History of engine development

Looking back at the history of engine production and development, it has gone through three development stages: steam engine, external combustion engine and internal combustion engine.

External combustion engine

The external combustion engine, that is to say, its fuel burns outside the engine. It was invented by R. Sterling in Scotland in 1816, so it is also called the Stirling engine. The engine converts the thermal energy generated by this combustion into kinetic energy. Watt's modified steam engine is a typical external combustion engine. When a large amount of coal burns to generate thermal energy to heat water into a large amount of water vapor, high pressure is generated. The high voltage in turn pushes the machinery to do work, thus completing the conversion of thermal energy to kinetic energy.

internal combustion engine

When you understand what an external combustion engine is, you know what an internal combustion engine is. The biggest difference between this type of engine and an external combustion engine is that its fuel burns inside. There are many types of internal combustion engines. Common gasoline and diesel engines are typical internal combustion engines. Uncommon rocket engines and jet engines mounted on aircraft also belong to internal combustion engines. However, due to different power output methods, there are huge differences between the former two and the latter two. Generally, the former is mostly used on the ground and the latter is mostly used in the air. Of course, some automakers have installed jet engines on cars for the purpose of setting a new world record for the speed of cars, but this is always a special case and there is no applicability for mass production.

gas turbine

In addition, there is a gas turbine. The working characteristic of this engine is to generate high-pressure gas by combustion. The high pressure of the gas is used to push the blades of the gas turbine to rotate, thereby outputting power. Gas turbines are widely used, but because it is difficult to fine-tune the output power, cars and motorcycles rarely use gas turbines, and only some racing cars have been equipped with gas turbines.