Combustion engine web-based simulator

226 points76 comments6 days ago
huydotnet

If you're looking for a carefully crafted/written work to explain internal combustion engines, look no further than this one https://ciechanow.ski/internal-combustion-engine/ (the Mechanical Watch article from the same author was featured on HN a while ago).

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all2

@AngeTheGreat on youtube is worth mentioning here, I think.

He has a whole series on building out engine simulators of various types, and even published a Steam game for steam engine simulation.

His work is notable because he leans heavily into generating sound directly from the simulations.

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noefingway

So i'll throw this out there. When I was a growing up back in the 50's (yeah, way back then) I was given a model of a v-8 engine to build. It was clear plastic, had pistons, crankshaft, valves, and little red lights for the spark plugs. Small battery powered motor (I think in the starter motor) made everything go round and rounds. One of the coolest models I ever built as a kid.

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mwexler

I wish this had a stepper so I could see how things change at each point in the cycle. But even without, quite cool to play with.

chris_money202

"How it Works" -> "Idk" OP probably

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userbinator

Why have a kW/Nm - HP/lbf setting, but no metric/US option for the bore and stroke?

Others here are suspicious of the numbers, but at least for the actual engine in my daily driver which I've dyno'd before, it seems reasonable with around 400HP and 450lbf for a 400ci NA V8.

glouwbug

Gave it my own spin once: https://github.com/glouw/ensim4

Makes audio too

steve918

Calling this AI slop would be generous. If we made a list of the things wrong with it we would be here all day. Nothing has an effect on redline RPM, you can create compression and turbo combos that would instantly grenade an engine, the preset “super car” has 200hp?

The only thing it illustrates is the authors lack of understanding.

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mtr

Exhaust temp increase with decreasing lambda, and peaks at 0.7 lambda. That part of the model is likely incorrect.

burnt_toast

Nice little project, I inputted the dimensions of a engine I've been building (b20-vtec) and it estimated 160whp which sounds low but I also can't set up my cams properly because it looks like this was designed for SOHC engines.

Very cool either way.

h2aichat

I like It, no matter what

FrostKiwi

Interesting, I had Fable generate me a summary using an identical style, with the same square design, bg and yellow highlights

Lwerewolf

187 N/A BSFC @ 2000rpm and open throttle. Tried emulating a DI 2GR-FXE. Seems a bit optimistic, but still fun to play with.

other_herbert

I had just been daydreaming about a v12 with tiny pistons and wondering how that would behave … now I can find out … turns out it would be terrible at low speed

bwestergard

I don't understand how the throttle and RPM can be modified independently. Surely the RPM depends on the throttle?

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butlike

So if I set the animation speed to 1:1 and set the RPM to 3000, that's what it would look like inside the engine when I'm ready to shift gears? Seems WAY faster than what I expected in real life

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kristiandupont

Very nice! Reminds of this classic, focused mostly on the sounds: https://github.com/ange-yaghi/engine-sim

lwansbrough
Geee

3638 kW / 4878 hp is the most powerful engine I could build with this.

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BeefySwain

Am I missing something? Setting the throttle to 0% seems to do nothing?

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amaze_28

this is really impressive. actual movements with live diagrams looks great. you can consider adding sound to take it to another level.

perssontm

I was hoping for a two stroke mode as well!

jdw64

If LLMs had come out when I was younger, I would have been able to understand things this easily. There are some incorrect implementations, but they're incredibly helpful for grasping the concepts.

quantumHazer

Probably llm slop

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seafisher

really interesting project - would be good to see a link to a repo

yunnpp

I am genuinely curious why OP thinks this slop post should be of interest to others. Nobody cares how you're prompting an LLM, guys.

zuzululu

would be awesome if it could generate sounds like how lfs does it

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AtomicOrbital

we have all heard of V8 ... now visualize a W12

... two pairs of V3 in a Bentley

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IshKebab

How can I instantly tell this is slop?

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