Internal-combustion engines – Rotary – With compression – combustion – and expansion in a single...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-06
2001-06-26
Koczo, Michael (Department: 3746)
Internal-combustion engines
Rotary
With compression, combustion, and expansion in a single...
C418S264000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06250280
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary drive engine structured to provide a continuous energy output, maximize fuel combustion efficiency, minimize fuel waste, and minimize the expulsion of unburned hydrocarbons, in a system that is mechanically effective and durable for extended periods of use.
2. Description of the Related Art
The general concept of rotary type engines, wherein fuel combustion and power generation is continuously taking place, has been an attractive and often sought concept in the field of drive structures. Indeed, because of the constant output of energy that can be generated by these rotary type engines, they are naturally quite popular in a variety of industries, such as for providing driving means for tools, machines, and other types of machinery that require uniform and constant energy outputs in order to be efficiently actuated. Still, however, existing designs of rotary type engines tend to be generally inefficient, often wasting unburned fuel, typically do not provide a clean and efficient burn as compared with conventional piston type engines, and are often quite complex, including a multitude of internal parts, thereby making such designs mechanically impractical.
For example, a problem often encountered with existing rotary engine designs is the inability of those engines to maintain an integral seal and to fully evacuate expended and/or burned exhaust gases. As a result, when a new combustion cycle begins, the capacity for new fuel intake, and accordingly combustion, is reduced, and the fuel introduced is contaminated by the remnant gases. Moreover, because of the contaminated nature of the fuel, as well as due to the general configuration of the combustion chamber, not all of the fuel is used, resulting in the expulsion of unburned, generally environmentally harmful, hydrocarbons from the engine, a reduced power output efficiency, and a reduced fuel consumption efficiency.
As a result, there is a substantial need in the art for an effective and efficient rotary type engine which has a mechanically sound design that is minimally susceptible to malfunction and efficiency loses. Further, such an improved rotary type engine should maximize the effectiveness of each combustion “explosion” by taking advantage of a maximum energy expansion and by providing a maximum purity and combustibility of the fuel mixture.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a rotary engine, the rotary engine including at least one drive element and at least one drive chamber. The drive chamber includes an interior wall structure that at least partially defines an open interior area wherein the drive element may be disposed. In particular, the drive element is rotatably disposed within the open interior of the drive chamber about a preferred fixed axis.
Defined about a periphery of the drive element are a plurality of combustion chambers. The combustion chambers are preferably defined relative to a specific combustion segment of the periphery of the drive element. As a result, upon rotation of the drive element, the combustion chambers correspondingly rotate therewith relative to the interior wall structure of the drive chamber. Moreover, the combustion chambers are at least partially sized in accordance with a relative spacing between the periphery of the drive element a corresponding confronting portion of the interior wall structure of the drive chamber, with one or more fin elements being utilized to defined the leading and trailing ends of the combustion chambers.
The open interior of the drive chamber preferably includes at least a fluid intake region, a fuel intake region, a combustion region, and an exhaust region generally defined therein. Moreover, these regions are preferably sequentially disposed, extend into one another and may even overlap. Accordingly, as the combustion chambers rotate within the open interior of the drive chamber in response to the rotation of the drive element, the combustion chambers rotate into, through, and out of the various regions of the open interior of the drive chamber.
Along these lines, the combustion chambers are preferably structured to be variably sized. In the illustrated preferred embodiment, as the combustion chambers are at least partially sized in accordance with the relative spacing between the periphery of the drive element and the interior wall structure of the drive chamber, the size of the individual combustion chambers vary as that relative spacing changes during rotation of the drive element. For example, the interior wall structure of the illustrated embodiment is preferably configured such that at certain portions thereof, the confronting segments of the drive element are relatively close, while after rotation of those segments into confronting relation with other portions of the interior wall structure, the relative spacing is relatively larger.
In the preferred embodiment, the interior wall structure of the drive chamber is configured such that a relatively close spacing is achieved at least partially at the fuel intake region. As a result, the size of correspondingly disposed ones of the combustion chambers will at least temporarily decrease as the combustion chambers rotate through the fuel intake region. This decreasing size in turn functions to generally compress a fuel mixture that has been introduced and is contained within those combustion chambers, thereby increasing its energy potential and concentrating the fuel mixture at an ignition point.
Additionally, preferably as a result of an asymmetrical contour of the interior wall structure of the drive chamber, the interior wall structure is also configured such that the size of correspondingly disposed combustion chambers will at least temporarily increase as the combustion chambers rotate through the combustion region. For example, although a relatively small size of the combustion chambers may be exhibited at a beginning of what is termed the combustion region, an at least temporary increase in the size of the combustion chambers through that combustion region is preferred, thereby facilitating a maximum expansion of the combusted fuel within the combustion chambers, and utilizing the energy that results from the expansion of combusted fluids to its maximum potential for rotating the drive element. Preferably it is at some point within the combustion region that the fuel, and preferably air, mixture contained within the combustion chambers are ignited by at least one combustion ignitor, the explosion and expansion of gases that results from the ignition causing in the continuous driving of the drive element.
The illustrated embodiment further includes a configuration of the interior wall structure of the drive chamber wherein the relative spacing between the interior wall structure and the periphery of the drive element at least temporarily decreases, thereby reducing the size of the combustion chambers as they rotate through the exhaust region. For example, once combustion has generally been completed, the exhaust gases from the combustion process are generally contained in the combustion chamber. Naturally, it is preferred that these exhaust gases be evacuated from the combustion chambers. As a result, by at a least temporarily decreasing the size of the combustion chambers as they rotate through the exhaust region, those exhaust gases are essentially urged from the combustion chambers, such as through an exhaust port, and the evacuation of the exhaust gases is maximized. Once the combustion chambers have been substantially evacuated, however, they will preferably rotate into and through the fluid intake region. It is in the fluid intake region wherein a fluid, preferably air which will mix with the fuel to aid the combustion process, is introduced into the individual combustion chambers. As a result, the interior wall structure of the drive chamber is preferably configured such that the size of the combustion chambers passing through the fluid intake region at least temporarily
Koczo Michael
Malloy & Malloy P.A.
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