Internal combustion engine

An internal combustion engine is an engine that is powered by the expansion of hot combustion products of fuel directly acting within an engine. A piston internal combustion engine works by burning hydrocarbon or hydrogen fuel that presses on a piston; and a jet engine works as the hot combustion products press on the interior parts of the nozzle and combustion chamber, directly accelerating the engine forwards. The rotary combustion engine uses a rotor instead of reciprocating pistons.

Related Topics:
Engine - Fuel - Hydrocarbon - Hydrogen - ''jet engine'' - Combustion chamber - Rotary combustion engine - Rotor - Pistons

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By way of contrast, an external combustion engine such as a steam engine, does work when the combustion process heats a separate working fluid, such as water or steam, which then in turn does work.

Related Topics:
External combustion engine - Steam engine

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Jet engines, most rockets and many gas turbines are classed as internal combustion engines, but the term "internal combustion engine" is often loosely used to refer specifically to a piston internal combustion engine and rotary combustion engine in which combustion is intermittent and the products act on reciprocating machinery, the most common subtype of this kind of engine. (Today, in some published discussions, "internal combustion engine" is abbreviated to the acronym ICE.)

Related Topics:
Jet engine - Rockets - Gas turbine - Reciprocating machinery

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