Chapter 11

Two stroke engine

Introduction: in two stroke engine the cycle is completed in two strokes,

i.e. one revolution of the crankshaft as against two revolutions of four
stroke cycle.

The difference between two stroke and four stroke engine is the method
of filling the cylinder with the fresh charge and removing the burned
gases from the cylinder. In a four stroke engine these operations are
performed by the engine piston during the suction and exhaust strokes
respectively. In two stroke engine suction is accomplished by air
compressed in crank case or by a blower. The induction of compressed
air removes the products of combustion through exhaust ports. Therefore
no piston strokes are required for these two operations. Only two piston
stroke are required to complete the cycle, one for compressing the fresh
charged and the other expansion or power stroke.
Intake

The fuel air mixture is first drawn into the crankcase by the vacuum that
is created during the upward stroke of the piston.

Crankcase compression

During the downward stroke, the poppet valve is forced to close by the
increased crankcase pressure. The fuel mixture is then compressed in the
crankcase during the remainder of the stroke.
Transfer / exhaust

Toward the end of the stroke, the piston exposes the intake port, allowing
the compressed fuel/air mixture in the crankcase to escape around the
piston into the main cylinder. This expels the exhaust gases out the
exhaust port, usually located on the opposite side of the cylinder.

Compression

The piston then rises, driven by flywheel momentum, and compresses the
air fuel mixture (at the same time, another intake stroke is happening
beneath the piston).
Power

At the top of the stroke, the spark plug ignites the fuel mixture. The
burning fuel expands, driving the piston downward, to complete the
cycle. (at the same time another crankcase compression stroke is
happening beneath the piston.)

Since the two stroke engine fires one every revolution of the
crankshaft, a two stroke engine is usually more powerful than a four
stroke engine of equivalent size. This, couple with their lighter, simple
construction, makes the two stroke engine popular in chainsaws, line
trimmers,

Unfortunately, most two stroke engine are inefficient and are

terrible polluters due to the amount of unspent fuel that escapes trough
the exhaust port
 In loop scavenged engine (figure 3) the external blower is used to
supply the charge, under same pressure, at the inlet manifold. During the
downward stroke of the piston, exhaust port are uncovered at about 65 o
bBDC. At about 10 o later the inlet port open and the scavenging process
take place. The inlet ports are shaped so that the most of the air flows to
the top of the cylinder for proper scavenging of the upper of the cylinder.
Piston deflector is not used. Thus scavenging process is more difficult in
properly designed loop scavenged engine than in the usual crankcase
scavenging engine with deflector piston.
Theoretical scavenging process

i. Perfect scavenging: ideally the fresh air mixture should remain

separated from the residual combustion products with respect to
both mass and heat transfer during the scavenging process. Fresh
air pumped into the cylinder by the blower through the inlet ports
at the lower of the cylinder pushes the products of combustion
ahead of itself and of the cylinder through the exhaust valve at the
other end. There is no mixing of the air and products. As long as
any products remaining in the cylinder. The through the exhaust
ports consist of products only.
ii. Perfect mixing: the incoming fresh charge mixes completely and
instantaneously with the cylinder contents, and a portion of this
mixture passes out of the exhaust ports at a rate equal to that
entering the cylinder, this homogenous mixture consists initially of
products of combustion only and then gradually changes to pure
air.
iii. Short circuiting: the fresh charge coming from the scavenging
manifold directly goes out of the exhaust port without removing
any residual gas. This is a dead loss and its occurrence must be
avoided.

The actual scavenging process is neither one of perfect scavenging

nor perfect mixing. It probably consists partially of perfect
scavenging, mixing and short circuiting.
 Scavenging parameters:
is the amount of total charge delivered to the engine = total
cylinder volume

is the swept volume

is the amount of this delivered charge that that is retained in the

cylinder

is the total volume of mixture at the beginning of the

compression

is the new fuel air charge to cylinder.

Delivery ratio :

The ratio of the air volume, under the ambient conditions of

scavenge manifold introduce per cycle and a reference volume.

Delivery ratio

=total effective cylinder volume.

Scavenging efficiency: it is the ratio of the volume of scavenge air

which remain in the cylinder at the end of the scavenging to the volume
of the cylinder itself at the moment when the scavenge and exhaust port
of valves are fully closed.

 Trapping efficiency: the amount of fresh charge retained in the
cylinder is not same as that supplied to the cylinder because some fresh
charge is always lost due to short circuiting. Therefore an additional term,
trapping efficiency, is used to indicate the ability of the cylinder to the
retain the fresh charge. It is defined as the amount of charge retained in
the cylinder to the total charge delivered to the engine.