AU610054B2 - Rotating cylinder engine - Google Patents

Description

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FILING DATE: ERIC ASHTON BULLMORE PH 1362/85 08 Jul 85 'This doc'unt colitif ns thle ame~dinento i indc,' Section[ 49 anid is COrret for printing, FORM COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA The Patents Act 1952 CO'E-PLETE SPECIFICATION FOR AN INVENTION ENTITLED: ROTATING CYLINDER ENG1NE The following statemient i. a full descripticn of this invention, including the best method of peri cming it known to me:

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i This invpntion relates to a rotatinp cevlinder enpine.

There have previously been known many forms of internal combustion engines, the most common of which is the engine having a fixed cylinder block in which there are mounted one or a plurality of pistons, each of which is in driving connection with a crank shaft which is normally connecteC to a flywheel so as to maintain motion during the non-power strokes.

This is the type of engine which is used in a very high percentage of motor 9 o vehicles today.

Soo0 S, 10 It is also known to produce radial cylinder engines in which a number of cylinder blocks each with a piston connected to a fixed crank shaft are connected to a main circular block, the circular block and the cylinders, 4 together with their enclosed pistons, being adapted to rotate about the crank shaft.

4 The pistons are fired in a rotating sequence and power is transmitted to the fixed crank shaft and the main circular block and the cylinders rotate o4 thereabout.

Such engines were widely used some forty to seventy years ago as aeroplane engines.

The conventional engines have major disadvantages in that there is a substantial power loss in converting the reciprocal motion of the pistons to the rotating motion of the crank shaft and further power losses occur due to friction and hea losses. Such engines are usually operated as four stroke engines so, during three of the movements of the piston in a cycle, -2- Bullmore/46/Jul86 I-l~-sll-aslrr~ l~ *il lrar~-* there is no power being gained therefrom.

Over the last decade, there has been a resurgence of interest in orbital engines which, in very general terms, comprise a rotor located in a casing with the relative shapes of the rotor and casing being such as to form chambers between the rotor and casing as their relative rotational movement is effected, with the sizes of the chambers varying to permit the induction or injection of a charge, the compression of this charge, the It firing of the charge which produces power which maintaijns the rotation of at the rotor and, at the same time, can provide power to an output.

10 Such engines have, theoretically, significant advantages over the normal piston type engine in that, particularly, friction should be less and it is possible to provide combustion chambers and variations in sizes of these which can optimize the cyclic operation of the engine but, practically, it has been very difficult to produce commercially successful rotary engines because of the relative complexity of the resultant shapes between the interior of the uasing of the motor and the rotor and the difficulty in providing seals which are operative over a wide range in variation of spacings between the two components.

The object of the present invention is to provide an engine which has certain of the advantageous features of a conventional internal combustion engine, particularly in as far as sealing is concerned, but, also, has features more commonly ascribed to rotary engines.

The invention, in its broadest sense, comprises an engine having a f,"ywheel assembly mounted for rotation within a casing, the flywheel and casing both being cylindrical and coaxial; cylinders formed in the flywheel and -3- Bullmore/46/Ju 186 opening to the periphery thereof; pistons within the cylinders whereby a chamber is defined by the inner wall of the casing, the cylinder and the piston head; means associated with the piston and extending axially outwardly from the flywheel and engaging with a continuous groove or the like in an end plate on at least one side of the flywheel, by means of which engagement the piston is caused to move upwardly and Jownwardly within the cylinder or to transmit power to the flywheel.

Preferably I provide sealing means on the periphery of the flywheel on It o 1 either side of each cylinder, which sealing means can be axial and which S 10 form part of the volume which can be brought under compression on operation of the engine.

Preferably in the walls of the cylinder, or an extension therefrom, there may be provided grooves through which a pin or the like, which is the means associated with the piston, and which can, if required, be connected to the piston by a connecting rod, may pass, the pins extending beyond one or both sides of the flywheel and, where they so extend, act in association with the grooves referred to above.

The axis of the cylinder mav preferably be at an angle of between 30° and 800 to a radius passing through the external periphery of the flywheel at the centre of the cylinder.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood, the construction and operation of the engine will be described in relation to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an assembled engine;

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-4- Bul irimope/4F/Jul86

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Fig. 2 is a schematic end elevation; Fig. 3 is a part section along line 3-3 of Fig. 1 which shows the orientation of the cylinders and their associated pistons; and Fig. 4 is a view showing the cam centre line along which the pins associated with the pistons are constrained to move.

