2. A chemical change; especially, oxidation, accompanied by the production of heat and light.
3. Violent anger or agitation: "Combustion within the populace slowly built up to the point of revolution."
4. Burning; consumption by fire; the development of light and heat from the chemical combination of a substance with oxygen.
5. Etymology: from Latin combustus, past participle of comburere, "to burn up"; from urere "to burn".
Combustion includes thermal, hydrodynamic, and chemical processes. It starts with the mixing of fuel and an oxidant, and sometimes in the presence of other species or catalyst.
The combustion products include heat, light, chemical species, pollutants, mechanical work, and plasma.
2. The volume of the combustion chamber when a piston is located directly at the top center.
2. In a furnace, any space in which combustion occurs, or the space in which combustion of gaseous products occurs; such as, oil or kerosine is burned to provide heat.
3. In space technology, the part of a liquid rocket, ramjet, or gas turbine engine in which the combustion of propellants takes place at high pressure.
2. A layer of ash on the heat-exchange surfaces of a combustion chamber, which comes from the burning of a fuel.
2. The ratio of heat that is actually developed in a combustion process to the heat that would be released if the combustion were perfect.
2. An engine that operates by the energy of combustion of a fuel.
3. Any of various types of engines driven by energy produced by combustion.
2. The design of combustion furnaces for a given performance and thermal efficiency, involving the study of the heat liberated in the combustion process, the amount of heat absorbed by heat elements, and heat-transfer rates.
2. A furnace that has a source of heat which is the energy released in the oxidation of fossil fuel.
In classifying combustion instabilities there are three types which are related to engines: chamber instabilities, intrinsic instabilities, and system instabilities.
2. A condensation nucleus which arises as a result of natural or industrial combustion procedures.
2. The rate at which a substance burns.
2. A sudden disturbance in an internal combustion engine which occurs when the fuel is being improperly burned because of ignition or control errors.
2. A tube, resistant to high temperatures and usually composed of glass, silica, or porcelain.
It is used to hold samples during pyrolysis (decomposition of complex molecules by heat) or elemental (fundamental) analysis.
2. A heat engine that converts the energy of fuel into work by using compressed, hot gas as the working medium and which usually delivers its mechanical output power either as torque through a rotating shaft (industrial gas turbines) or as jet power in the form of velocity through an exhaust nozzle (aircraft jet engines).
3. An internal combustion engine in which liquid or gaseous fuel is used to generate mechanical energy through a rotating shaft, which then drives an electric generator or another piece of equipment.
4. One of a class of heat engines that use fuel energy to produce mechanical output power, either as torque through a rotating shaft (industrial gas turbines) or as jet power in the form of velocity through an exhaust nozzle (aircraft jet engines).
The fuel energy is added to the working substance, that is gaseous in form and most often air, either by direct internal combustion or indirectly through a heat exchanger.
2. A zone of burning propagated or transmitted through a combustible medium.
3. The zoned, reacting, gaseous material formed when an explosive mixture is ignited.
- An air-fuel mixture is drawn into the cylinder and compressed.
- Heat transfer is added by the spark ignition of the fuel mixture in the cylinder.
- The gases produced by this combustion expand to move the piston downward for the power stroke.
- The burned gases in the cylinder are expelled.
Named after Nikolaus August Otto (1832-1891), a German engineer and inventor.
2. Slightly explosive; liable to snap and crackle when heated; as salt does.
Unless things burn completely, toxic exhaust gases; such as, carbon monoxide and other forms of pollution are also produced.
2. An act of burning and a chemical reaction (oxidation) to produce heat, work, light, etc..External combustion engines; such as, steam engines, produce power less efficiently by burning fuel in an external chamber to heat a liquid or gas, which then moves a piston or a turbine.
Each piston in an internal combustion engine makes four "strokes"
- The piston moves down, sucking in air through the inlet valve while a tiny squirt of gasoline is injected into the air.
- The inlet valve at the top closes, trapping everything inside and then the piston moves up, squeezing the air and gasoline tightly together.
- When the piston reaches the top, a carefully timed spark sets fire to the gasoline; as the gas burns explosively, forcing the piston back down.
- Finally, the piston moves back up and pushes the burned gases out of the outlet valve which leave the car through the exhaust.
The four-stroke cycles include explosions inside the engine's cylinders, on top of the pistons, and the blast force pushes the pistons down; then, the crankshaft swings around and pushes the pistons back up for the next stage in the cycle. The cycles for one piston are described in the following sequences: