Rotary internal combustion engine

In a valveless, concentric rotary internal combustion engine which imparts a rotary motion to a power shaft by the contained and directed expansion of its exhaust gases, a substantially hollow cylindrical housing having closed end walls and further having throughout its length main walls with cross-sectional dimensions consisting of two different radii, each main wall portion having the larger radius being gradually tapered at each of its circumferential extremities to a continuous juncture with the adjacent main wall portion having the smaller radius, a central shaft rotatably mounted so as to extend axially between the two end walls of said housing, a cylindrically shaped rotary piston mounted within said housing so as to revolve about said central shaft with the piston's outer circumferential wall surface in piston-cylinder relationship to the interior surface of said housing's main wall portions having the smaller of its two radii, a plurality of combustion pockets spaced equally from each other around and depressed into the peripheral wall surface of said rotary piston, a plurality of slots extending radially inward from the peripheral wall surface of said rotary piston with each slot being located forward of an adjacent combustion pocket in the direction of rotation of said rotary piston, at least one passageway extending from a combustion pocket to the slot adjacent thereto so as to enable combustion gases to escape from the combustion pocket and expand into the adjacent slot, a gate member mounted for reciprocatable movement into and partially out from each said slot so that as the rotary piston rotates centrifugal force urges each gate member to move radially outward so that its outer extremity is constantly in contact with the interior main wall surfaces of said housing, at least one projecting lip near the radially outward extremity of the gate member which serves to trap gases escaping from the combustion chamber through the connecting passageway and adjacent slot which accommodates that lip in a manner which supplements centrifugal force in urging the gate member in a radially outward direction, a gas exhaust port leading from said housing's wall portion having the larger radius, a diesel fuel inlet port located in the same housing wall portion forward of the exhaust port in the direction of rotation of said rotary piston, and means for starting the rotation of said central shaft and its attached rotary piston.

In a valveless, concentric, rotary internal combustion engine having a housing, a cylindrically shaped piston mounted for rotary movement in said housing, combustion pockets in the piston's peripheral wall surface opposed to the inner wall surface of the engine's housing, a variable volume working chamber defined by the inner surface of the engine's housing on one side and opposite thereto the piston's wall surface, said working chamber providing the space necessary for receiving the fuel and alternate compression of gases after the gases are ignited followed by exhaustion of the gases from the chamber, gate members pivotably mounted on said piston for substantially frictionless reciprocatable movement so as alternately to compress combustion gases in the piston's combustion pockets and permit the gases to be released therefrom, said gate members each having extending substantially perpendicular thereto an arm which is secured at the arm's other extremity to the rotary piston, at least one projecting lip near the radially outward extremity of the gate member which serves to trap gases emerging from the combustion pockets in a manner which supplements centrifugal force in a radially outward direction, elongated slots within the peripheral surface of the rotary piston to receive the gate member's arms, and elongated recesses each associated at one of its ends with an adjacent combustion pocket whereby combustion gases issuing from the pocket are readily directed by a connecting passageway through the recess and slot to the gate member's projecting lip.