Why Carburetors are Used in Petrol [Not in Diesel] Engines?

What is carburetor?

A Carburetor is a Mechanical device used to make an appropriate mixture of air and fuel for burning or combustion.

We will explain it in detail but only after when we learn the mechanism of combustion in Petrol (or gasoline) engine and diesel engine. lets start.

Difference in Combustion mechanism of Petrol and diesel engines

In a diesel engine the fuel is burned when fuel is injected with high pressure to the hot compressed air in the cylinder. This air reaches the engines with the help of turbocharger or natural respiration. Fuel reaches the combustion chamber with the help of fuel pump. Both enter combustion chamber separately. Hence a diesel engine is also known as Compression Ignition engine. since fuel burns with the help of hot compressed air.

In petrol engine combustion takes place when a mixture of air and fuel gets spark from spark plug (spark initiates fuel burning). This mixture of air and fuel is carburetor. Hence a petrol engine is also known as spark ignition engine, since a spark is used to burn a mixture of air and petrol (or gasoline).

Now as we know that in a petrol engine we use mixture of air and fuel for combustion (instead of directly injecting petrol in the combustion chamber), we can now discuss function of carburetor in a petrol engine.

Functions of carburetor

1. Carburetor prepares a mixture of air and fuel (which is suitable for combustion) for an spark ignition engine.
2. Carburetor is also used to control the speed of the vehicle.
3. It converts petrol into fine droplets and mixes it in air in such away that it burns smoothly in engine, without any problem.

Featured Image source [12-12-2018]

Attribution: By Uberprutser – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24809255