Presented by: Shubham Khandelwal Anshul Garg Anshumaan Malethia Abhinshu Gupta

The

free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless' combustion engine, in which the piston motion is not controlled by a crankshaft but is a result of the interaction of forces from the combustion cylinder gases, a rebound device(e.g., a piston in a closed cylinder) and a load device(e.g. a gas compressor or a linear alternator).

 The

free-piston diesel engine concept was developed by Pescara, and engines of various size were manufactured between 1930-1960 by GM, Ford, Renault, Junker, Sigma and others.

General motor XP-500

It

is a combination of reciprocating engine and a rotary turbine.

Bounce Chamber

Intake Air valve

Scavenge Air Box

Supercharge pump

Power turbine

Exhaust gas receiver

Specifications 100 kW peak electrical output power Four free piston engine sub-modules 8 cylinders 2.82 litre displacement 30 Hz operation (equivalent to 1800rpm in a two stroke crankshaft engine) 280x280x660 mm dimensions

A cycle starts with the pistonplunger combination in BDC: most to the right. The electronic control opens the frequency control valve. This increases the pressure in the compressor cylinder, moving the pistonplunger to the left. Simultaneously, air is compressed in the combustion cylinder and oil is sucked into the power cylinder. When the piston-plunger arrives in TDC fuel is injected and ignites. The expanding gases will force the piston plunger to move back to BDC. Oil is pumped to the high pressure side. The burned gases are replaced by fresh air due to the loop scavenging process. In the BDC the piston-plunger will wait until the electronic control gives a new starting signal to the frequency control valve.

Efficiency-During tests, the free piston engine reached an indicated efficiency of more than 50%.

Emissions-It was proven that the combination of a high efficiency combined with low soot and low NOx emissions is possible.

Power density-The Chiron has an net effective power of approximately 17kW.Compared with a conventional diesel engine and pump combination, the number of parts of the Chiron is reduced to approximately 40%.

Infinia is a well renowned company that utilizes free piston technology in three types of machines. Generators Cryocoolers Infinias unique stirling design

1-2: Adiabatic compression in compressor cylinder 2-a: Adiabatic compression a-b: Engine combustion b-3: Adiabatic expansion or power stroke in diesel cylinder 3-4: Mixing of m2 kg engine exhaust and m2 kg bypass air 4-5: Adiabatic expansion in turbine

 A simple design with high controllability is the main strength of the single piston design compared to the other free-piston engine configurations. The rebound device gives the opportunity to accurately control the amount of energy put into the compression process and thereby regulating the compression ratio and stroke length.

LP

HP

 Dual piston engine configuration eliminates the need for a rebound device, as the (at any time) working piston provides the work to drive the compression process in the other cylinder. It has a simple and more compact design with higher power to weight ratio. The control of piston motion, in particular stroke length and compression ratio, has proved difficult.

LP

HP

 It was exclusively used in the early free-piston engine designs (1930-1960). The perfectly balanced and vibration- free design is the exclusive feature of this design. Due to elimination of cylinder head, heat transfer losses are also reduced allowing uniflow scavenging giving better efficiency. The piston synchronization mechanism and dual set of main components makes it a bulky and complicated design.

Bounce chamber

Combustion chamber

Piston synchronization

 Inward

compression type Outward compression type The basic difference between them is that inward types compress air during inward motion of the piston while the outward types compress air during the outward motion of the piston. Furthermore, inward type is simpler, has less number of working parts and possess better accessibility for maintenance than outward type.

 Two-

stroke, since power stroke required on every cycle. performance gap is declining between 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines due to recent increase of interest in 2stroke engine.

Though

Absence of crank mechanism and flywheel leads to :

No motion control and no energy storage. May lead to less or more compression ratios and less time for scavenging.

Measures to previous problems :

Motion is controlled by sum of forces acting on piston at any time.

<F

Interaction of forces must be arranged in acceptable limit of motion. Due to bounce spring nature of combustion chamber and bounce chamber, appropriate load must be used.