4 a S Basically, the main concept of the invention is to produce an engine which Sa has a minimal number of moving parts and, in order to describe this engine, I shall describe, in association with the accompanying drawings, a three S 10 cylinder form of engine.

In very general terms, and referring principally to Fig there is provided a casing 20 in which there is located a flvwheel 30, not shown in Fig. 1, and associated with the casing there are two end members 40 which incorporate end plates 41, again not shown in Fig. 1.

Associated with the flywheel, there is a drive shaft 50, which may be a solid shalt which passes through the flywheel and outwaraiy from each end member 40, and, in Fig. 1, one end 51 of this shaft is shown to be a splined drive end shaft which is adapted to operate with a clutch plate or the like, and the other end 52 of the shaft is shown to have a pulley 53 thereon which can provide drive to an alternator and, if required, a water pump or other accessories. The shaft is also shown as driving a distributor 54.

Depending or the particular configuration of engine, the distributor can be Bullmore/46/Ju186

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I. arranged to operate at half engine speed or at full engine speed.

Also shown on Fig. 1, there are ports 42, 43, 44, 45 and these ports can be inlet and outlet ports for coolants and, specifically, ports 44 can be oil inlet ports and 42, oil outlet ports and ports 45, water inlet ports and ports 43, water outlet ports.

The construction and arrangement of the oil coolIng and distribution assembly is shown, schematically, at 70 on Fig. 2 and the water cooling and distribution assembly is shown schematically at 71 on Fig. 2.

The actual pumping and cooling arrangement will not be further described 1 0 herein but the water cooling can be used in the end members 40 to absorb heat transmitted outwardly from the flywheel 30 or casing 20 and the oil inlet and outlet ports 44 and 42 can be arranged to supply both a lubricating oil for the shaft 50, for the flywheel 30, for the pistons and for the inner surface of the casing and cooling oil for the flywheel Again, generally, the actual operation and distribution of the oil lubricant and coolant will not be described hereinafter.

As illustrated, the engine is peripherally ported and the inlet can include a carburettor or an injection system and can be naturally aspirated or can be supercharged or turbocharged.

The inlet port 60 is illustrated in Fig. 3 and the exhaust port 52 is also shown as in'the aperture 61 to receive a spark plug 23.

This Figure provides a good indication of the relative location of these, However, should it be so required, different forms of porting can be used in jt

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Bullmore/46/Jul86 Il the invention.

Fig. 3 shows the general arrangement of the assembly. As it can be seen, the flywheel has three cylinders 31 located about its periphery and, as illustrated, the centres of the cylinders are spaced at 1200.

Each cylinder can be bored into the flywheel at an angle of between 300 and 800 to the radius passing through the centre thereof. It will be appreciated that, depending on the angle selected, so the available stroke, and thus the capacity of the engine, can be varied.

Located on periphery of the flywheel and on each side of each cylinder, there is a transverse groove 32, each of which grooves is adapted to receive a sealing member 32A which is biassed outwardly.

As can be been, the internal surface 62 of the casing 20 can be closely adiacent the external surface 63 of the flywheel 30 and as the two members are coaxial so the seals 32A located in the grooves 32 extend only a relatively short distance therefrom and this distance is effectiv-ily identical throughout the movement of the flywheel within the casing.

Thus it is relatively simple to make a seal which provides effective sealing over a long period.

Provided in each side wall of the flywheel 30 there is a circular groove 33 which can be adapted to receive either a cylindrical seal which is located within the groove throughout its length and which is biassed outwardly to contact the side wall or, alternatively, lengths of sealing member may be located in such groove between adjacent grooves 32 where a cylinder 31 exits from the flvwheel.

-7- Bullmore/46/Jul86 Shown in each of the cylinders 31 of Fig. 3, there is a piston 35 having conventional piston rings 35A and which has a connecting rod 36, the connecting rod being attached to the piston by means of a gudgeon pin or the like 37 and having, at its other end, a pin 38 which extends outwardly through the sides of the flywheel From consideration of Fig. 3, it is thus seen that chambers are formed each of which is defined by the inner surface 62 of the casing, the peripheral outer surface 63 of the flywheel, the pair of transverse seals 32A located in t" the grooves 32 on either side of the cylinder 31, the outwardly directed t it seals which lie in grooves 33 on each face of the flywheel and the head of the piston Fig. 4 can be considered to be a schematic view along line 4-4 of Fig. 1 and can be deemed to illustrate the inner surface of the end plate 41 and the path of the centre line of the cam groove 42 which can be seen to be continuous but with varying radii around its periphery.

