Combustion engine web-based simulator (combustionlab.net)
224 points by mytuny 6 days ago
huydotnet 21 hours ago
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).
boppo1 21 hours ago
I wish he was still making posts.
askvictor 8 hours ago
It's been a year and a half since the last one, compared to 1 or 2 posts per year. Here's hoping he's taking some extra time to make something amazing
aosaigh 17 hours ago
He isn't? What happened?
all2 20 hours ago
@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.
suprjami 20 hours ago
Yes, seriously everyone should watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/@AngeTheGreat
Other engine simulators work by approximating the engine.
Ange's engine simulator works by approximating physics of air fluid dynamics through a combustion chamber and exhaust, sound propagation, etc and then putting an engine into that simulation.
It's incredible how productive and precise he is.
CobrastanJorji 19 hours ago
Absolutely insane.
Also, I love that it was open sourced. Although it sounds like from the GitHub page summary that there was some shenanigans involving a "certain very high profile game studio" that I'd love to hear more tea about.
LoganDark 18 hours ago
He published it as open-source for like 5 seconds before taking the repository down in order to charge for it on Steam! I'm a little weirded out by that pattern of open-sourcing it and then just changing his mind.
leetrout 4 hours ago
I have a podcast interview with Ange where we talk a bit about the first time this blew up on HN
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bi6bLSCnjcY&si=r4atSKfsBEQ...
onestay42 15 hours ago
I think what happened was that it became his full time job, and he started to need to be able to make money from it. At least, that's what I remember; I haven't seen much about it as of late.
LoganDark 14 hours ago
noefingway 19 hours ago
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.
dmwood 18 hours ago
This was the Revell 'Visible V8', first released in 1958. https://macsmotorcitygarage.com/revisiting-the-visible-v8/
userbinator 13 hours ago
While fairly realistic in function, the Visible V8 is not a replica of a specific production engine, though it most resembles an early Cadillac or Studebaker V8.
...but that transmission definitely looks like the early 4-speed Hydramatic: http://www.1954advance-design.com/Hydra-Matic-rebuild/index....
JackFr 18 hours ago
The Visible V-8. That made it well into the 70s.
userbinator 13 hours ago
They're still making that model today.
mwexler an hour ago
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 a day ago
"How it Works" -> "Idk" OP probably
monkellipse a day ago
I see no declaration that this is a machine generated site, but the aesthetic is a dead giveaway. The language on the “how it works” page is unmistakably LLM output. As a total novice in engines this site had the potential to educate me, but did the author vet the data at all? If the author doesn’t bother telling me they checked any output on this, what assurance do I have anything is accurate on the site at all? If I knew an actual engineer put their focus on this tool I’d feel much better about trying to learn something from it. Short of that it’s just a pretty (but predictable) interface.
btrettel a day ago
I'm a mechanical engineer who has written similar tools for work and hobbies. Producing pretty pictures does not mean that the model is physically accurate. Unfortunately, such tools seem be evaluated much more on flashiness and not on more reliable and objective criteria like physical accuracy based on verification and validation test suites. I'm seeing that in the comments here. I don't think LLMs make what I do irrelevant, but I have thought that I'm going to have to improve how flashy my simulations look to compete better with non-experts who use LLMs.
delusional 4 hours ago
Waterluvian 21 hours ago
The aesthetic is what I get any time I ask for something UI-like in Claude. But gosh darn it I like the look.
dd8601fn 16 hours ago
userbinator 10 hours ago
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 20 hours ago
Gave it my own spin once: https://github.com/glouw/ensim4
Makes audio too
steve918 21 hours ago
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.
leetbulb 2 hours ago
"Supercar" has 670hp 500lb-ft @ 5297rpm which seems reasonable. After configuring the tool with my car's specs, it was fairly close on the dyno; though, I'm very far from an expert. Imho, pretty cool, nonetheless.
minusLik 2 hours ago
I fed the technical data of my motorcycle into the model and it told me right away that this build would destroy a real engine because the piston speed would be too great.
The real thing has been running for 56,000 miles, so it can't be that bad. *g
h2aichat 2 hours ago
I like It, no matter what
mtr 20 hours ago
Exhaust temp increase with decreasing lambda, and peaks at 0.7 lambda. That part of the model is likely incorrect.
burnt_toast 20 hours ago
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.
