Thanx for great discussion guys, many of you gave considerable points to this discussion Lots of point of views

on this topic, as the main motive of this discussion is to draw a best conclusion which is technically correct. The collective idea of this discussion is concluded below: As per the question, lets define all three terms for petrol and diesel engine separately. For petrol engine: Knocking or detonation is the unrequired pulsating pressure generation inside the chamber that cause pinging of metallic walls of cylinder and produces shockwaves. Lets try to understand the reason of this pinging or knocking in petrol engine. In petrol engine, mixture of A/F undergoes compression stroke whether the engine is carbureted or GDI. At TDC the spark is given by spark plug 10-200 bTDC and 10-150 take as ignition lag i.e., 50 aTDC ignition starts. As ignition starts a flame is produced across spark plug. This flame starts propagating in clearance volume (because piston still in very small motion about TDC), as the flame propagates it eats up the fuel mixture in front of it and leaves behind the burnt gases. As the flame front moves the more burnt gasses left behind and that burnt gases expands and cause the flame front push more rapidly even at the rate more than the rate of fuel eating by the flame, that cause the compression of the fuel mixture present in front of flame, the excessive rise of pressure cause increase in temperature to the self-ignite temperature of fuel and lets it ignite own its own. This ignition of small packet of fuel cause excessive pressure rise in cylinder. In the cylinder there are many fuel pockets undergoes same story and cause in producing pulsating graph of cylinder pressure. Promoting agents: 1. Improper design of engine cylinder i.e., larger clearance volume increases the flame travel distance which increase the tendency of abnormal combustion 2. Improper placement of spark plug i.e., unequal flame travel distance across the plug in clearance volume 3. Insufficient cooling of engine i.e., the excessive rise in temperature of cylinder block promotes the knocking 4. Engine running at very rpm above its mean. How to prevent it: 1. Run engine in its designed rpm range 2. Use fuel with antiknock qualities 3. Keep engine temperature within its design limits

Pre-ignition: After many cycle the engine parts start getting hot due to many reasons. These hot spots can be caused by air leaks, carbon build-up, improper or inadequate oil, too high compression ratio, too low a grade of fuel, improper carburetor calibration, inadequate cooling etc. Exhaust valve and spark plug tip too get extremely hot as compared to other section of cylinder as new fresh charge undergoes compression, which increase the pressure and temperature of mixture. As this pressurized mixture comes in contact with any of the hot spot of cylinder, causes pre-ignition of mixture even before the spark by spark-plug. Knocking/detonation in Diesel Engine: In Diesel engine fuel is injected after the compression of air, in power stroke. The mixture made herein is extremely heterogenic as the fuel is injected through injectors in the form of spray. The fuels at outer boundaries of spray jet comes in contact with hot air and starts burning and make flame fronts moving inward and eating up the accumulated fuel in spray jet. As in diesel injection there are many spray of fuel are made which cause many fuel pockets with their own flame fronts and explodes differently. Those cause the excessive pulsating pressure rise in cylinder. In diesel engine knocking is very common or we can say it is un-avoidable, but can be reduced to compromising level. How to prevent: Now modern diesel injection technology, CRDi take care of this knocking problem, in this technology the fuel is not injected in single lot, but in small quantity many times in power stroke. The 1st small injection of fuel is known as pilot injection, which just produce ignition flames in chamber. As these flames spread in chamber all-over then further rich injections are made. With these injections the fuel entering the chamber starts burning without accumulation and produce uniform pressure and more power. Pre-ignition: There is no question of Pre-ignition in diesel engine.