 System

behaves as a spring-mass system and have natural frequency given by = K/m ; where K = F/x therefore stroke length must be appropriately chosen to match any of the natural frequencies.

 Impulsion

of piston with compressed air to give it sufficient energy to reach TDC.

piston back and forth by having some arrangement on load until it reaches sufficient compression.

Driving

Though

starting is a challenge but not a crucial problem.

 No

energy storage, as in flywheel, therefore misfiring may be a problem if engine fails to build up sufficient compression.
practically, misfiring has not been mentioned in any of the reported experiments.

Though

 Load

must be linear and provide efficient energy conversion comparable to rotating loads in conventional engines. Load is directly connected to mover, therefore has high mechanical requirements. Load device may be subjected to heat transfer from engine cylinder. Generally, Free Piston Engine loads are :1. Electric Generators 2. Hydraulic Pumps 3. Air Compressors

 Low

frictional losses Reduced manufacturing cost Compactness Low maintenance cost and increased lifetime

 High

speed around TDC results in more turbulence, better mixing of air-fuel and better combustion. Rapid expansion due to high piston speed results in less NOx formation. Variable compression ratio allows optimization of combustion process. Suitable for multi-fuel operation.

 Balancing

is a problem but can be sorted out using mechanical linkages between the pistons. Though, using mechanical linkages put constraint on piston motion and also there is danger of breaking of linkages at high speeds.

 High

forces and rapid acceleration result in increased mechanical requirements for the Free Piston Engine.
problems encountered are mechanical wear and damage due to high temperatures and pressures.

Major

 Effect

of fuel Supply Effect of Bounce Cylinder Pressure Effect of Working Pressure

 Simple

design with few moving parts reduces the frictional losses Compact and low maintenance costs High power to weight ratio Possible operation on multiple fuels due to variable compression ratio Fuel air mixing is enhanced

 Flexibility

and Reliability Vibration, noise and maintenance Due to better balancing the vibrations and structure borne noise are lower Starting and control: Due to variable compression ratio air required for starting the free piston engine is less than needed for a diesel engine

 Poor

fuel economy as specific fuel consumption is high Requires a certain quantity of fuel per stroke that varies according to load causing minimum stability problems Due to high supercharge rate of combustion per cylinder volume is high Reduction Gearing

Early applications a) Widely used as submarine air compressor units b) Suitable for power generation in medium power range c) They have also been tried in ship propulsion , road and rail traction d) High speed centrifugal air compressors and water pumps can be directly driven by it e) A mixed gas steam cycle also offers the possibility of improving the efficiency Modern applications a) Hydraulic free piston engines b) Free piston engine generators

 Automotive

application is that studied by most current free-piston engine developers. The free-piston engine generator is a very attractive candidate as a prime mover in series hybrid vehicles or as a range extender in plug-in hybrids. It can provide high thermal efficiency (including high part load efficiency), low emissions, fuel flexibility, and high power to weight ratio through a compact design and a flexible engine layout.

The free-piston engine can provide substantial advantages in this respect, with

Extremely low friction: all frictional losses associated with the crank system are eliminated and piston friction is reduced due to no side forces acting on the piston no load-carrying bearings, allowing operation at high compression ratios; and very high piston acceleration around top dead centre, reducing the time spent in the high-temperature parts of the cycle and thereby reducing heat transfer losses and emissions formation.

AIR COMPRESSORS

The first successful application of the free-piston engine concept was as air compressors. In these engines, air compressor cylinders were coupled to the moving pistons, often in a multi-stage configuration. Some of these engines utilized the air remaining in the compressor cylinders to return the piston, thereby eliminating the need for a rebound device. Free-piston air compressors were in use among others by the German Navy, and had the advantages of high efficiency, compactness and low noise and vibration.

