in Figs. 10 and 11. The dash lines were the measured
pressure diagrams.
Because the actual position of the TDC of the experi-
mentally measured pressure diagrams is unknown, the pre-
cision of the TDC determination method cannot be gotten
from comparing with simulated pressure diagrams directly.
However, the position of each maximal pressure point on
the measured pressure diagrams relative to the synchro sig-
nal of the crank shaft encoder is denite. So the crank
angle dierence between two curves can be applied to test
the precision of the TDC determination method. The crank
angle dierences of the measured pressure diagrams and
the simulated pressure diagrams are shown in Table 3.
The comparing between the measured pressure diagrams
and the simulated pressure diagrams indicate that the sign
of two neighboring curves crank angle dierence is the
same. For the four pressure diagrams measured when
engine speed is 800 rpm, the maximal angle dierence is
0.062 crank angle and the according simulated pressure
diagrams crank angle dierence is 0.0500. The dierence
between the experimental results and simulated results is
0.012 crank angle. The error is in the acceptable range.
When the engine speed is 1200/min, the maximal angle dif-
ference is 0.038 crank angle for the measured pressure
diagram and the according simulated pressure diagrams
crank angle dierence is 0.0380. The dierence between
the experimental results and simulated results is smaller
than 0.0002 crank angle. The error is in the acceptable
range too.
Fig. 10. Comparing of simulated and experimental pressure dierence
curves at engine speed 800 rpm.
Fig. 11. Comparing of simulated and experimental pressure dierence
curves at engine speed 1200 rpm.
Table 2
The specication of the engine experimented and the environment
conditions
Cylinder
number
Strokes Stroke
(mm)
Bore
(mm)
e L
(mm)
T
en
(K)
P
en
(KPa)
6 4 135 114 17.7 235 305 101.3
Fig. 9. Lay out of the experimental apparatus.
Table 3
The crank angle dierence of experimental and simulated results
Temperature_speed
Temperature_speed
Experimental angle Experimental angle
dierence
Simulated angle Simulated angle
dierence
Sign of the angle
dierence
40_80050_800 519.7820 519.8140 0.0320 0.2040 (0.1840) 0.0200 Same
50_80060_800 519.8140 519.8400 0.0260 0.1840 (0.1620) 0.0220 Same
60_80070_800 519.8400 519.8440 0.0040 0.1620 (0.1540) 0.0080 Same
40_120050_1200 519.7880 519.8020 0.0140 0.2000 (0.1920) 0.0080 Same
50_120060_1200 519.8020 519.8100 0.0080 0.1920 (0.1720) 0.0200 Same
60_120070_1200 519.8100 519.8260 0.0160 0.1720 (0.1620) 0.0100 Same
X.-B. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 20032010 2009
10. Conclusions
(1) The maximal pressure point position relative to the
TDC on the pressure diagram of the engines motor-
ing is depend on the heat transfer rate and gas leak-
age rate in the vicinity of TDC.
(2) The heat transfer and gas leakages eects on the
maximal pressure point position relative to the
TDC is equal and undistinguishable.
(3) The pressure diagrams geometrical characteristics is
one to one correspondence with the maximal pres-
sure point position relative to the TDC. The pressure
diagrams geometrical characteristics can be applied
for TDC determination.
(4) The unsymmetrical characteristics of the pressure
diagram during the engines motoring can be
applied for TDC determination. The error of TDC
is less than 0.05 crank angle with this TDC determi-
nation method.
Acknowledgements
The Author would like to acknowledge the engineers of
the lab for their works on the experiment and the students
in the lab for their help on the mathematical models. Espe-
cially, the author would acknowledge Shanghai Diesel
Engine Co., Ltd. for their supply of the engine and
turbochargers.
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