Internal combustion engine

#This invention relates to internal combustion engines and, more particularly, to internal combustion engines in which a common cylinder and a common piston are shared between a pair of alternate combustion chambers. More specifically, this invention relates to an internal combustion engine of the four-stroke type with a reciprocating piston member which partitions a common cylinder to form two combustion chambers.

#Internal combustion engines are widely used as power plants for many equipment and apparatuses such as automobiles, power generators, pumps, compressors, ships, tractors, machines, and aeroplanes. In order to supply adequate power, conventional internal combustion engines are generally formed by connecting a plurality of alternately combusting cylinders together. Bach cylinder of an internal combustion engine generally includes a hollow combustion chamber inside which there is disposed a linearly and reciprocally moveable piston member.

#In general, the piston is driven towards the cylinder head, which is usually the ceiling of a cylinder, to compress the gaseous fuel mixture introduced into the cylinder during one part of the engine cycle. The subsequent timely combustion of the compressed fuel causes an explosion to drive the piston away from the cylinder head. This movement also drives the connecting power transmission mechanism to deliver the resulting mechanical power outside of the cylinder for the intended use.

#Preferred embodiments of the present invention of an internal combustion engine or engine topology will be explained in more detail in the specific description below by way of examples and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIGS. 1 a to 1d show schematic diagrams of an internal combustion engine illustrating the principle of operation of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

#FIGS. 1c and 1d are simplified cross-sectional views generally orthogonal to that of FIGS. 1a and 1b;

#Referring firstly to FIGS. 1a to 1d, there are shown simplified sketches of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention of a cylinder of an internal combustion engine. The figures show a series of engine operating movements to illustrate the general principles of operation of the present invention. The engine generally includes at least one engine cylinder, although a plurality of engine cylinders may be, and are generally, connected together to meet with specific power and operation requirements and to fulfil various performance criteria.

#The cylinder (100) generally includes a hollow cylinder housing (110) having a first cylinder head (111) and a second cylinder head (112) which are interconnected by a cylinder wall. The cylinder (100), including the cylinder housing (110), the piston member (120) and some of the related connecting parts, is preferably made of steel, wrought iron or other rigid metal, both ferrous and non-ferrous, alloys suitable for engine making. The space or cavity defined between the cylinder heads and the surrounding cylinder wall forms a pair of combustion chambers for power generation to be explained in more detail below. The piston member includes a piston head (121) which is slidably moveable along the length of the hollow cylinder and between the two cylinder heads (111, 112). The piston head (121) is disposed within the cylinder so that it partitions the cylinder cavity into a first (114) and a second (115) combustion chambers which are not communicable with each other.

#The first combustion chamber (114) is formed by the piston head (121) co-operating with the first cylinder head (111) while the second combustion chamber (115) is formed by the piston head (121) co-operating with the second cylinder head (112). More specifically, the piston head (121) includes a first (122) and a second (123) piston surfaces which are back-to-back disposed so that the first piston surface (122) co-operates with the first cylinder head (111) to form the first combustion chamber (114) and the second piston surface (123) co-operates with the second cylinder head (112) to define the second combustion chamber (115).