Five stroke engine

Hello knowledge aspirants, today we are going to learn the idea of five stroke engine. Yes you are reading correctly its five stroke not four stroke engine. When we have discussed eight stroke engine at that time we have mentioned that eight stroke engine was combination six stroke and five stroke engine and today we will go through construction and working of these engines. It is recommended that you also read my article on eight stroke engine for better understanding.

So the idea and development of five stroke engine is given by the ilmor private limited company which was established in 1983. It is a British company which deals with high performance automobile engineering. It is also the same company which had partnership with McLaren and Mercedes Benz to power their F1 cars.


Construction

In practice this engine consists of basic parts of our normal engine. There is not much difference between our normal four stroke engine parts and five stroke engine parts. So one can easily manufacture a five stroke engine without using any special part. This is a big advantage of this engine.

Five stroke engine consists of two high pressure (H.P.) cylinder and one low pressure (L.P.) cylinder. So it is require to have at least three cylinder for five stroke engine. Exhaust manifolds of H.P. cylinder are attached with the intake of L.P. cylinder. And intake of H.P. cylinder and exhaust of L.P. cylinder has normal arrangement as of four stroke engine. 





Working

Before understanding working of whole engine first we have to study working of both H.P. and L.P. cylinder individually.

H.P. Cylinder

These two cylinders has four strokes exactly same as normal four stroke engine
Stroke 1 (Suction) - Combustible fuel enters through inlet valve
Stroke 2 (Compression) - Fuel is compressed as piston goes upward
Stroke 3 (Power/Ignition) - Fuel is ignited and piston is forced to move downward
Stroke 4 (Intermediate exhaust) - Burnt gases exits from H.P. cylinder

L.P. Cylinder

Stroke 1 (Suction) – Exhaust gas from H.P. cylinder enters through inlet valve
Stroke 2 (Exhaust) – Compressed gases are expelled from cylinder 

Working of engine

(1)  At starting first two strokes in H.P. cylinder 1 takes place. Remaining both moves with crank shaft without any supply.
(2)   Remaining two strokes of H.P. cylinder 1 takes place and exhaust of H.P. cylinder 1 is sent to L.P. cylinder 1. At same time first two strokes of H.P. cylinder 2 takes place.
(3)  Now again first two strokes in H.P. cylinder 1 takes place. Meanwhile exhaust of H.P. cylinder 2 is sent to L.P. cylinder 1.
(4)   And cycle repeats.

Advantages

(1)  A single cylinder four stroke engine produces 4 power strokes in two rotation while in 3 cylinder five stroke engine also generates 4 power stroke during two rotation but this power strokes are of low impulse hence there is condition of evenly balanced low magnitude forces. So it easy to balance forces in this engine.

(2)  In normal engine exhaust gases are expelled at high pressure hence generates noise. But in five stroke engine due to expansion of gases in low pressure cylinder noise is reduced.

(3) This engine also reduces emission of hydrocarbons as it will be easier to reduce compression ratio. In normal engine emission of hydro carbon increases with increase in compression ratio.
(4) A secondary cylinder provides an additional expansion process enabling extra work to be extracted, hence increasing thermodynamic efficiency.
(5)  The engine runs an overall expansion ratio approaching that of a diesel engine – in the region of 14.5:1. (source ilmor website)
(6)   Less tendency of knocking.
(7)   Engine has no special parts hence it makes manufacturing easier.

Useful links

This animation video will help you to understand this concept easier.

Ilmor official page –Ilmor


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