inside the cylinders of a diesel engine, what helps to ignite the fuel and air?
the gas is warmed by the work done compressing the gas.
Inside the cylinders of a diesel engine, fuel and air are ignited by the heat of compression. Unlike gasoline engines, diesel engines do not use spark plugs for ignition. Instead, they rely on the high compression ratio of the engine to generate enough heat to ignite the fuel.
To understand how the fuel and air are ignited, it's important to know how a diesel engine works. In the cylinder of a diesel engine, the piston compresses the air and fuel mixture. As the piston moves upwards, it compresses the air to a very high pressure and temperature. This high-pressure compression raises the temperature of the air to a point where it becomes hot enough to ignite the fuel. At the top of the compression stroke, when the air is at its highest temperature and pressure, fuel is injected into the cylinder. The hot, compressed air ignites the fuel upon contact, resulting in combustion and the expansion of gases that push the piston down, providing power to the engine.
To summarize, in a diesel engine, the heat generated by compressing the air in the cylinder itself is what ignites the fuel, unlike in a gasoline engine where a spark plug is used for ignition.