Two-stroke HCCI compound free-piston/gas-turbine engine
OwnerPaul Albert Schwiesow, Ronald Lee Schwiesow +1inventors
InventorsPaul Albert Schwiesow, Ronald Lee Schwiesow, Dino Tomassetti, Jr.
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Abstract
This invention provides a compact, fuel-efficient internal combustion engine that can be used to provide rotating shaft output power to a wide variety of mobile and stationary applications. It is based on a two-stroke free-piston gas generator that implements the homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion principle for essentially constant-volume combustion, and it employs a variable piston stroke to maintain a high level of efficiency across a wide range of loads and speeds. A rotary device, which may be of either an aerodynamic or positive displacement type, converts the energetic gas stream to power at a rotating shaft.
Claims10
An engine system comprising:
- a) at least one combustor producing energetic hot gas, said combustor comprising:
- a cylindrical casing closed at each end by a cylinder head,
- a piston assembly oscillating in the cylindrical casing, said piston assembly comprising two pistons fixedly attached to each other by a rigid connecting rod,
- a divider element centrally disposed within the cylindrical casing and penetrated by the rigid connecting rod through a central bore, thereby forming two separate cylinders within the cylindrical casing, with a piston operating in each,
- an air inlet communicating with each cylinder for admitting and controlling the flow of combustion air,
- a fuel inlet communicating with each cylinder to introduce fuel into and mix fuel with said combustion air;
- at least one combustion chamber formed in each cylinder between each cylinder head and each piston head,
- at least one spark plug being mounted in the at least one combustion chamber of the at least one combustor;
- a source of electric power for generating an electrical spark to initiate combustion during initial start-up until the oscillation of the piston assembly compresses the air/fuel mixture in the at least one combustion chamber to auto-ignition temperature, and
- an outlet in each cylinder for discharging and controlling the flow of energetic hot gas produced by the auto-ignition of the air/fuel mixture in the at least one combustion chamber;
- b) a gas-driven motor to convert energy of the energetic hot gas produced in the at least one combustor to mechanical energy delivered to an external load via a rotating shaft, wherein said gas-driven motor is powered entirely by said energetic hot gas and further comprises:
- a rotating element being driven by the energetic hot gas from the at least one combustor based on at least one of aerodynamic flow, pressure, and positive displacement forces,
- the rotating shaft connected to the rotating element to transmit a mechanical output power to the external load,
- an inlet for the energetic hot gas from the at least one combustor to be supplied to the gas-driven motor, and
- an outlet to discharge the energetic hot gas to the ambient atmosphere after expansion by the gas-driven motor;
- c) at least one duct connecting the outlet of each cylinder of the at least one combustor to the gas-driven motor to supply the energetic hot gas from the at least one combustor to the gas-driven motor;
- and
- d) a rotary pre-compressor to deliver combustion air to the at least one combustor
- wherein said rotary pre-compressor is driven by a short shaft turned by an auxiliary gas-driven motor, said auxiliary gas-driven motor driven by a portion of the energetic hot gas produced by the at least one combustor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.