ABSTRACT
Rudolf Diesel (1858e1913) is generally accepted as the person who first developed an internal combustion engine that worked by injecting fuel into compressed air that was hot enough to ignite the fuel. His patent used these words: ‘Compressing in a cylinder pure air to such an extent that the temperature thereby produced is far higher than the burning or igniting point of the fuel.’ The original diesel engines of the type shown in Fig. 15.1(a) were large and heavy, and they operated at slow speed; they were used for stationary engines and ships but were not considered suitable for use in road vehicles. Around the 1920s, developments in fuel injection
equipment and other technologies led to the development of engines of the type shown in Fig. 15.1(b) that were suitable for use in road vehicles e these engines work on a cycle of operations that is known as the dual combustion cycle. For this reason some authorities
suggest that the vehicle engines that work on the principle of compression ignition should be called compression ignition engines (CIEs). In modern literature the terms are used interchangeably.
