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The second really innovative engine design described in these pages, is the Concept IC
Engine , which utilises a revolutionary new design , to completely transform the
conventional IC engine . The great advantage of this design is that existing IC engines
can be modified to run as Concept IC engines at minimum cost while at the same time
increasing efficiency by as much as 200% and also reducing fuel emissions to zero. This
may sound far fetched but as you will see , if you continue to read these pages , a detailed
and well documented rationale is given as to why this engine can and will work. In fact
anyone who can provide a logical and verifiable refutation of the Concept IC engine shall
receive from me a most abject and humble letter of apology. Studies have shown , and
this may easily be verified from The Colorado State University Engine Web Site , a link
to which is provided , that IC engines lose 42% of their energy to exhaust and 28% of
their energy to the cooling system. With more than 500 million cars world wide (not
counting buses , trains , construction and military transport ) and with this number
constantly increasing there is an urgent need for better , cleaner , more efficient engines.
The Concept IC engine provides a low cost and highly effective solution to solving all
these problems.
Automotive engineering has seen a spate of innovations in the past decade , MV's
(Multiple valve's ) , DOHC's (Double overhead cams ) , MPFI (Multi-port fuel injection)
and DFI (Direct fuel injection ) which , when combined with stronger and lighter carbon
composites and metal alloys , are rapidly bringing reciprocating internal combustion
engine technology, as we know it , to a point where the full potential of the engine has
almost been realised. Extensive coverage in magazines and other media , have reported
on almost every aspect of the working of these innovations and the advantages their
implementation has resulted in , such as better fuel economy , more power and a cleaner
engine. What is less widely known is the fact that in spite of the huge amounts of money
and man hours spent on researching and implementing these products the overall
efficiency of the RI engine has been increased by a mere 5%. The engine is now less than
25% efficient as compared to an original efficiency of less than 20%. The expected
improvement in performance has fallen far below expectations. What is the reason for
this ?
The real contribution that innovations such as DOHC's, MV's , MPFI and DFI have made
to RI engine design has been in high-lighting and identifying what is not wrong with the
engine. An increase in efficiency of a mere 5 % , or an overall efficiency of less than 25
% even after the implementation of the innovations under discussion , has shown that it is
not basically valve over-lap , valve lead , valve lag , linear to rotary conversion , or any of
the traditionally quoted reasons ,which is responsible for the poor performance of the
engine . To find the underlying causes behind the inefficiency of the RI engine , it is
necessary , therefore , to look elsewhere.
IC engines lose 42% of their energy to exhaust and 28% of their energy to the cooling
system. Therefore the true explanation for the poor performance of the engine would
seem to lie in inefficient use of energy and loss of energy through heat transfer. The loss
incurred through inefficient use of energy is easily understood , compressed fuel and air
is ignited and is then used to propel the piston down the cylinder with explosive force for
a distance of just a few inches after which all further energy developed by the fuel is lost
and in fact becomes a liability since the piston has to reverse direction , a process which
is inhibited by the pressure of trapped gases on the piston head. The reason that energy
loss to heat transfer has been tolerated , and even welcomed by engineers , is a little more
involved and will be referred to later on in the article. Notwithstanding the improvements
made to the RI engine we have to ask ourselves , and this is the million dollar question ,
is this really the limit of performance of the reciprocating internal combustion engine,
does this mark the end of the road for this more than 200 year old concept , some
entrepreneurs seem to think not , they have come up with the idea of a concept IC engine.
The comparison between a gun and the reciprocating internal combustion engine is
appropriate , the piston can be likened to a bullet or projectile, the cylinder to a barrel and
the fuel - air , mixture to the explosive propellant. The theory underlying concept IC
engine technology has been established , to put it simply , on the concept of the recoilless
gun. The reduction of recoil in the recoilless gun is due to the fact that the mass/velocity
of the escaping gases is engineered to equal or approximate the mass/velocity of the
projectile , thereby canceling each other out , the velocity of the escaping gases can be
increased by use of a venturi or nozzle. Recoilless Guns (Click to link to article on
recoilless guns.)While it is true that there is a certain reduction in the muzzle velocity of a
recoilless gun , when compared to a conventional cannon of similar caliber , it should be
understood that this reduction is dependent on several factors , the most important of
which is the length of the barrel. This is because muzzle velocity is contingent on the
velocity of the propellant gases behind the projectile and the pressure generated , this is
significant only in a gun with an appreciable barrel length. The fact that most engines
have cylinders of extremely short length ( the throw of the piston in a conventional
engine is only four to five inches on average) makes it possible to seriously consider
applying recoilless technology to the reciprocating internal combustion engine. In a
conventional reciprocating internal combustion engine, the piston is forced down the
cylinder by the expanding gases and the pressure they generate. As soon as the piston
reaches BDC however , the velocity of the gases comes down to zero , and can perform
no further useful work , and the pressure becomes a liability , since the movement of the
piston has now to be reversed .
Working of the Concept IC engine:-
By contrast the concept internal combustion engine incorporates a slide door or sleeve
type valve which completely opens, (providing unrestricted passage to the exhaust gases )
onto a nozzle and is substituted for the regular type of exhaust valve which only partially
opens , this exhaust valve is opened after ignition of the fuel- air mixture , resulting in the
explosive expulsion of gases through the nozzle , the velocity of these escaping gases
result in the piston being pushed down the cylinder in an equal and opposite reaction..
(This is in conformance with Newton's third law which states that for every action there
is an equal and opposite reaction. In the case in point it is the velocity of the escaping
gases which constitute the action and the force exerted on the piston head the reaction.)
This is due to the fact that (a) the exhaust valve is opened only after ignition has taken
place , meaning that maximum pressure has already been achieved within the cylinder
and (b) the velocity of the escaping gases push the piston down the cylinder with
approximately the same force as they would exert if the valves were closed and the gases
expanded in a confined space as happens in a conventional engine, the length of the
cylinder being too short to appreciably affect the velocity with which the piston is forced
down the cylinder .
The most significant improvement that the concept IC engine has over conventional RI
engines is that the explosive ejection of hot exhaust gases can be used to efficiently
power a turbine which in turn can run the auxiliary devices which are at present powered
by the main engine, such as the turbo-charger, How Turbo Chargers work. (click on link
for article on Turbochargers.) the dynamo, the oil-pump, water pump ,cooling system
etc., The power output from the turbine can also be harnessed to augment the main power
unit output by being linked to a generator which would then run electric motors directly
linked to the wheels , if the main piston unit is also linked to a generator the result would
be an almost soundless , and very efficient power plant run on the lines of a diesel electric
train power plant. The concept IC engine therefore , in effect has two engines , the
primary or piston engine and the secondary or turbine engine, which are powered using
the same amount of fuel needed to run a conventional reciprocating internal combustion
engine. Therefore the concept IC engine should in theory , be more effective than present
day reciprocating internal combustion engine designs, and will make use of a lot of the
energy which is at present wasted. In conventional engines 42% of the energy generated
is lost to exhaust , and 28% to the cooling system, by using energy which would
otherwise be wasted , and improving on it , the recoilless engine, could be a 100% more
efficient than present day conventional engines. In multi-cylinder recoilless engines , the
secondary turbine unit might in fact function more efficiently than the primary piston
unit, because of the provision of a continuous flow of hot exhaust gases at velocity to
power the turbine . The Turbine Engine for cars