Week 12-13

External Combustion

The term "engine" is typically defined as any device that transforms the chemical energy inside
a combustible fuel into mechanical energy that can be used to do work. The two most common
types of engines are the external combustion engine and the more famous internal combustion
engine. External combustion engines were developed first. The modern steam engine was
pioneered by inventors Thomas Savery, Thomas Newcomen, and James Watt.

External combustion engines are heat engines where the combustion of fuel takes place
outside the engine cylinder. The produced heat is transferred to a working fluid (commonly
steam or gas), which then does mechanical work in a separate chamber like a piston or turbine.

Characteristics:

 Heat source and working fluid are physically separated.

 Can use various fuel types (coal, gas, wood, nuclear, etc.).

 Common in power generation systems like steam plants

Common Fuels:

Coal, wood, oil, natural gas, nuclear heat (in nuclear power plants).

Applications:

 Steam engines (historically used in locomotives and ships).

 Power plants (especially thermal power stations).

 Stirling engines.

How Does an External Combustion Engine Work?

Steam engines were the first engine type to see widespread use. Steam engines powered all
early locomotives, steam boats and factories, and therefore acted as the foundation of the
Industrial Revolution. These steam engines are called external combustion engines because the
fuel is burned outside the cylinders. In a boiler, coal or other fuel is burned to create steam. This
steam is then transferred to the engine.

The Boiler:

The high-pressure steam for a steam engine comes from a boiler. The boiler's job is to apply
heat to water to create steam. A fire-tube boiler was common in the 1800s. It consists of a tank
of water perforated with pipes. The hot gases from a coal or wood fire run through the pipes to
heat the water in the tank, as shown in the figure. In a fire-tube boiler, the entire tank is under
pressure, so if the tank bursts it creates a major explosion.

The Engine:

The steam is carried to the engine. The diagram below shows the major components of a piston
steam engine. This sort of engine would be typical in a steam locomotive. The engine shown is
a double-acting steam engine because the valve allows high-pressure steam to act alternately
on both faces of the piston.

The slide valve is in charge of letting the high-pressure steam into either side of the cylinder.
The control rod for the valve is usually hooked into a linkage attached to the cross-head, so that
the motion of the cross-head slides the valve as well. (On a steam locomotive, this linkage also
allows the engineer to put the train into reverse.) You can see in this diagram that the exhaust
steam simply vents out into the air. This fact explains two things about steam locomotives:

Figure 1. VS of a combustion engine

1. It explains why they have to take on water at the station -- the water is constantly being lost
through the steam exhaust.

2. It explains where the "choo-choo" sound comes from. When the valve opens the cylinder to
release its steam exhaust, the steam escapes under a great deal of pressure and makes a
"choo!" sound as it exits. When the train is first starting, the piston is moving very slowly, but
then as the train starts rolling the piston gains speed. The effect of this is the "Choo..... choo....
choo... choo choo-choo-choo" that we hear when it starts moving.
 On a steam locomotive, the cross-head normally links to a drive rod, and from there to coupling
rods that drive the locomotive's wheels. The arrangement often looks something like this:

Figure 2. Source: External Combustion pdf

External Combustion Cycles

a. Stirling Cycle

Figure 3. Model Stirling engine, with external heat from a spirit lamp (bottom right) applied to
the outside of the glass displacer cylinder. (Wikipedia)

In Stirling cycle, Carnot cycle’s compression and expansion isentropic processes are replaced
by two constant-volume regeneration processes. During the regeneration process heat is
transferred to a thermal storage device (regenerator) during one part and is transferred back to
the working fluid in another part of the cycle. The regenerator can be a wire or a ceramic mesh
or any kind of porous plug with a high thermal mass (mass times specific heat). The
regenerator is assumed to be reversible heat transfer device. The Stirling cycle was invented by
Robert Stirling in 1816. The execution of the Stirling cycle requires innovative hardware. That is
the main reason the Stirling cycle is not common in practice.

Figure 4. Stirling cycle diagram

Process 1 – 2 Isothermal expansion heat addition from external source

Process 2 – 3 Isometric heat transfer internal heat transfer from the gas to the regenerator

Process 3 – 4 Isothermal compression heat rejection to the external sink

Process 4 – 1 Isometric heat transfer internal heat transfer from the regenerator to the gas

Working Principle

The system includes two pistons in a cylinder with a regenerator in the middle. Initially the left
chamber houses the entire working fluid (a gas) at high pressure and high temperature TH

Figure 5
 Isothermal heat transfer to the gas at TH
from external source. As gas expands
isothermally, left piston moves outward,
doing work and the gas pressure drops

Both pistons move to the right at same rate,

keeping const. volume, until the entire gas
pushed to the right chamber (passing thru
the regenerator). Heat is transferred to the
regenerator and gas temperature drops to
TL expands isothermally, left piston moves
outward, doing work and the gas pressure
drops

The right piston is moved to the left,

compressing the gas. Heat transfers
(isothermally) from the gas to the external
heat source at TL, so the gas temperature
remains at TL while the pressure rises.

Both pistons are moved to the left at the

same rate (keeping constant volume)
forcing the gas thought the regenerator into
the left chamber. The gas temperature rises
to TH and cycle completes

 Unlike internal combustion engines, a Stirling cycle does not exchange the working gas
in each cycle, the gas is permanent.

 The heat is supplied outside the engine, so any heat source can be used, e.g.: coal, gas,
solar energy, nuclear power, etc.

 Stirling engine can reach higher thermal efficiencies than Otto and Diesel engines, since
heat transfer occurs at constant temperatures, i.e., its thermal efficiency is the same as
the Carnot cycle:

 The pressure changes are very smooth and its torque is uniform, it has no valves,
exhaust pipes, etc. Thus, Stirling cycle is quiet and has less maintenance points.
  To achieve competitive efficiency, it needs to work on high pressures which cause
tremendous problems of sealing.

