# What is stroke length in IC engine?- Formula, Unit, Measurement, Calculation, Example [with Pdf]

Contents

## What is stroke length in ic engine?

The stroke length is the distance travels by the piston inside the engine cylinder from Top dead center to the Bottom dead center or from the Bottom dead center to Top dead center.

The stroke length is denoted by the ‘L’.

Based on the relation between the stroke length and the bore, the engines are divided into the following types.

• The engines that have a long bore than the stroke are known as oversquare engines.
• The engines that have the same stroke and the bore is known as square engines.
• The engines which have a long stroke than the bore are known as Undersquare engines.

## What is stroke formula?

The distance traveled by the piston during its one stroke is known as the stroke length and the formula of the stroke length is,

L = \frac{ED\ (\text{CC})}{\frac{\pi }{4}\times B^{2}\times N}

Where,
N = Number of cylinders
B = Cylinder bore in centimeter
ED (CC) = Engine displacement in Cubic centimeter

## What is the unit of stroke length?

In the case of SI unit system, the stroke length is measured in terms of the meter while in the case of the FPS unit system, stroke is measured in the foot (ft).

## How to calculate stroke length of an engine?

The stroke length formula is given by,

L = \frac{ED\ (\text{CC})}{\frac{\pi }{4}\times B^{2}\times N}

For calculating the stroke length, we require the values of the following three terms related to the engine:-

1. Engine displacement
2. Cylinder bore
3. Number of cylinders

If we have these values, then simply by putting these values in the above equation of stroke length and solving it, we can easily find the engine’s stroke length.

Example:-

Solution:-

Given:
Engine displacement, [ED(CC)] = 100 CC
Bore, (B) = 4 cm
Number of cylinders, (N) = 2

The stroke length of the engine is given by,

L = \frac{ED\ (\text{CC})}{\frac{\pi }{4}\times B^{2}\times N}

By putting the all given values in above equation, we get,

= \frac{100}{(\frac{\pi }{4})\times 4^{2}\times 2}

By solving the equation, we get,

L = 3.98 cm

Hence the stroke length of the engine is 3.98 cm.

Pratik is a Graduated Mechanical engineer. He enjoys sharing the engineering knowledge learned by him with people.