Method of operating an internal combustion engine
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorsAndre Julien, Edwin Schulz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of operating a rotary engine including a rotor engaged to a shaft and rotationally received in a housing to define a plurality of working chambers of variable volume, including delivering a pilot quantity of fuel into a pilot cavity in successive communication with the working chambers, igniting the pilot quantity of fuel within the pilot cavity, and delivering a main quantity of fuel into the working chambers downstream of the successive communication of the pilot cavity with the working chambers, where at least one of the pilot quantity and the main quantity is varied between successive rotations of the shaft.
Claims21
A method of operating an internal combustion engine including a movable member engaged to a shaft and movably received in a housing to define a working chamber of variable volume, the method comprising:
- delivering a pilot quantity of fuel into a pilot cavity in communication with the working chamber;
- igniting the pilot quantity of fuel within the pilot cavity;
- and
- delivering a main quantity of fuel into the working chamber;
- wherein one or both of the pilot quantity and the main quantity is varied between at least two successive rotations of the shaft,
- wherein for each set of first, second and third successive rotations of the shaft, the main quantity is zero and the pilot quantity is greater than zero during the first rotation, the main and pilot quantities are zero during the second rotation, and the main and pilot quantities are greater than zero during the third rotation.
A method of operating an internal combustion engine including first and second movable member assemblies and a shaft, the first and second rotor movable member assemblies including first and second movable members engaged to the shaft and movably received in a housing to define a plurality of working chambers of variable volume, the method comprising:
- delivering a pilot quantity of fuel into a pilot cavity;
- igniting the pilot quantity of fuel within the pilot cavity;
- and
- delivering a main quantity of fuel into the working chambers;
- wherein one or both of the pilot quantity and the main quantity of a first working chamber of the plurality of working chambers is varied between at least two successive rotations of the shaft;
- wherein one or both of the pilot quantity and the main quantity is different between the first and second movable member assemblies during the at least two of the successive rotations of the shaft wherein for each set of first, second and third successive rotations of the shaft, the main quantity of the first rotor assembly is zero and the pilot quantity is greater than zero during the first rotation, the main and pilot quantities of the first movable member assembly are zero during the second rotation, and the main and pilot quantities of the first movable member assembly are greater than zero during the third rotation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.