Describe how the diesel engine works.

Diesel engine's working is based on internal combustion. Diesel engine can be categorized as two stroke diesel engines and 4 stroke diesel engines.

Let us look into the working of a 4 stroke diesel engine:

In a four stroke diesel engine the operation continues by rotating in cycle of 4 strokes or stages. In these 4 stages the piston moves up and down the crankcase twice or the crankshaft rotates twice. the four strokes are listed below:

1) Inlet: In this, the air mixture is made to enter through the inlet valve as the piston moves downwards.

2) Compression: Inlet valve is closed and the air mixture is compressed and the piston moves up. Fuel is injected into the heated air mixture through central injection valve and ignition takes place without the need of spark plug.

3) Expansion or Power: After ignition, mixture burns and due to expansion of gas, piston moves down, it drives the crankshaft to send power to the wheel.

4) Exhaust: This is the last stroke which results in the piston moving up to let out the exhaust gases

Moreover, in 2 stroke diesel engine, there is only one rotation of crankshaft and one stroke includes inlet and compression and the other includes expansion and exhaust