FrostKiwi 14 hours ago
Interesting, I had Fable generate me a summary using an identical style, with the same square design, bg and yellow highlights
Lwerewolf a day ago
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 13 hours ago
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 a day ago
I don't understand how the throttle and RPM can be modified independently. Surely the RPM depends on the throttle?
jstanley a day ago
In principle you can instantaneously set the throttle opening to some position and set the RPM to whatever you want. In time the RPM will rise or fall until the engine is at equilibrium, but throttle position and RPM aren't like mechanically interlocked. Otherwise how could the engine speed up when you go down a hill?
mikestorrent 21 hours ago
When you press the gas pedal in your car down (which used to just be a cable to the throttle body), does your car instantaneously increase in speed to match the pedal position?
All you're doing is letting more air in - the RPM is a function of the power the engine generates; more fuel and air than is currently needed for the current load at the current speed = increasing RPMs.
If you put the clutch in, a little blip of the gas is all that's needed to get the RPM quite high very quickly. The moment there's load on there, the same blip will not do very much at all.
jandrese 19 hours ago
Imagine your vehicle is pulling a heavy load up a hill vs. going flat out on a track. Your throttle position may be the same but the RPMs are likely to be quite different, even when you account for the transmission.
topspin 13 hours ago
> Surely the RPM depends on the throttle?
Partly. Another factor in the equation is load.
butlike 21 hours ago
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
mikestorrent 21 hours ago
3000? Here I am wishing there was some Wankel Rotary representation and you're shifting at 3000? What are you driving, a Peterbilt?
brotchie 17 hours ago
3000 RPM is 50Hz right?
kristiandupont a day ago
Very nice! Reminds of this classic, focused mostly on the sounds: https://github.com/ange-yaghi/engine-sim
lwansbrough 20 hours ago
From the pre-slop era: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT-sKtR970
Geee a day ago
3638 kW / 4878 hp is the most powerful engine I could build with this.
CrimsonRain 20 hours ago
3765 kW / 5049 hp is the max I could do.
V Twin Bank, Turbocharged with Intercooler. And Fuel is Hydrogen!
Geee 16 hours ago
I was using Supercharged, thought that was better. :) Now I got it tuned up to 3767 kW / 5051 hp, that must be the maximum.
jandrese 18 hours ago
I imagine such an engine would instantly blow itself apart in real life. Basically the simulated version of those tractor pull cars where the engine survives for about 500 rotations before it has to be rebuilt.
userbinator 13 hours ago
Depends on the displacement and other factors. Huge engines in that power range like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_710 are used in locomotives and other applications like power generation where they run 24/7 at 100% load.
jstanley a day ago
How do you tell how much power it is making?
Geee a day ago
On the dyno panel you see "pk" which is peak power. If you don't see the dyno panel on the right, you'll have to scroll down to see it.
jstanley a day ago
BeefySwain a day ago
Am I missing something? Setting the throttle to 0% seems to do nothing?
snug a day ago
All the gauges on the top right except the RPMs move
amaze_28 a day ago
this is really impressive. actual movements with live diagrams looks great. you can consider adding sound to take it to another level.
perssontm a day ago
I was hoping for a two stroke mode as well!
jdw64 9 hours ago
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 a day ago
Probably llm slop
zuzululu 19 hours ago
if its useful and entertaining i dont think many ppl care especially evident that you cannot be certain with your accusations
jenniferhooley 19 hours ago
How is it useful? I'm no expert in combustion engines, so I'd hesitate to rely on a slop graphic like this to learn about them as I doubt the creator has any idea about them either.
It's like a friend - he was like "Look at this awesome set of categorized interactive animations from claude to learn geometry!".
And like 60% of the animations were technically just wrong. Very pretty though, and the effects were cute... I guess...?
zuzululu 16 hours ago
Retr0id 17 hours ago
I'm certain.
seafisher a day ago
really interesting project - would be good to see a link to a repo
yunnpp 17 hours ago
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 19 hours ago
would be awesome if it could generate sounds like how lfs does it
deadcatfound 18 hours ago
Sounds would be pretty cool.
AtomicOrbital 18 hours ago
we have all heard of V8 ... now visualize a W12
... two pairs of V3 in a Bentley
goodmythical 18 hours ago
Airplanes do (did?) v16s and v24s as well, if memory serves.
There's also a build out there where someone did a "v12" vw beetle with a v6 for each axle.
IshKebab 21 hours ago
How can I instantly tell this is slop?
lwansbrough 20 hours ago
- //
- letter spacing