63 % of the smog –causing,
nitrogen dioxide emissions in Ontario are caused by cars,
trucks and other forms of transportation. Programs like the
Ontario Government’s "Drive Green" is an attempt
to address the severity of the problem caused by automobile
pollution by making sure that our cars are running properly
and efficiently as possible.
Designers are currently
working on redesigning the internal combustion energy. There
are literally billions of variations in the parameters that
affect engine performance. The problem faced by designers is
that improvements in the area of emissions control often
negatively effect fuel efficiency. The trick is to find the
balance between the numerous design parameters.
The efficiency of an
automobile engine can be determined by examining the input
and output energy. The input energy would be the amount of
chemical potential energy that would be stored in the
molecules found in the gasoline. As this energy is released
by combustion, numerous energy transformations occur. Much
of the energy is lost as heat and sound energy. The cooling
system in a car is crucial to removing this heat energy from
the engine. Less than a quarter of the energy released from
the gasoline is actually turned into kinetic energy. The
majority of the energy is simply lost during the energy
transformations that occur in the engine of the car.
Percent efficiency is
calculated by comparing the output energy, the kinetic
energy is the case of a car, with the input energy, the
energy contained within the molecules of the gasoline.
The efficiency for any
machine can be determined by calculating the amount of
energy going into the energy transformation to the useful
energy coming out. Both the type of transformation that is
occurring and the type of device being used can affect the
efficiency level.
