Quote:
Originally Posted by mkoesel
In all modern automobile combustion engines only one cylinder fires at a time. So I was assuming the same for my hypothetical engine examples.
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It is true that only one cylinder spark plug "fires" at once. However the power stroke, the time positive cylinder pressure applies force on the piston, lasts about half a revolution. So for engines with more than four cylinders, power strokes will overlap.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mkoesel
Agree. But like I said, peak torque is still ultimately bounded by torque at any given instant, which in turn is a function of the force at that instant.
It's just like my last example. Sure you can get a lot more finger taps in than hammer swings over a given period of time. But you still never make any significant dents in the sheet metal.
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The sledgehammer example is not really representative because it refers to an impact. If you have 100 fingers pushing on a object with 1lb each, it will yield the same force as a person leaning with his shoulder on the object with 100lbs.
Since peak torque is measured for a given RPM, I still think torque of the engine pulses need to be averaged to properly reflect an engines abilities.