Otto cycle

American  

noun

Thermodynamics.

1. an idealization of the thermodynamic cycle of the internal combustion engine with air as the working substance: intake of air at atmospheric pressure, then adiabatic compression, then ignition with an increase of pressure and temperature at constant volume, then adiabatic expansion and performance of work, then a drop to atmospheric pressure at constant volume and a rejection of heat to the environment, then the exhaust of air at constant pressure.

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Otto cycle British  

noun

1. an engine cycle used on four-stroke petrol engines ( Otto engines ) in which, ideally, combustion and rejection of heat both take place at constant volume Compare diesel cycle

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Etymology

Origin of Otto cycle

1885–90; named after Nikolaus August Otto, 1832–91, German engineer and inventor

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Otto cycle

To make the engine operate, the researchers reproduced an Otto cycle inside a superconducting circuit.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026

The Otto cycle is a thermodynamic process also used in car engines and other conventional machines.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026

Path CD in the Otto cycle is an adiabatic expansion that does work on the outside world, just as the power stroke of an internal combustion engine does in its nearly adiabatic expansion.

From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015

Figure 15.21 This Otto cycle produces a greater work output than the one in Figure 15.20, because the starting temperature of path CD is higher and the starting temperature of path AB is lower.

From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015

Brodie, too, had taught her to drive a motor car, and she could discourse learnedly on silencers and the Otto cycle.

From The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley by Louis Tracy

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