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mblair90
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My team has recorded information on a single cylinder Otto cycle from a lab we have done. We are supposed to compare the theoretical efficiency of the cycle to the experimental efficiency. Using a given compression ratio of 3 and the ratio of specific heats for the fuels we used we were able to come up with theoretical efficiencies of 20% and 13.3% (from eff. = 1 - 1/r^(gamma - 1)). The question at hand is how to calculate the actual experimental efficiencies. What we did exactly was get the system running at a steady RPM then slowly apply a load to the system in order to measure horsepower. We recorded the RPM, HP, torque, air/fuel ratio, exhaust gas temperature, and cylinder head temperature during the runs. Would the equation eff = 1 - (T4-T1)/(T3-T2) be applicable to find the actual efficiency?