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Well I have a rather unorthodox view of combustion developed as a
smog tech. One of my smog instructors said that the difference between a rich mixture and a lean mixture is that the rich mixture burns faster because fuel molecules closer together and a lean mixture burns slower. So the way I look at it is a rich mixture will burn when the piston is near Top dead center producing alot of pressure and heat where you can do the best work for pushing down the piston. Now a lean mixture will not burn fast enough to produce maximum push and produces pressure when piston is further down and volume is too great for maximum power. So heat and pressure of rich mixture is converted more into kinetic energy of piston, which lowers the temperature of the burning mixture as the piston goes down. The heat of the lean mixture is not converted to kinetic energy of piston so it retains more heat as piston goes down and that is why exhaust is hotter and metal is hotter. So with a lean mixture you have more waste heat. Why does a diesel engine have more torque, because it pushes on piston longer as long as injector is open while with a gas engine it just pushes alittle while after top dead center. So a rich mixture produces more instant heat and pressure energy right where it is needed for maximum power while a lean mixture extends the burning time and therefore pushes weaker and at past best time. As you know from physics energy is converted from one form to another. So if heat and pressure of burning gasoline turns into more kinetic energy then it must lower its temperature or heat energy more than a lean mixture. And you get more power from a rich mixture. Of course the unburned gasoline that can't find any oxygen to combine with will absorb some heat energy and also the heat released upon conversion to carbon monoxide is not as much as released with conversion to carbon dioxide (adequate oxygen).. |
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