Otto and diesel cycles employing spinning gas
An internal combustion engine is disclosed and includes a main cylinder and main piston that are relatively axially displaceable along a main axis to define a variable volume main working chamber. At least one valve is configured to admit air and fuel into the working chamber forming an air/fuel mixture. The main cylinder is configured to cause the air/fuel mixture in the main cylinder to spin rapidly enough to cause a substantive change in the heat capacity of the air/fuel mixture creating a spinning air/fuel mixture. The main cylinder and main piston are configured to compress the spinning air/fuel mixture to create an ignitable spinning air/fuel mixture. The spinning air/fuel mixture is ignited and the main cylinder and main piston are configured to extract mechanical energy from the ignited spinning air/fuel mixture. An exhaust valve is configured to exhaust combustion products from the main working chamber.
1. An internal combustion engine comprising:
a variable volume main working chamber, the main working chamber comprising:
a main cylinder;
a main piston disposed within the main cylinder, the main piston being axially displaceable along a main axis; and
an intake valve configured to admit air into the main working chamber when the intake valve is open, the air axially rotating when in the main working chamber;
a variable volume slave chamber coupled to the main working chamber, the slave chamber comprising:
a slave cylinder; and
a slave piston disposed within the slave cylinder, the slave piston being axially displaceable along the main axis; and
a between-cylinders valve (BCV) disposed between the main cylinder and the slave cylinder, the BCV configured to selectively:
open to release the axially rotating air into the slave chamber to create spinning air in the main working chamber that axially rotates rapidly enough to cause a substantive change in the heat capacity of the spinning air with fuel to be admitted in the main working chamber after the substantive change in the heat capacity of the spinning air to create an air/fuel mixture; and
close to allow for combustion of the air/fuel mixture.
2. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 wherein a rotational velocity of the spinning air in the main chamber is increased as the air flows from the main chamber to the slave chamber.
3. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 wherein the intake valve is arranged tangential to a surface of the main cylinder to produce an intake of gas with net angular momentum about the main axis.
4. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 wherein the spinning air rotates at 0.8 of thermal molecule speed or higher.
5. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 wherein the spinning air increases the heat capacity by at least 2% due to spinning of the spinning air.
6. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 wherein the main cylinder has a compression ratio in a range from 5:1 to 20:1.
7. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 wherein a length of the slave cylinder is approximately 5 to 10 times a length of the main cylinder.
8. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 wherein the main working chamber further comprises an exhaust valve configured to exhaust combustion products from the main working chamber when the exhaust valve is open.
9. The internal combustion engine according to claim 1 wherein the main piston is configured to compress the spinning air by decreasing the volume of the main working chamber.