Section contents
Operating principles
Lessons
1 min
How a diesel engine works: compression ignition and the four strokes
Why a diesel needs no spark plug and what happens in the cylinder over four strokes: intake, compression up to 900 °C, injection at up to 2000 bar, power stroke and exhaust. Step by step on a 3D model, with frames from the video.
1 min
Diesel power and torque: where the pull comes from
What torque and power are, how they are related and why a diesel's torque peaks below 2000 rpm. Formulas with real examples, torque and power curves, the fuel energy balance and friction losses.
1 min
Diesel combustion chambers: direct injection, prechamber and swirl chamber
How the shape of the combustion chamber affects a diesel's power, consumption and noise. The omega bowl in the piston, swirl, injection at up to 2000 bar, prechamber and swirl chamber, pilot injection and the glow plug — step by step.