Besides advantages regarding efficiency, the free piston compressor offers ondemand start and stop (since there is no compression stroke in the engine side) cool operation (given that the combustion products are greatly diluted with air after expanding down below atmospheric pressure) quiet operation (given that there is no exhaust of high-pressure gasses) simple

efficiency is achieved by matching the dynamic load of the compressor to the ideal adiabatic expansion of the hot gas combustion products The device proposed exploits this fact by converting thermal energy into kinetic energy of the free piston, and then utilizes this stored kinetic energy to compress and pump air on the opposite side of the piston toward the end of the stroke.

After the success of the free-piston air compressor, a number of industrial research groups started the development of free-piston gas generators. In these engines there is no load device coupled to the engine itself, but the power is extracted from an exhaust turbine. (The only load for the engine is the supercharging of the inlet air.) A number of free-piston gas generators were developed, and such units were in widespread use in large-scale applications such as stationary and marine powerplants [3]. Attempts were made to use free-piston gas generators for vehicle propulsion (e.g. in gas turbine locomotives) but without success.

 Free-piston

engines could be used to generate electricity as efficiently as, and less expensively than, fuel cells. It could be used to generate electricity as efficiently as fuel cells yet cost less. Having a cheap and efficient way to generate electricity is becoming more important as automakers develop electric vehicles with onboard generators for recharging the battery pack and extending range. Such vehicles, called series plug-in hybrids or extended-range electric vehicles

Automakers such as GM, Lotus, and Volvo have started to investigate the possibility of using such engines in future vehicles. To generate electricity, the pistons could be equipped with rows of magnets that shuttle past metal coils to create an electrical current. The free-piston design can also allow the engine to be instantly optimized for different fuels, such as hydrogen, natural gas, ethanol, gasoline, and diesel. Ideally, drivers could use whatever fuel is cheap and readily available.

 Sound

of the engines: the fast explosions are very loud and will be difficult to muffle. The biggest issue is control: it makes necessary some sort of active control mechanism to ensure that each cycle is the same, variations could cause poor performance and increased emissions.

 These

engines are commonly of the single piston type, with the hydraulic cylinder acting as both load and rebound device using a hydraulic control system. This gives the unit high operational flexibility, and excellent part load performance has been reported for such engines .

The Chiron free piston engine is an integrated combination of an internal combustion engine and a hydraulic pump. The core of this engine is a combustion piston directly coupled to a hydraulic plunger. The piston is not connected to any mechanism but is free to move within the limitations of the cylinders. In this way the energy of the combustion process is almost directly converted into hydraulic energy. Compared to a conventional combination of a pump and a combustion engine, the number of parts is reduced to approximately 40%.

The HyDrid is a hydraulic hybrid drive train for road vehicles. In this new concept, the complete mechanical transmission of a car is replaced by a full hydrostatic transmission, allowing energy recuperation and an efficient operation. The concept requires extremely efficient hydrostatic pumps, motors and transformers, which have been developed recently. Simulation by the German Institute for Fluid Power Drives and Controls (IFAS) at RWTH Aachen University proved that an average fuel consumption of 3.1 liter per 100 km (or 77 MPG) is possible for a mid-sized (1450 kg) passenger car.

TWO CARS: SAME WEIGHT, SAME SIZE, SAME ENGINE, SAME TRACTION, SAME PERFORMANCE

 We

want our cars to be strong and fast. This requires large and powerful engines. The maximum engine performance is, however, seldom needed. Most of the time while driving in the city or cruising on the highway the engine is running at low loads, often less than 20% of the maximum torque. The high average fuel consumption of passenger cars is largely due to the low efficiency of internal combustion engines at these low loads..

 This

can be achieved with a series hydraulic hybrid drivetrain, called the Hydrid, which is developed by the Dutch company INNAS. In this new concept, the complete mechanical transmission of a car is replaced by a full hydrostatic transmission, allowing energy recuperation and an efficient engine operation. The concept requires extremely efficient hydrostatic pumps, motors and transformers, which have been developed recently.

 Engine

control problem which is fully solved only in single piston hydraulic engine Influence of cycle to cycle variations in the combustion process