A diesel engine (also known as a compression-ignition engine) is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber. This is in contrast to spark-ignition engines such as a petrol engine (gasoline engine) or gas engine (using a gaseous fuel as opposed to gasoline), which uses a spark plug to ignite an air-fuel mixture. The engine was developed by Rudolf Diesel in 1893.
The diesel engine has the highest thermal efficiency of any regular internal or external combustion engine due to its very high compression ratio. Low-speed diesel engines (as used in ships and other applications where overall engine weight is relatively unimportant) can have a thermal efficiency that exceeds 50%.
Diesel engines are manufactured in two-stroke and four-stroke versions. They were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have been used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, trucks, heavy equipment and electric generating plants followed later. In the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of diesel engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the USA increased. As of 2007, about 50% of all new car sales in Europe are diesel.
The world's largest diesel engine is currently a Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C Common Rail marine diesel of about 84,420 kW (113,210 hp) @ 102 rpm output.
Read more about Diesel Engine: History, History Timeline, How Diesel Engines Work, Fuel and Fluid Characteristics, Engine Speeds, Supercharging and Turbocharging, Current and Future Developments
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... The D400 is an OHV inline-six diesel engine of 3,988 cc displacement ... The 6DE1 DMAX V6 engine is a DOHC 24V turbocharged engine with 184 PS (135 kW) and 400 N·m (300 lb·ft) of torque as found in the Euro IV specification Vauxhall ... The 6HK1 is a SOHC 24V turbocharged engine with 200-300 HP (149-224 KW) and 700–1,160 N·m (520–860 lb·ft) of torque ...
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... See also Diesel car history As of 2008, many common rail and unit injection systems already employ new injectors using stacked piezoelectric wafers in lieu of a solenoid, giving finer control of the ... vanes, which move and let more air into the engine depending on load ... pilot control (APC) uses an accelerometer to provide feedback on the engine's level of noise and vibration and thus instruct the ECU to inject the minimum amount of fuel that will ...
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“The will is never free—it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car—it can’t steer.”
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957)