ME 4012 Lecture Notes - Volumetric Efficiency, Thermal Efficiency, Mechanical Efficiency
Document Summary
Thermal efficiency is a non-dimensional performance measure for thermal energy devices such as engines, steam turbines, boilers, furnaces, etc. Thermal efficiency measures how well work-related energy is converted to net heat output: specific fuel consumption. Tsfc, or simply sfc, is an engineering term used to quantify an engine"s fuel economy relative to thrust output: mechanical efficiency. Mechanical efficiency measures how well a machine converts energy and power into force and movement. Mechanical advantage is found by comparing the input and output force: volumetric efficiency. Air-fuel ratio (a/f ratio) is the mass ratio of air to fuel present in a combustion process, such as in an internal combustion engine: mean effective pressure. Mean effective pressure is a measure of an engine"s ability to do work regardless of engine displacement. The majority of internal combustion engines are extremely inefficient when it comes to converting the fuel they burn into useable energy.
