Internal-combustion engines – Means to whirl fluid before – upon – or after entry into...
Patent
1995-08-11
1997-01-21
Wolfe, Willis R.
Internal-combustion engines
Means to whirl fluid before, upon, or after entry into...
123592, F02M 2906, F02M 2904
Patent
active
055951570
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is a 371 of PCT/GB94/00236, filed Feb. 8, 1994, which claims priority from Great Britain Application No. 9313949.1, filed Jul. 6, 1993, which is a continuation-in-part of Malaysian Application No. UI 9300243, filed Feb. 13, 1993.
The present invention relates to an air guiding device for use in combination with an internal combustion engine to create a vortical or turbulent air flow in the air entering a carburettor.
Combustion engines require a mixture of air and fuel to be delivered to the engine for combustion purposes. Air is delivered to the carburettor through an air filter and the filtered air is mixed with the fuel in the carburettor which supplies a fine stream of fuel droplets for mixing with a steady air stream which is drawn by the low pressure present in the carburettor during each induction stroke of each respective cylinder in an engine. However, because the air flow to and through the carburettor is generally laminar and non-vortical there is little opportunity for the fuel droplets to mix efficiently with the air to provide a homogeneous fuel-air mixture for optimum combustion characteristics.
At high air flow rates, is when a throttle of the engine is fully open, some turbulence may be caused naturally which aids the mixing process. However, at low air flow rates there is little mixing of fuel and air due to the low energy of the air flow.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the mixing process at low air flow rates.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention provides an air guiding device for producing a vortical and/or turbulent air flow in an inlet manifold, which device comprises a fixed supporting structure, a plurality of vanes carried by the supporting structure for deflecting an air flow impringing on the device in a first direction, a tab associated with at least one of the vanes for deflecting the air flow in a second direction, the arrangement being such that the air flow impinging on the device is deflected into a vortical and/or turbulent air flow by the vanes and/or the tab or tabs.
In order that the present invention may be more readily understood, embodiments thereof will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of an air guiding device according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an internal combustion engine which includes an air filter incorporating an air guiding device embodying the present invention and a carburettor leading to an inlet manifold of a cylinder of the combustion engine;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of an air guiding device according to the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the air guiding device of FIG. 2 installed within an annular filter element of an air filter;
FIG. 5 shows the air guiding device of FIG. 3 located under a conical filter element of an air filter; and
FIG. 6 shows a view from below of the air guiding device of FIG. 1 (a lip portion of each vane is not shown).
Referring to FIG. 1, a first air guiding device embodying the invention comprises a planar central hub plate 2 formed with a circular hole 3 at its centre for receiving an air filter closure securing bolt. Vanes 4 extend outwardly and downwardly from the periphery of the hub plate 2 at equally spaced apart locations around the periphery. Each vane 4 comprises a spoke portion 4a, a blade portion 4b and a lip portion 4c. The spoke portion 4a is coplanar with the hub plate 2 and extends outwardly from the periphery of the hub plate 2 at an angle of approximately 45.degree. to the radial direction as shown in FIG. 1. The blade portion 4b extends downwardly from one edge of the spoke portion 4a and lies substantially perpendicular to the plane of the hub plate 2 and terminates at its lower edge in the lip portion 4c which projects from the blade portion parallel to the spoke portion 4a on the other side of the blade portion from the spoke portion.
The blade portion
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Chen Roger C. T.
Siew Seok H.
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