التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
| العنوان: |
Internal combustion engine with shared holding tank in cylinder head for elevated expansion ratio |
| Document Number: |
20080087257 |
| تاريخ النشر: |
April 17, 2008 |
| Appl. No: |
11/999364 |
| Application Filed: |
December 05, 2007 |
| مستخلص: |
An internal combustion engine with a plurality of cylinders operating in a four-stroke mode, with pistons moving with reciprocating motion, employs at least one holding tank shared among a plurality of cylinders, and wherein the holding tank conveys a pre-combustion gas (fuel-air mix in gasoline engines) from the cylinders via a return manifold for reinsertion into an intake manifold of the engine. Valving extracts a quantity of pre-combustion gas from a cylinder into the holding tank during a compression stroke for subsequent discharge into the return manifold to reduce the compression ratio to a value less than the expansion ratio. |
| Inventors: |
Robinson, Barnett Joel (Newton, MA, US) |
| Claim: |
1. An internal combustion engine comprising: a cylinder head, a plurality of cylinders connecting to said cylinder head, and a plurality of pistons movable with reciprocating motion within respective ones of said cylinders, the piston motion in the respective cylinders providing a succession of four strokes including an induction stroke, a compression stroke, a power stroke and an exhaust stroke, wherein a maximum spacing of a piston from the cylinder head defines a maximum volume of a combustion chamber in a cylinder of the engine, wherein the engine is a gasoline engine or a diesel engine, and wherein each of the cylinders is provided with a return port; wherein the compression stroke serves to compress a quantity of gas within the combustion chamber in preparation for the power stroke, the compression-stroke gas being a mixture of air and fuel in the gasoline engine, or air without fuel in the diesel engine, the compression stroke providing a reduction in volume of the gas characterized by a compression ratio; the power stroke provides for an expansion in volume of a quantity of gas within the combustion chamber, characterized by an expansion ratio, the gas in the power stroke being a mixture of air, fuel, and products of combustion; the engine further comprises a return manifold for coupling a portion of the quantity of the gas from each of the combustion chambers in respective ones of the cylinders during the compression stroke to a source of the compression-stroke gas; a holding tank, and a discharge valve providing fluidic communication between the holding tank and the return manifold; a valve assembly comprising a plurality of return valves located in the return ports of respective ones of the plurality of the cylinders for providing fluidic communication between the holding tank and the respective ones of the plurality of cylinders to enable a sharing of a single holding tank by the plurality of cylinders; and wherein the holding tank and the valve assembly are operative to receive from each of the cylinders a portion of the quantity of the gas contained within the combustion chamber during the compression stroke and subsequently to discharge the cylinder gas via the discharge valve into the return manifold, the return manifold with the holding tank and the valve assembly serving to reduce the compression ratio to a value less than the expansion ratio. |
| Claim: |
2. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the valve assembly staggers operation of the return valves with the discharge valve such that an opening of any one of the discharge and the return valves can occur only if all of the other of the discharge and the return valves are closed. |
| Claim: |
3. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the valve assembly has a housing disposed within the cylinder head, and said holding tank and said discharge valve are located in the housing of the valve assembly. |
| Claim: |
4. The engine according to claim 3, wherein the holding tank extends with a relatively long dimension in a plane generally perpendicular to an axis of a cylinder, and extends with a relatively short dimension in a direction generally parallel to the axis of the cylinder to minimize an overall height of the engine. |
| Claim: |
5. The engine according to claim 3, wherein said plurality of cylinders is a first plurality of cylinders, the engine further comprises a second plurality of cylinders connecting to said cylinder head and having pistons movable with reciprocating motion within respective ones of said second plurality of cylinders; the holding tank is a first holding tank and the discharge valve is a first discharge valve, the valve assembly further comprises a second holding tank and a second discharge valve, the second discharge valve providing fluidic communication between the second holding tank and the return manifold; and the plurality of return valves is a first plurality of return valves, the valve assembly further comprises a second plurality of return valves providing fluidic communication between the second holding tank and respective cylinders of the second plurality of cylinders. |
| Claim: |
6. The engine according to claim 5, wherein: said first plurality of cylinders consists of two cylinders and said second plurality of cylinders consists of two cylinders; first and second pistons in the two cylinders of said first plurality of cylinders translate within their respective cylinders in unison such that both the first and the second pistons are moving within their respective cylinders towards the cylinder head concurrently, but wherein the operation of the second piston is delayed from the operation of the first piston by one half of the four-stroke cycle such that the exhaust stroke of the first piston takes place during the compression stroke of the second piston; first and second pistons in the two cylinders of said second plurality of cylinders translate within their respective cylinders in unison such that both the first and the second pistons are moving within their respective cylinders towards the cylinder head concurrently, but wherein the operation of the second piston is delayed from the operation of the first piston by one half of the four-stroke cycle; and operation of the pistons of the second plurality of cylinders is delayed relative to the operation of the pistons of the first plurality of cylinders by one quarter of the four-stroke cycle such that the pistons of the first plurality of cylinders advance toward the cylinder head while the pistons of the second plurality of cylinders retract away from the cylinder head. |
| Claim: |
7. The engine according to claim 6, wherein: in each of the cylinders of the first plurality of cylinders, the return valve associated with the cylinder opens during a portion of the compression stroke of the cylinder to transfer gas from the cylinder to the first holding tank, and the first discharge valve opens during a portion of the following power stroke to transfer gas from the first holding tank to the return manifold; in each of the cylinders of the second plurality of cylinders, the return valve associated with the cylinder opens during a portion of the compression stroke of the cylinder to transfer gas from the cylinder to the second holding tank, and the second discharge valve opens during a portion of the following power stroke to transfer gas from the second holding tank to the return manifold; and operations of the first and the second discharge valves are staggered by the one-quarter cycle delay of the four-stroke cycle between operations of the first plurality of cylinders and the second plurality of cylinders to provide that one of the discharge valves is open only during a period of time when the other of the discharge valves is closed resulting in improved uniformity in the discharge of gasses into the return manifold. |
| Current U.S. Class: |
123568/130 |
| Current International Class: |
02 |
| رقم الانضمام: |
edspap.20080087257 |
| قاعدة البيانات: |
USPTO Patent Applications |