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Old 12-20-2009, 10:37 PM   #1 (permalink)
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efficient engine design

By now most people who frequent this forum are familiar with my hydraulic hybrid design, which has recently seen a patent application approval, hopefully with a patent issued sometime in March or April 2010.

It did not start out that way. The IVT in wheel drive (covered in the approved patent application) was an evolution of the original design that was intended as an engine that had some unique characteristics.

The capability to act as its own energy storage system by utilizing the mass of the engine itself as a flywheel to provide short term energy storage and allow the fuel consuming burn cycle to be at highest BSFC while any excess energy was stored in increased speed (RPM) of the mass of the engine to be used during the non fuel consuming "glide" portion of power application.

Consider a flywheel of 200 pounds mass spinning at 4k RPM with a continuously variable transmission that would allow consistent power application as the stored energy of the flywheel was applied to the wheels in a car.

When a predetermined lower RPM threshold was reached the engine would be switched (by changing the stroke from the (0=flywheel) position to a stroke position that would create compression and displacement with fuel consumed and power created.

The created power would be applied to the vehicle power train, while any excess power would result in increased RPM of the "engine" until the upper threshold of RPM was reached, when the stroke would go back to "0" and the engine would again become a flywheel.

The system requires a continuously variable or an infinitely variable transmission to make the transition from "engine" mode to "flywheel" mode imperceptible to the vehicle operator.

The model illustrated at the bottom of this post is a good representation of the design. It would be 2 cycle and have no valve train, no connecting rods, and no reciprocating parts. It's kind of a combination of the best aspects of piston in cylinder engines and turbines. Pressure from combustion acts directly on the outer rim of the housing. It is a low speed super high torque design.

Through the single intake port comes all the air for combustion and a single injector does all the work. All exhaust gasses exit through another single port and a heat exchanger transfers a significant amount of exhaust heat energy to the incoming air. Ultra high injection pressures would give excellent atomization and low pressure supercharging would be utilized to control cylinder scavenging with a significant amount of natural EGR to minimize NOX production under ultra lean burn conditions.

Variable displacement would allow compression ratios as high as 50 to 1 for diesel applications, and timing of ignition of fuel and air would be controlled through changes in compression ratio, by adjusting stroke distances while the engine was running.

Lubrication and cooling would be through a "dry sump" system where the lubrication fluid was allowed to accumulate in the "crankcase" and be recirculated to a collection sump outside of the engine itself. Thermostatically actuated additional cooling of the lubricating fluid would occur when sustained demands for power required additional cooling of the lubricating fluid. No other cooling system would be necessary.

There would be no induction system throttle control of any kind. Idling would be unnecessary. All the incoming air would need would be a filter and an induction tube, surrounded by the exhaust heat exchanger.

The sole purpose of the engine would be to create energy to be stored in the flywheel. Accelerator pedal inputs would be to the transmission, changing the effective "gear" ratios to increase or decrease the rate of acceleration. Engine on-off operation would be independent of any accelerator pedal position.

This concept dates back to 2003 and 42 pages of original drawings.

The basis of the concept was to allow "pulse and glide" of the engine while maintaining a constant vehicle speed.

Elimination of any idling.

Regeneration of any deceleration forces.

Coasting without engine engagement.

All of this without the necessity for separate systems to store and recover energy. The engine itself was the storage and recovery system.

regards
Mech

The attached photos show the 0 stroke and stroked positions.

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