The groove can be considered to have four portions, the first portion being from the "torp-dead-centre" position, illustrated at 100 to 101, being the 'firing stroke, which in the particular embodiment is 1650, the second being j from position 101 to position 102, being the exhaust stroke, and being so-" 450 later, the third being from position 102 to position 103, being the induction stroke, which is some 90°, and the fourth being from position 103 to position 100, being the compression stroke which is approximately When visualising the groove 42, it will be appreciated that the longer the i radial distance from the centre of the plate to the groove 42. so the higher the pin 38 is caused to move within the groove and so the piston tends to Bul lmore/46/Jul86 if ii approach the open outer end of the cylinder.

I shall now, briefly, describe the stroke commencing from position 100 and moving clockwise. The piston 35 is, at position 100, in its top-dead-centre position and the head of the piston is closely adjacent the outer portion of the cylinder 31.

Depending on the operating parameters at or just before this position the firing occurs, the piston is caused to move downwardly in the cylinder and as the pin 38 is constrained to follow the grooves 42 there is a force to be applied to the flywheel and, because of the angle of the cylinder, so this force, which is not initially at right angles to the pin 38 on the beginning of the movement, tends to come towards this at the end of the movement and thus there is effective transfer of energy which, in this case, is used to move the cylinder relative to the pin and thus to provide a turning force on the flywheel to cause it to rotate.

It will be seen that the firing stroke persists for approximately 1650 which permits complete combustion and it is in the arrangement of the various strokes that there is a substantial difference between a normal piston engine in that, in such an engine, the stroke of the piston is the same for each rotation of the motor and each stroke is the same as each other, whereas, in the engine of the invention I can permit variation in the timing of the strokes and the firing stroke may be substantially longer than the others.

The way in which I control this is to vary the inward and outward radial movement of the pin 38 by forming the groove 42 to change in radius, from a first radiua, to a secund radius, so that the period of operation is defined -9- Bullmore/46/Jul86 f> by the rate of change of radius.

It will be seen, again considering Fig. 4, that the exhaust stroke is restricted to 450 and, over this distance so the radius changes from the required minimum radius, when the piston is at the bottom of its stroke, to the maximum radius, where the piston is at the top of its stroke.

In order to provide effective inducti.i, I have arranged the particular engine to effect this over a 900 movement, as this gives sufficient time for 0 the cylinder to be fully charged with the combustion mixture if natural 0 a 0 induction is to be used.

a o 10 Of course, should the engin be turbocharged or supercharged, so this period could be less.

The compression stroke is, again, relatively fast as it is reouired that compression is made quickly to minimise the leakage around the various seals, previously referred to, and, in this particular case, the compression stroke is shown to be of the order of 600.

It will thus be seen that each piston will effect a complete four stroke cycle during one revolution of the flywheel in che arrangement illustrated and it will also be appreciated that the inlet and the exhaust ports and the spark plug will have to be located to operate as required by the constraint of the movement of the piston by the pins 38 running in grooves 42.

It will also be seen that it would be relatively simple to change the cycle of operation simply by varying the length of the various procedures.

For example, and particularly where the engin(e is being turbocharged, it may well be posssible to have two complete cycles in one rotation of the Bullmore/46/Jul86 flywheel and, also, if the engine was being used as a two stroke engine, so that there would be two complete cycles in one revolution with the two strokes being both power and the commencement of exhaust during the down stroke and completion of purging, induction and compression in the up stroke.

From consideration of Fig. 4 and the description hereinbefore, any competent mechanical or automotive engineer would be able to design modified cam grooves 42 for various different applications.

Whilst I have not discussed the particular inter-relationship between the pin 38 and the groove 42, it will be appreciated that, preferably, the groove will be formed so as not to have any rapid changes in direction, as these would put excessive pressure on the pin and the groove itself, and the particular mechanical arrangement may vary widely.

For example, if the groove was to be fully lubricated, then it may be feasible to have a pin which is in the form of a simple cylindrical member. If required, such pin may be provided with a wearing surface thereon, but it will be appreciated that any such surface must be able to stand loadings as the power is transferred through the pin.

Alternatively, the groove may be arranged to receive a bearing attached to the pin therein so as to further reduce friction but, again, it must be appreciated that the bearing will have to be such as to be able to accept radial loads as, during the power stroke, the bearing will be carrying the load between the piston and the groove 42.

I have described, in relation to the accompanying drawings, one specific form of three cylinder engine made in accordanc. with my invention and, in -11- Bul lmore/46/Ju186 this specification, I have discussed modifications, such as the possibility of using the engine as a two stroke engine and, also, in having more than one cycle of operation in one revolution of the flywheel.

