Reverse stratified, ignition controlled, emissions best timing lean burn engine
OwnerMichael A. V. Wardinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An internal combustion engine system with combustion chamber (11) of the upper-half-clam-shell type in which is generated both swirl and squish and microscale turbulence near the center of the chamber where is located a toroidal gap spark plug (18) fired according to a lean-burn-timing prescription to deliver rapidly moving spark pulses (24) of high power and energy into a very lean reverse stratified mixture further diluted with exhaust gas residual for further reducing NOx emissions while maintaining low HC emissions and high engine efficiency.
Claims30
In an internal combustion, IC, engine including means for forming at least one combustion chamber, means for forming an air-fuel mixture therein, means for cyclically igniting said mixture, the latter means including at least one igniter element in contact with the chamber's air-fuel mixture contents, and means for cyclically energizing said igniter element, the improvement comprising:
- means for forming a local air-fuel mixture adjacent said igniting element that is lean of fuel relative to the average air-fuel mixture ratio is said chamber to produce a reverse stratified lean-to-rich stratification with reference to said igniting element in at least one operating condition of the engine.
In an internal combustion engine including means for forming at least one combustion chamber, means for forming an air-fuel mixture therein, means for cyclically igniting said mixture, the latter means including at least one igniter element in contact with the chamber's air-fuel mixture contents, and means for cyclically energizing said igniter element, the improvement comprising:
- means defining an essentially upper-half-clam-shell region within said chamber formed cyclically as the piston moves toward the chamber wall in a compression stroke essentially at the time of spark ignition of said igniter element, the igniter element being located within said region, said region being characterized by air-fuel mixture in said combustion chamber being squeezed inward and upwards towards a central portion within said clam-shell region wherein is located the spark firing end of said igniter element, such that under at least one operating condition of the engine the mixture is lean-to-rich, or reverse, stratified with respect to said igniter element.
An internal combustion engine comprising, in combination,
- (a) means defining at least one combustion chamber,
- (b) means defining a cranking piston drive system with a piston element movable within said chamber and related to said chamber for effecting cyclic compression/expansion cycles of relative movement, including movement of a piston element surface toward the chamber wall to compress gas contents of the chamber and power expansion of said chamber driving the piston element and the piston drive system as a whole,
- (c) means for admitting an air-fuel mixture to said chamber,
- (d) means for cyclically igniting said mixture with cyclic ignition timing in relation to piston movement to effect said power expansion, and ultimately through the piston drive system, said compression, including means to automatically adjust ignition timing in response to manifold pressure and cyclic speed of the engine as a whole,
- (e) means for controlling said air-fuel mixture and timing
- (i) by holding the overall air-fuel ratio and timing in a first preselected range of engine speed and manifold pressure in essentially linear relations to speed, and
- (ii) by holding the overall air-fuel ratio and timing essentially constant outside the preselected range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.