Reciprocating machine & other devices

Abstract

The disclosure relates to reciprocating fluid working devices including internal combustion engines, compressors and pumps. A number of arrangements for pistons and cylinders of unconventional configuration are described, mostly intended for use in IC engines operating without cooling. Included are toroidal combustion or working chambers, some with fluid flow through the core of the toroid, a single piston reciprocating between a pair of working chambers, tensile valve actuation, tensile links between piston and crankshaft, energy absorbing piston-crank links, crankshafts supported on gas bearings, cylinders rotating in housings, injectors having components which reciprocate or rotate during fuel delivery. In some embodiments pistons mare rotate while reciprocating. High temperature exhaust emissions systems are described, including those containing filamentary material, as are procedures for reducing emissions during cold start by means of valves at reaction volume exit. Also disclosed are improved vehicles, aircraft, marine craft, transmissions and exhaust emission systems suited to the engines of the invention.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The disclosure relates to improved pumps, compressors and combustion engines; the thermal management of the fluids being worked by such hardware and the thermal management of the hardware itself; combustion engine exhaust emissions control devices; components and ancillary equipment for pumps and engines; emissions control devices; vehicles, aircraft, marine craft and continuously variable transmissions.BACKGROUND ART[0002]Today's piston-and-cylinder engine hardware was first commercialized in the mid-18th century, using then available technology. Early internal combustion (IC) engine designers like Gottfried Daimler and Rudolf Diesel adapted the steam expansion chamber to a combined combustion and expansion chamber, leaving hardware essentially unchanged. One could say that a transformed twenty-first century embodiment of the reciprocating IC engine is overdue. This disclosure focuses on improved thermal management in reciprocating devices, including pumps, com...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]In the following text and recital of claims, “filamentary material”, where disposed in a housing or container of some kind, is defined as portions of interconnected or abutting or closely spaced material which allow the passage of fluid therethrough and induce turbulence and mixing by changing the directions of travel of portions of fluid relative to each other. By interconnected or abutting or closely spaced is meant not only integral or continuous, but also intermittent, intermeshing or inter-fitting, while not necessarily touching. The above definition is applied both to material within a housing or container as a whole, and also to portions of that material in any fluid processing volume, or portions of such volume. By “ceramic” is meant baked, fired or pressed non-metallic material that is generally mineral, ie ceramic in the widest sense, encompassing materials such as glass, glass ceramic, shrunken or re-crystallized glass or ceramic, etc., and refers to the base or matrix material, irrespective of whether other materials are present as additives or reinforcement. The term “wicks” is used here to denote any matter permitting the passage of fluid by any means, including porous and permeable materials, as well as materials which passively transmit fluid by capillary action or other means, such as true wicks. By “elastomeric”, “compressible”, “elastic”, “variable volume”, “flexible”, “bending” and all other expressions indicating dimensional change is meant a measurable change that is designed for, not a relatively small dimensional change caused by temperature variation or the imposition of loads on solid or structural bodies. By “electric motor / generator” is meant an electrical device which can be either a motor or a generator, or a device which can function as both at different times. By “ring valve” is meant a movable ring-shaped element normally approximately flush with a surrounding or core surface. When the valve is actuated, it projects from any plane of the surrounding core surface, causing fluid or other material to flow past both the outer and the inner circumferences of the ring. By “stoichiometric”, where used in reference to air / fuel mixtures in combustion engines, is meant that quantity of fuel whose carbon will combine with all the oxygen in the charge under ideal conditions, leaving neither carbon nor oxygen in the exhaust. Where reference is made to an item being “mounted about” a second item, this is intended to mean that the first item can be physically associated with the second item in any way, including mounted in, mounted on, attached to, and connected to the second item, including by some intermediary means, such a strut. The word “vehicle” in meant to include every kind of surface vehicle, including motor cycles, three-wheelers, passenger cars, trucks of every size, buses, mining and industrial vehicles of every kind, railed vehicles, tracked vehicles such as tanks, and un-manned vehicles of any kind. The word “computer” denotes any assembly of physical items which, when provided with electrical power, is capable of processing data. A computer program is any set of instructions that enable data to be processed in a certain manner. In the following text, abbreviations are used, including: rpm and rps for “revolutions per minute” and “revolutions per second” respectively, BDC / TDC for “bottom dead center / top dead center”, IC for “internal combustion”.

Problems solved by technology

The expansion drives the piston and consequently engine while the heat product of the cycle is almost wholly unused—in fact considered undesirable since efforts are made to dissipate it as effectively as possible, by means of conduction through cylinder walls and head, to general radiation and to the cooling system.

At all other times the engine is running colder and therefore less efficiently.

Today, almost all engines during most of their operating life time run at temperatures substantially below the peak temperatures they are designed for, and so at lower efficiency because of the lower temperature.

Its failure is the most frequent cause of engine breakdown.

The work was not very successful for a number of reasons, including problems with differential thermal expansion of ceramic and metal components abutting each other.

It is known that hydrofoil craft are more efficient, but today's heavy marine engines do not work well in a hull suspended above water, and the hydrofoil posts present draft-related problems in larger craft.

Continuously variable transmissions (CVT's) are known to provide better fuel economy than traditional stepped transmissions, but today's CVT's are limited to low power applications.

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