Toroidal internal combustion engine
OwnerGerald E. Kovalenkoinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A rotary internal combustion engine including a plurality of toroidal cylinders and toroidal pistons that are slidably carried within the cylinders. Combustion of an air-fuel mixture within the respective cylinders provides a series of circumferential power strokes for more efficient operation. The pistons and cylinders are carried by a pair of side-by-side, coaxial drive rotors, the output power pulses of which are transmitted through a drive clutch and planetary gear assembly to an engine output drive shaft. The drive clutch and planetary gear assembly includes four overrunning clutches and a planetary gear train to smoothly transmit the successive intermittent engine power strokes to the output drive shaft.
Claims28
A toroidal internal combustion engine comprising:
- a) a pair of coaxial, independently rotatable drive rotors, each rotor carrying a plurality of circumferentially spaced cylinder heads from one side of each of which extends a toroidal cylinder sector and from another side of each of which extends a toroidal piston sector, wherein the toroidal piston sectors are longitudinally slidably received within respective ones of the toroidal cylinder sections to define a plurality of circumferentially spaced, rotary acting power cylinders for imparting substantially circumferentially directed power strokes to the drive rotors;
- b) a fuel inlet valve carried by each cylinder head for admitting at predetermined times in an operating cycle pressurized liquid fuel into each of the respective cylinders;
- c) an igniter carried by each cylinder head for igniting at predetermined times in an operating cycle an air-fuel mixture within each cylinder;
- and
- d) a drive clutch and gear assembly drivingly connected with each of the drive rotors and with an engine output drive shaft for transmitting successive intermittent rotary power strokes of the respective drive rotors to the engine output drive shaft to provide a substantially smooth, continuous output torque, the drive clutch and gear assembly including a plurality of overrunning clutches drivingly connected with a respective rotor and with a gear train coupled with the engine output drive shaft for imparting a unidirectional rotation to the engine output drive shaft.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.