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US 4,176,651 AGranted
Engine combustion system
AssigneeBackus Devices, Incorporated
InventorHarold A. Backus
Life of this patent
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AssigneeBackus Devices, Incorporated
InventorHarold A. Backus
Estimating the term…
An engine combustion system is provided wherein fuel is supplied to the engine combustion chamber in the form of a hot vapor. The system preferably includes a preburner wherein a portion of a liquid fuel supply is burned internally to provide a hot, gaseous admixture of gasified fuel and products of combustion. A portion of the output of the preburner is used to heat air induced into the intake manifold, the heated air being thence supplied to the combustion chamber. The output of the preburner can also be used in auxiliary units such as a heating system for the passenger compartment. For a piston-type engine, the gaseous fuel is released into the combustion chamber formed by the clearance volume above the piston at the top center position of the piston, air being compressed within a recess in the cylinder during the cylinder head and rushing past the fuel inlet upon the downstroke of the piston to provide thorough mixing and, hence, complete burning of the gaseous fuel. The system described also includes temperature and pressure controls for both normal operation and startup as well as hydraulic controls for the fuel release valve assembly, the fuel release valve assembly including both an operator-controlled metering valve and an engine speed responsive poppet-type timing valve.
A combustion system comprising means defining a combustion volume, fuel control means for intermittently releasing pressurized gaseous fuel into said combustion volume for combustion with air contained in said volume in a cyclic process, said fuel control means including means, including valve means defining an orifice which opens and closes during each cycle and the maximum opening of which is variable from cycle to cycle, for varying the said maximum opening of said valve means substantially in direct proportion to the cyclic frequency so as to correspondingly limit the ratio of fuel to air for each cycle of operation of the system, for limiting the total quantity of fuel flow of each cycle, and for causing the rate of fuel flow per cycle to vary substantially in accordance with the cyclic frequency, further comprising means for supplying combustion air to said combustion volume and means for preheating said combustion air to temperature above the critical temperature for autoignition of the gaseous fuel and air prior to the release of said gaseous fuel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.