Dynamics of the inlet system of a four-stroke engine
Tests were run on a single-cylinder and a multicylinder four-stroke engine in order to determine the effect of the dynamics of the inlet system upon indicated mean effective pressure. Tests on the single-cylinder engine were made at various speeds, inlet valve timings, and inlet pipe lengths. These tests indicated that the indicated mean effective pressure could be raised considerably at any one speed by the use of a suitably long inlet pipe. Tests at other speeds with this length of pipe showed higher indicated mean effective pressure than with a very short pipe, although not so high as could be obtained with the pipe length adjusted for each speed. A general relation was discovered between optimum time of inlet valve closing and pipe length; namely, that longer pipes require later inlet valve closing in order to be fully effective. Tests were also made on three cylinders connected to a single pipe. With this arrangement, increased volumetric efficiency at low speed was obtainable by using a long pipe, but only with a sacrifice of volumetric efficiency at high speed. Volumetric efficiency at high speed was progressively lower as the pipe length was increased.