Focussing on the need of a first level text book for the undergraduates, postgraduates and a professional reference book for practicing engineers, the author of this work Dr. V. Ganesan has brought forth this volume using his extensive teaching and research experience in the field of internal combustion engineering. It is a great pleasure to write a foreword to such a book which satisfies a long-felt requirement.

For selfish reasons alone, I wish that this book would have come out much earlier for the benefit of several teachers like me who have finished their innings a long time ago. For me, this would have been just the required text book for my young engineering students and engineers in the transportation and power fields. The style of the book reflects the teaching culture of premier engineering institutions like IITs, since a vast topic has to be covered in a comprehensive way in a limited time. Each chapter is presented with elegant simplicity requiring no special prerequisite knowledge of supporting subjects. Self-explanatory sketches, graphs, line schematics of processes and tables have been generously used to curtail long and wordy explanations. Numerous illustrated examples, exercises and problems at the end of each chapter serve as a good source material to practice the application of the basic principles presented in the text. SI system of units has been used throughout the book which is not so readily available in the currently-used books.

It is not a simple task to bring out a comprehensive book on an all-encompassing subject like internal combustion engines. Over a century has elapsed since the discovery of the diesel and gasoline engines. Excluding a few developments of rotary combustion engines, the IC engines has still retained its basic anatomy. As a descendent of the steam engine, it is still crystallized into a standard piston-in-cylinder mechanism, reciprocating first in order to rotate finally. The attendant kinematics requiring numerous moving parts are still posing dynamic problems of vibration, friction losses and mechanical noise. Empiricism has been the secret of its evolution in its yester years.

As our knowledge of engine processes has increased, these engines have continued to develop on a scientific basis. The present day engines have to satisfy the strict environmental constraints and fuel economy standards in addition to meeting the competitiveness of the world market. Today, the IC engine has synthesized the basic knowledge of many disciplines — thermodynamics, fluid flow, combustion, chemical kinetics and heat transfer as applied to a system with both spatial and temporal variations in a state of non-equilibrium. With the availability of sophisticated computers, art of multi-dimensional mathematical modelling and electronic instrumentation have added new refinements to the engine design. From my personal knowledge, Dr. Ganesan has himself made many original contributions in these intricate areas. It is a wonder for me how he has modestly kept out these details from the text as it is beyond the scope of this book. However, the reader is not denied the benefits of these investigations. Skillfully the overall findings and updated information have been summarized as is reflected in topics on combustion and flame propagation, engine heat transfer, scavenging processes and engine emissions – to name a few examples. Indeed, it must have been a difficult task to summarize the best of the wide ranging results of combustion engine research and compress them in an elegant simple way in this book. The author has also interacted with the curriculum development cell so that the contents of the book will cater to the needs of any standard accredited university.

I congratulate the author, Dr. V. Ganesan on bringing out this excellent book for the benefit of students in IC engines. While many a student will find it rewarding to follow this book for his class work, I also hope that it will motivate a few of them to specialize in some key areas and take up combustion engine research as a career. With great enthusiasm, I recommend this book to students and practicing engineers.

B. S. Murthy, Former Professor, IIT Madras