Atkinson cycle

The original Atkinson - cycle (also Atkinson - cycle) is a cycle in four- stroke engines. It is named after its inventor, James Atkinson.

The Atkinson engine has different stroke for " suck / compress " and " expand / eject " and thus different volume for " suck / compress " and " work / eject ". This is achieved with an additional mechanism to the crankshaft, which transmits the four strokes of a crankshaft revolution. The advantage is that the gas through the expansion stroke of the piston extended further expanded, and thus a lower exhaust temperature and thus a higher efficiency is achieved. The discharge pressure and the maximum combustion pressure and thus the maximum combustion temperature remains the same as in gasoline engines. Of course, the reduction of the intake stroke compared to the Arbeithub leads to a reduction of the cylinder charge of a normal four-stroke engine.

So the Atkinson cycle is increased compared to a conventional gasoline engine efficiency at the expense of performance with the same capacity and same speed.

The derived Atkinson cycle is also realized with the Miller cycle and variable valve timing. To compensate for the power loss is usually applied turbocharging and intercooling. Alternatively, the motor to achieve the same peak power can also be increased.