 The temperature difference TL - TH should maintain high for acceptable thermal

efficiencies, this results in large thermal stresses in the cylinder (hot and cold ends).
Consequently, high strength expensive materials should be used.

 The working fluid has to be an ideal gas. Helium or hydrogen are typically used because
of their high heat conductivity and low molecular masses which lead to faster heat
transfer.

 Fast changes in power output are not easy to achieve which makes the Stirling cycle not
so attractive for automotive applications.

b. Ericsson Cycle

The Ericsson cycle is the thermodynamic cycle invented by John Ericsson after he built many
heat engines. The Ericsson engine working on the principle of Ericson cycle comprises of the
regenerator and the heat exchanger. The efficiency of regenerative Ericsson and Stirling engines
have been found to be almost the same as Carnot engine, however, the amount of work
developed with gas as the working fluid has been found to be insufficient due to low thermal
conductivity of gas.

Various Processes of Ericsson Cycle

Figure 6. Ericsson Cycle Diagram

The Ericsson cycle comprises of two isothermal and two constant pressure (isobaric)
processes. The addition of heat takes place during constant pressure as well as isothermal
processes. Here are the various processes of Ericsson cycle when applied to the piston and
cylinder engine. Please refer to P-V diagram given at the bottom:

Process 1 – 2 Isothermal expansion and heat addition

During this process the air, which acts as a working fluid, is heated from the externally added
heat. The heat of the air increases at constant temperature T1 and it expands. It is during this
process that the work is obtained from the engine.

Process 2 – 3 Constant pressure or isobaric heat rejection

The air is then passed through the regenerator, where its temperature reduces to T3 at constant
pressure. The heat absorbed by the regenerator is used for heating in the next part of the cycle.
The air after passing through the regenerator is released as the exhaust gas.

Process 3 – 4 Isothermal compression

During this process the air drawn into the engine is compressed at constant temperature, by
applying an intercooler. The pressurized air is then drawn into the air storage tank.

Process 4 – 1 Constant pressure or isobaric heat absorption

The compressed air at high pressure passes through the regenerator and absorbs the
previously stored heat. It then flows to the piston and cylinder where it gets expanded and
produces work during process 1-2. Thus the cycle keeps on repeating.

Important Aspects of Ericsson Cycle

 The Ericsson engine based on Ericsson cycle is an external combustion engine since the
burning of the working fluid occurs outside the engine. This is opposite to the internal
combustion (IC) engines in which the burning of fuel occurs inside the engine.

 Due to practical problems the principle of Ericsson cycle is not used in the piston and
cylinder types of engines; rather it is used in the gas turbines that have large number of
stages with a number of heat exchangers, insulators and reheaters. The Ericsson cycle
can be most closely compared with the Stirling cycle. Ericsson cycle is now more
popularly known as Brayton cycle.

c. Closed-loop Brayton Cycle

In 1872, an American engineer, George Bailey Brayton advanced the study of heat engines by
patenting a constant pressure internal combustion engine, initially using vaporized gas but later
using liquid fuels such as kerosene. This heat engine is known as “Brayton’s Ready Motor”. It
means, the original Brayton engine used a piston compressor and piston expander instead of a
gas turbine and gas compressor. Today, modern gas turbine engines and air breathing jet
engines are also a constant-pressure heat engine, therefore we describe their thermodynamics
by the Brayton cycle. In general, the Brayton cycle describes the workings of a constant-
pressure heat engine. It is the one of most common thermodynamic cycles that can be found in
gas turbine power plants or in airplanes. In contrast to Carnot cycle, the Brayton cycle does not
execute isothermal processes, because these must be performed very slowly. In an ideal
Brayton cycle, the system executing the cycle undergoes a series of four processes: two
isentropic (reversible adiabatic) processes alternated with two isobaric processes.

Since Carnot’s principle states that no engine can be more efficient than a reversible engine (a
Carnot heat engine) operating between the same high temperature and low temperature
reservoirs, a gas turbine based on the Brayton cycle must have lower efficiency than the Carnot
efficiency. In a closed Brayton cycle working medium (e.g. helium) recirculates in the loop and
the gas expelled from the turbine is reintroduced into the compressor. In these turbines, a heat
exchanger (external combustion) is usually used and only clean medium with no combustion
products travels through the power turbine. The closed Brayton cycle is used, for example, in
closed-cycle gas turbine and hightemperature gas cooled reactors.

Figure 7. Brayton Cycle Diagram

Process 1 – 2 Isentropic compression (in a compressor)

Ambient air is drawn into the compressor, where it is pressurized.

Process 2 – 3 Constant pressure or isobaric heat addition

The compressed air then runs through a combustion chamber, where fuel is burned, heating
that air—a constant-pressure process, since the chamber is open to flow in and out.

Process 3 – 4 Isentropic expansion (in a turbine)

The heated, pressurized air then gives up its energy, expanding through a turbine (or series of
turbines). Some of the work extracted by the turbine is used to drive the compressor.

Process 4 – 1 Constant pressure or isobaric heat rejection

Heat is rejected (in the atmosphere).

References

Combustion Engine. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrived April 5, 2025 from

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_combustion_engine

Çengel, Y. A., & Boles, M. A. (2015). Thermodynamics: An engineering approach(8th ed.).

McGraw-Hill Education.

Kreith, F., & Bohn, M. S. (2011). Principles of heat transfer (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Stirling Engine. (n.d.). In Wikipedia._ Retrieved April 6, 2025, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine

Mckenny, R. (2024). Stirling Engine. Retrived on April 5, 2025, from

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/engineering/external-combustion-engine

Topic 7. External Combustion.pdf.