The Air Standard Otto cycle is the ideal cycle for Spark-Ignition (SI) internal combustion engines, first proposed by Nikolaus Otto over 130 years ago, and which is currently used most motor vehicles. The following link by the Kruse Technology Partnership presents a description of the four-stroke Otto cycle operation including a short history of Nikolaus Otto. Once again we have excellent animations produced by Matt Keveney presenting both the four-stroke and the two-stroke spark-ignition internal combustion engine engine operation
The analysis of the Otto cycle is very similar to that of the Diesel cycle which we analysed in the previous section. We will use the ideal "air-standard" assumption in our analysis. Thus the working fluid is a fixed mass of air undergoing the complete cycle which is treated throughout as an ideal gas. All processes are ideal, combustion is replaced by heat addition to the air, and exhaust is replaced by a heat rejection process which restores the air to the initial state.
The most significant difference between the ideal Otto cycle and the ideal Diesel cycle is the method of igniting the fuel-air mixture. Recall that in the ideal Diesel cycle the extremely high compression ratio (around 18:1) allows the air to reach the ignition temperature of the fuel. The fuel is then injected such that the ignition process occurs at a constant pressure. In the ideal Otto cycle the fuel-air mixture is introduced during the induction stroke and compressed to a much lower compression ratio (around 8:1) and is then ignited by a spark. The combustion results in a sudden jump in pressure while the volume remains essentially constant. The continuation of the cycle including the expansion and exhaust processes are essentially identical to that of the ideal Diesel cycle. We find it convenient to develop the analysis approach of the ideal Otto cycle through the following solved problem