New engine design concept

[DarrenSV650S]

Make way for bullet shaped bikes

A brand new concept in internal combustion engine design - very interesting

Clicky

very interesting!

There's an even more simple and more powerful engine in the wings though. It only has one rotating part and a very, very simple mechanism.

It consists of two corrugated disks that are very close together. One is fixed and the other is free to move. As it spins, the fuel/air mix (any fuel you like) is injected into the centre of the disks and flows out to the outside. As the high point on each disk passes the other, the mixture is ignited and this moves the disk on to the next high point where it is repeated. It only runs at very low revs but has immense torque and power. As an example a unit the size of your coffee table can power a battleship. a unit the size of a shoe box produces 250bhp. and any fuel can be used.

The company that was producing this unit is no more and I have no idea who bought the rights to it. They has some other, *seriously* funky stuff that I can't mention. World changing stuff. I hope it's not been bought by a vested interest and burried. it would be a great shame.

[yorkie_chris]

Very cool. But I'd like to know how they lubricate the bores, as I doubt anything running total loss will every be accepted these days due to environmental concerns.

Can also see it being a little more involved getting a good burn due to the spark plug being at the side of the piston.
Edit: no it's not I'm talking balls, you could shape the pistons to give a hemi type combustion chamber at the edge next to the plug.

On the plus side, you can probably make one with really efficient port shapes as no poppet valves to worry about, get the compression quite high, and with a bit of materials development you could end up being able to put the equivalent of a big V8 into a bike the size of the SV, which would be cool.

The guy should have fitted a working engine in a car or bike. He did a lot of talking but seeing is believing. Interesting though. Wish something new(ish) like this comes along. Design of things would take an all new look. The guy stresses its all American, Harleys would at last be desirable with such an engine, of course it has to be reconfigured to do the hog sound

If you read more it seems to be all rubbish due to the way the pistons are attached. In addition the video was in 2006 and the sub-site from it has just died, so probably realised the error of his ways and it all got dropped.

[embee]

There have been literally hundreds of designs for "different" engines, but they nearly always end up using the same basic thermodynamic cycle so are limited to the same thermal efficiency as a conventional design.

Wrapping a different set of mechanicals round the same cycle rarely achieves much.

Problems are always to do with lubrication, heat management (component temperatures), manufacturing, gas sealing, not to mention emissions.

Many designs end up with high surface to volume ratios giving high heat losses and thus reduced thermal efficiency. Spark plugs end up at one side of the chamber so flame paths are long and thus reduce efficiency further.

There are good reasons why "conventional" reciprocating designs have persisited for so long. They've been developed to the point where practically all the issues can be addressed successfully. It'll take a long time to get to the same level of reliability with "novel" designs, and I doubt the basic concept of a simple IC power-unit will survive that long.

There is no advantage in running most engines really slowly either since this increases cycle heat loss still more. Indicated thermal efficiency of typical petrol engines drops off rapidly below about 1500rpm due to heat loss. Big (truck) diesels with big cylinders are specifically designed to work efficiently in this speed range, but it doesn't work with small cylinders.

Personally I'm surprised there haven't been any really effective exhaust heat recovery systems developed (yet), there's an awful lot of high grade heat thrown away down the exhaust (typically 1/3 of the fuel heat).