Variable compression ratio is the technology to adjust internal combustion engine cylinder compression ratios on the fly. This is done to increase fuel efficiency while under varying loads. Higher loads require lower ratios to be more efficient and vice versa. Variable compression engines allow for the volume above the piston at 'Top dead centre' to be changed. For automotive use this needs to be done dynamically in response to the load and driving demands.
Read more about Variable Compression Ratio: Advantages, Production, Two-stroke Engines, Engine Designs
Famous quotes containing the words variable, compression and/or ratio:
“There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady’s head-dress.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“Do they [the publishers of Murphy] not understand that if the book is slightly obscure it is because it is a compression and that to compress it further can only make it more obscure?”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)