GB2295647A

GB2295647A - Engine exhaust manifold system

Info

Publication number: GB2295647A
Application number: GB9424334A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Thomas Tsoi-Hei Ma
Original assignee: Ford Motor Co
Current assignee: Ford Motor Co
Priority date: 1994-12-02
Filing date: 1994-12-02
Publication date: 1996-06-05
Also published as: EP0796391A1; ES2126950T3; DE69507717T2; EP0796391B1; DE69507717D1; WO1996017158A1; GB9424334D0

Abstract

A manifold 24 has branches 22 leading from individual exhaust ports 20 engine to a downpipe 26 and a manifold 34 has branches 32 interconnecting the exhaust ports. The cross-sectional area of each branch 32 facing the exhaust flow from the associated exhaust valve is no less than 25% of the total port area and the branches of both manifolds 24, 34 terminate within the ports 20 in close proximity to the exhaust valves 18. In this way, a large proportion of the exhaust flow discharged from the exhaust valve of one cylinder is captured by the associated branch 32 of the manifold 34 and distributed by this manifold to the exhaust ports 20 of adjacent cylinders where the exhaust valves 18 are closed and leave the exhaust ports of the adjacent cylinders through the associated branches 22 of the manifold 24, scouring the closed ends of the exhaust ports in the process. A flat partition wall (30, Fig. 2) may divide each exhaust port 20 to direct exhaust flow to the manifolds 24, 34. A valve 52 controls the proportion of gases recirculated through the manifold 34 and may form the waste gate of a turbocharger 28. An exhaust gas oxygen sensor may be located in the manifold 34. <IMAGE>

Description

Engine Exhaust System The present invention relates to an exhaust system for an internal combustion engine and is applicable to both spark ignition and diesel engines.

According to the present invention, there is provided a multicylinder engine exhaust manifold system that comprises a first manifold having branches leading from individual exhaust ports of the engine to a downpipe, and a second manifold for interconnecting the exhaust ports and also having branches leading to the individual exhaust ports of the engine, wherein the cross-sectional area of each branch of the second manifold facing the exhaust flow from the associated exhaust valve is no less than 25% of the total port area and the branches of both manifolds terminate within the ports in close proximity to the exhaust valves, whereby a large proportion of the exhaust flow discharged -from the exhaust valve of one cylinder is captured by the associated branch of the second manifold and distributed by the second manifold to the exhaust ports of adjacent cylinders where the exhaust valves are closed and leave the exhaust ports of the adjacent cylinders through the associated branches of the first manifold, scouring the closed ends of the exhaust ports in the process.

The invention finds application in diesel engines because the gases reaching the exhaust downpipe after passing through the second manifold and more than one exhaust port spend more time in thermal contact with the engine body and reject more heat to the engine coolant system, thereby permitting more rapid warming of the engine and the vehicle.

Warming up of the passenger compartment is often a problem in vehicles fitted with a diesel engine because of the high efficiency and low heat rejection of such engines.

In spark ignition engines, the invention offers the advantage of reducing hydrocarbon emissions by promoting thermal oxidation in close proximity to the hot exhaust valve by mixing oxygen rich regions of the gases from one cylinder with the hydrocarbon rich regions that tend to remain stagnant in the unscavenged exhaust ports.

If desired, the second manifold may also be connected to the downpipe of the exhaust system through a valve to vary the proportion of gases that are recirculated through the second manifold in dependence upon the engine operating conditions.

Thus at high engine load and speed, the valve may be fully open so that all gases are directly discharged without interchange between the cylinder ports.

If the exhaust system is fitted with a turbocharger, the latter may be connected between the first manifold and the downpipe, while the waste gate may be connected between the second manifold and the downpipe, whereby the waste gate may act as the proportioning valve between the manifolds.

In an engine having exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), the EGR gases may conveniently be taken from the second manifold through an EGR valve so that the gases recirculated to the engine intake system are those drawn from close proximity to the exhaust valves, where the regions with the highest hydrocarbon content tend to collect.

There are known from the prior art, systems that include small diameter pipes connected to the individual exhaust branches and opening near to the exhaust valves. In these cases, which are discussed individually below, the diameters of these additional pipes are too small to achieve the same results as in the present invention.

First, it is known to inject air directly into each exhaust port close to the back of exhaust valve to promote oxidation of unburnt hydrocarbons. Here, the discharge area of the air pipes is much smaller than 25% of the port area (typically less than 10%). Usually the discharge end is pinched and drilled from the side to form orifices to ensure equal flow distribution between cylinders.

Second, it is known to provide pipes to draw EGR gases from each exhaust port near the back of each exhaust valve. The entrance area of EGR pipe is much smaller than 25 of the port area (typically less than 10%). Usually the tapping is formed on the wall of the port to avoid the pipe obstructing the exhaust flow.

In both cases, when not in use, the pipes form an inter-connecting network similar to this invention, and will function to a small extent as a balancing manifold similar to this invention. However they are not effective in producing the desired effects mentioned in this invention namely, enhanced heat transfer from exhaust gas to coolant, and enhanced oxidation between different pockets of the exhaust gas without relying on air injection, because they are not designed to have sufficient cross-sectional area facing the exhaust flow to make use of the dynamic head and distribute at least 25 of the exhaust flow from the discharging cylinder to the exhaust ports of the adjacent cylinders.

The recirculated flow in the present invention must be sufficiently large for the desired effects to be useful.

