Abstract
The familiar piston engine works on the principle of adding heat to a confined mass of air, thus raising its pressure in order to use the force for useful work. The familiar method compresses air, or air with fuel, before adding heat. This is not actually vital; Lenoir’s engine worked without compression but its efficiency was some 7%.
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© 1983 Peter Polak
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Polak, P. (1983). Piston Engines. In: Theory and Practice in Engineering Thermodynamics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17235-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17235-1_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-35387-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-17235-1
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