These are exemplary and it will be appreciated that it will be possible to make an engine embodving the the features of my invention which has more or fewer than three cylinders and pistons. If a larger number of cylinders and pistons are to be used, it will be necessary to provide a rotor having a diameter sufficient to receive the required number of cylinders of the required diameter.

It is also possible to modify the form of fuel induction to provide either a carburettored or a fuel injection system and the fuel can be delivered either through peripheral ports or by side delivery.

Also, depending upon the particular arrangement, there can be more than one spark plug around the periphery of the motor, if there are two compression strokes in a revolution.

Also, it is quite possible to operate the engine as a diesel engine in which case, of course, the compression ratio must be higher than for a petrol engine, but there are no inherent problems in providing such compression.

It is also possible to vary the shape of the grooves 42 to provide any required operating conditions and it may be that, by adjustment of tile shape of these grooves, so the piston appears to be relatively stationary within the cylinder for periods, where the speed of rotation of the flywheel is equivalent to the speed of movement of the piston.

This feature, again, can be used to enable the optimum operation of the -12- Bullmore/46/Ju186 r Sengine to be achieved.

The engine has a number of advantages over conventional engines, not the least of which is that it is believed that the engine can operate at an efficiency of greater than 80%, which is very substantially higher than normal internal combustion engines.

As a corollary to this efficiency of operation, the fuel economy obtainable from the engine is extremely high.

Also, because of the general simplicity of the engine, the weight of the engine can be relatively low and thus the engine has very high power to weight ratio.

Also, simply by designing engines of different sizes, engines can be made which are satisfactory for applications which range from small internal combustion engines, such as those used in lawn mowers or chain saws, up to engines h are adapted to be used in aircraft.

If required, to obtain specific power output;, the engine- can be run in serie )r in parallel.

The fuel with which the engine must be used can vary widely as, as in the preferred embodiment, there are no valves as such through whih the charges of fuel or exhaust gases must pass, there is no likelihood of damln e to such valves and the parts of the engine with which the fuel or gases comer into contact are basically massive and there is no likelilhot of damage to these.

Because the engine can be relatively simply balar- ital.

mass moving in a reciprocatory manner is relat n the -13- Bullmore/46/Ju186 i R overall weight of the flywheel, the engine can be run at high speeds without likelihood of damage.

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Claims (5)

1. An engine having a flywheel assembly mounted for rotation within a casing, the flywheel and casing both being cylindrical and coaxial; cylinders formed in the flywheel and opening to the periphery thereof; pistons within the cylinders whereby a chamber is defined by the inner wall of the casing, the cylinder and the piston head; means associated with the piston and extending axially outwardly from the flywheel and engaging with a continuous grcve.or the like in an end plate on at least one side of the flywheel, by means of which engagement the pistons are caused to' move upwardly and downwardly within the cylinders or to transmit power to the flywheel, characterized by said cylinders being disposed such that the axes of the cylinders are at an angle of between 30 degrees and 80 degrees to a radius passing through the external periphery of the flywheel at the centre of the :ylinders,

2. An engine as claimed in cla.in 1 wherein sealing means are provided on the periphery of the flywheel on each side of the cylindr-'s.

3. An engine as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein there are end plates on each side of the casing and sealing means ;'re provided between the the fly,,'heel and the end plate at least adjacent the cylinders.

4. An engine as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein each piston has a connecting rod, one end of which connected to the piston and the cther end of which has a shaft or the like extending outwardly therefrom and through a slot in the wall of the cylinder on one side thereof, which comprises the means extending axially outwardly from the flywheel. An enoine as claimed in cl!aim '1 wherein the shaft extends outwardly -uhrouah slots oq each side of the flywheel.. An erQaire as claimed in claim 4.c ci aimr 5 where~ar the cam cwoe()are adapted tol pir-cvide t1he re-qulred high cr 1 ow r::mpressi-nF ratio-s foir each ocsi tion of i st rk.

7. An engine as claimed in any precedinq cliaim having three cylinders. B. An engine as claimed in any of tche :iaimE t G havi ng nore than three cyi indr s. J. An engine as claimed in any pr-ecedirng claim wherein the fargine can operate as a: four strok-[!e engi ne.. a two-. strcke engi ne oir a diesel enc'ine. An en i ne Sub--st ant i a 1 v as her eiribe, e dssc r ibed with reference to the a:cocmpanyina drawings- DATED this :21st day oif February, 9'1 ERIC ASHTON EBULLMORE. Page 161 ix NL~'