Internal combustion engine having compartmented combustion chamber

US4157080A · kind A · utility

Inventor

• Craig C. Hill · Lincoln, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 31, 1977
• Grant date: Jun 5, 1979
• Expiry date: May 31, 1997

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02T10/12
• WIPO field: Engines, pumps, turbines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

The invention resides in a fuel efficient internal combustion engine employing a substantially constant volume combustion method and a moderate equivalent compression ratio. The engine has an air compressor connected to the intake port of the first cavity of a two cavity combustion chamber and substantially all the compression of the working medium is performed outside the combustion chamber by that compressor. In the combustion chamber, fuel and the compressed working medium are burned at substantially constant volume. Each cavity of the combustion chamber houses a piston whose motion alternately increases and decreases the cavity volume. The maximum volume of the first cavity is smaller than the maximum volume of the second cavity, to which it is connected by a duct. The duct connecting the two cavities serves as the only gas outlet of the first cavity and the only working medium inlet to the second cavity. Every downstroke of the piston in the first cavity is an intake stroke. On every upstroke of the piston in the first cavity, fuel mixed with the inducted compressed working medium is ignited and burned and the piston upstroke displaces the still unexpanded combustion gases out…