Another interesting engine design.

[Shannow]

If I were the inventor, I'd lose the flywheel, and then not worry overly about the mass of the rotating "in cylinder" components, as if they are heavier, they will reduce the loading on the vertical to horizontal bevel gears.

I like the concept, as the pressure curve can be controlled very precisely.

 

[Shannow]

No coked rings, or wall thrusts either.

 

[Pablo]

How are the rings lubed?

 

[Shannow]

Dunno, but the big (read huge) crosshead ship engines have a similar piston head design.

http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/

 

[Shannow]

What do you reckon Pablo...sludge monster or not ?

I'd vote sludge monster.

 

[Pablo]

Conventional oil shearer. It would surely push the limits of current oil standards.

 

[Anduril]

Not sure how well I'd trust those small gear teeth to transfer all the power from the piston to the crank, especially with the entire load of the car and all its accessories resting on them. I could just imagine those teeth snapping off the first time I revved it up and then dumped the clutch.

 

[DrinkDuff77]

Interesting design. Pardon my density but how does the linear motion of the piston get converted to the rotational motion of the gears? I'm just wondering how this would be an improvement over a traditional crankshaft.

 

[-Clayton-]

Is there a bigger picture anywhere?

 

[Shannow]

It's got a grooved "track" mounted in the cylinder (those V shaped things art grooves), so for the piston to move down, it must rotate.

 

[Matt_S]

It looks like a disaster in terms of wear. #1, you're adding rotational motion to the up-down motion of the pistons. I can't even imagine how you'd lube that properly. #2, you're putting a heavy force on that "track" that's going to wear the heck out of it. Could you even put a bearing in there, or is metal sliding against metal? I'd expect the rotational motion would add to frictional losses in the engine, too.

 

[Blue T]

There needs to be an anti-rotation device on the pistons. Otherwise the vertical piston motion will only give rotation of the piston and no power will be transmitted. Also the groves need to be sinusoidal in shape rather than "V" shaped. Can't see any advantage over the simple and time-proven crank arrangement that is universally used.

 

[Duffman77]

By Definition: Work=Force x Distance
I dont see how this will be any better than a conventional engine, to make it better it would need to have less frition and I would think this design would have more with spining pistons.

 

[Shannow]

Duffman, I agree.

Modern engines have pretty high mechanical efficiencies, albeit with atrocious thermal efficiencies.

Even though that track allows the piston position to make best use of available pressure, far more is to be gained through fixing the thermodynamic cycle than off the wall mechanical designs.

 

[Duffman77]

Who is to say that it is making the best use of available pressure? On a conventional piston rod assembly, engineers can change the Rod to Stroke Length ratio and this affects the aceleration rate that the piston leaves TDC and there doesnt seem to be an optimum R/S ratio, so....

 

[oilyriser]

The original Atkinson cycle used a linkage to connect the piston to the crank, to get a longer dwell at TDC, but it gives you more parts to goof up when making and more friction. I'd like to do a custom stroke movement using an electromagnetic system, kind of like they did for that Stirling motor in CA. Then you could have an engine that runs WOT all the time, and adjusts power by slowing down, even down to 30 RPM if necessary.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Duffman77
Who is to say that it is making the best use of available pressure? On a conventional piston rod assembly, engineers can change the Rod to Stroke Length ratio and this affects the aceleration rate that the piston leaves TDC and there doesnt seem to be an optimum R/S ratio, so....


I dunno, who said it was ?

I was saying that the design makes it possible to optimise, as would a cam rather than rod/piston, where you only get a single relationship (albeit with the ability to change the pin offset which can help some early/late parts of the stroke.

 

[oilyriser]

Think of two spark plugs per cylinder, but not always firing both. One plug could be in the middle and one on the side. At high speed fire both and you get the quickest burn. Fire the middle one at mid speed, and the outer one at low speed, for a delayed burn.