Rotary engine with rotary intake valve

A throttle valve and intake port configuration for a rotary internal combustion engine having an outer housing body with an internal cavity, the peripheral surface of which has a multi-lobe profile and with said outer body having intake passage means and exhaust passage means opening into said cavity and said engine also having an inner body of generally polygonal profile mounted for relative rotation within said outer body cavity with the apex portions of the inner body having sealing cooperation with said peripheral surface to define a plurality of working chambers which cyclically vary in volume in response to said relative rotation, said intake throttle valve and port configuration comprising:

• a. intake passage means having first and second intake passages with the second intake passage opening through said multi-lobe surface and the first intake passage opening through a side wall of the outer body housing and having a relatively small port area so as to have approximately no overlap with the exhaust port and so the inner body closes the intake port of said first intake passage to each working chamber approximately by the time said chamber reaches its bottom-dead-center position;
• b. a first throttle valve for said first intake passage;
• c. said second intake passage having a partition at its downstream end and disposed thereacross substantially flush with said multi-lobe surface and having at least one opening therethrough constituting intake port means for said second intake passage;
• d. a rotatable throttle valve in said second intake passage and having a portion disposed adjacent to and against said second intake passage partition with its axis of rotation being substantially normal to the inner surface of said partition, said rotatable throttle valve being arranged for cooperation with the intake port means of said partition such that the effective intake port flow area provided by said rotatable throttle valve varies with the rotation position of said rotatable throttle valve and such that each working chamber closes earlier to said second intake passage at a low power setting of the rotatable throttle valve as compared to its closing time at a high power setting;
• and
• e. means for operatively connecting said first throttle valve and said rotatable throttle valve to the engine power control.