Control of piston trajectory in a linear generator
AssigneeMainspring Energy, Inc.
InventorsMatthew Roelle, Christopher Gadda
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed towards free-piston combustion engines. As described herein, a method and system are provided for displacing a free-piston assembly to achieve a desired engine performance by repeatedly determining position-force trajectories over the course of a propagation path and effecting the displacement of the free-piston assembly based, at least in part, on the position-force trajectory. In a dual-piston assembly free-piston engine, synchronization of the two piston assemblies is provided.
Claims20
A linear generator system that performs cyclical operations, comprising:
- a piston assembly;
- a cylinder in which the piston assembly translates;
- at least one sensor to output a) data indicative of a position of the piston assembly within the cylinder and b) data indicative of a velocity at which the piston assembly translates in the cylinder;
- and
- a controller to:
- determine a position of the piston assembly in the cylinder based on the data indicative of the position,
- determine a reference position based on a preceding cycle of the linear generator system,
- determine a velocity of the piston assembly, based on the data indicative of the velocity, associated with a path of the piston assembly as the piston assembly translates between the reference position and the position,
- determine a kinetic energy of the piston assembly based on the determined velocity, and
- determine a net electrical energy output of the linear generator system based on the kinetic energy.
A method of monitoring a linear generator system that performs cyclical operations, the method comprising:
- determining a position of a piston assembly of the linear generator system in a cylinder of the linear generator system based on sensor data indicative of the position;
- determining a reference position based on a preceding cycle of the linear generator system;
- determining a velocity of the piston assembly, based on sensor data indicative of the velocity, associated with a path of the piston assembly as the piston assembly translates between the reference position and the position;
- determining a kinetic energy of the piston assembly based on the determined velocity, and
- determining a net electrical energy output of the linear generator system based on the kinetic energy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.