Neither one of the prior art proposals provides sufficient facing cross-section area to create the necessary recirculated flows, because the intended flow quantity in their respective application of delivering air or extracting EGR does not require such large flow areas. Indeed, it is undesirable to increase the flow area unnecessarily, because this would result in poor flow distribution between cylinders, inaccurate flow metering and coarse flow control, all of which must be avoided to ensure a refined air injection or EGR system.

Furthermore, it was thought incorrectly that the presence of such a large pipe would excessively obstruct the exhaust flow, not appreciating the fact that pipes connected to adjacent cylinders in the manner described in this invention will not cause any significant obstruction to the total exhaust flow into the exhaust downpipe.

The invention will now be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic representation of an engine fitted with an exhaust system of the invention, and Figure 2 is a section through an exhaust port of the engine shown in Figure 1.

The drawings show an engine having a cylinder head 12 with four cylinders each having two inlet valves 14, two exhaust valves 18 and a spark plug 16. The exhaust valve 18 of each cylinder lead to a common exhaust port 20 from which gases are discharged into two separate manifolds.

The first manifold 24 has a common plenum and four individual branches 22 leading from the plenum to the individual exhaust ports 20. A downpipe 26 leads from the common plenum to the ambient through a catalytic convertor and a muffler which are not shown. The illustrated embodiment also includes a turbocharger 28 arranged in the downpipe 26 and serving to pressurise the air intake.

The second manifold 34 has a plenum connected to the individual exhaust ports 20 by branches 32 that also face the exhaust valves 18 and terminate within the exhaust ports 20 near the exhaust valves 18. The cross-section of the branches 32 facing the exhaust flow occupies a minimum of 25% of the cross-sectional area of the exhaust port 20 and a maximum area that depends on the number of cylinders in the bank. In general, if the bank has N cylinders, then the fraction of the exhaust port occupied by the branch 32 of the second manifold should not exceed (N-1)/N. Hence for a bank of 2 cylinders, the branch 32 should not exceed 50% of the port area and for a bank of 4 cylinders, the branch 32 should not exceed 75% of the total port area.It is preferred to dimension the second branches 32 to be as close as possible to the maximum values given above as this will result in the best flow distribution with the steadiest flow rate through the exhaust ports of all the cylinders. In essence the formula given above for the maximum value of the cross-section of the branch 32 facing the flow discharged from the open exhaust valve ensures that substantial equal flow rates are discharged from the exhaust ports of all the cylinders as a result of the one open valve.

The flow is directed through the second manifold not by static pressure but by the dynamic head formed at the entrance of the branch 32 driven by the momentum of the gases discharging from the open exhaust valve. When the gases are subsequently discharged from the common plenum of the second manifold into an exhaust port with a closed valve, the gases follow a U-flow and scour the closed end of the exhaust port to remove any hydrocarbon rich pockets that may otherwise remain stagnant. The recirculation of the exhaust gases through more than one exhaust port before they are ultimately discharged improves the heat transfer between the exhaust gases and the engine coolant allowing the engine coolant to warm up more rapidly, this being particularly important in the case of a diesel engine.

The two branches 22, 32 connected to each exhaust port 20 effectively divide the port between them and the geometry of the partition is not critical. Thus one of the branches may be a tube extending into the port as shown in Figure 1, or a partition wall 30 may be formed in the port as shown in Figure 2 to define the individual branches. The important factors are the areas of the branches and that their open ends must face and be located near to the exhaust valves.

In the case of the embodiment of Figure 1, the plenum of the second manifold 34 is also connected to the downpipe 26 at a point downstream of the turbocharger 28 by way of a proportioning valve 52 which could be the waste gate of the turbocharger 28. Furthermore, EGR gases are drawn from the common plenum of the second manifold 34 past an EGR valve 50.

The valve 52 can vary the proportion of gases recirculated to other ports by the second manifold 34. When the valve 52 is fully open, for example, during full load operation, the exhaust gases from both manifolds will be directly discharged to the downpipe. Thus, under high load, only the normal amount of heat is transferred to the engine coolant and there is no danger of overheating the engine.

The exhaust system offers two convenient places for locating an exhaust gas oxygen sensor (EGO or HEGO sensor) if one should be required for the engine management system. If it is desired that the EGO sensor respond to the average composition over all the cylinders, then it can be located in the downpipe 26. On the other hand, if it is desired to be able to sense the variations between individual cylinders, then the sensor may be located in the common plenum of the second manifold 34 which sees the discharges from the individual cylinders sequentially.

It is desirable to take steps to ensure that the second manifold 34 and its branches 32 run as hot as possible. To this end they may be formed of thin gauge metal so as to have a low thermal capacity and they may be thermally insulated from the ambient. In this way, heat loss is minimised from the recirculated gases during engine warm up and the hot surfaces located within the exhaust ports promote post flame oxidation of pockets of unburnt hydrocarbon in the exhaust gases.

Claims

1. A multicylinder engine exhaust manifold system that comprises a first manifold having branches leading from individual exhaust ports of the engine to a downpipe, and a second manifold for interconnecting the exhaust ports and also having branches leading to the individual exhaust ports of the engine, wherein the cross-sectional area of each branch of the second manifold facing the exhaust flow from the associated exhaust valve is no less than 25% of the total port area and the branches of both manifolds terminate within the ports in close proximity to the exhaust valves, whereby a large proportion of the exhaust flow discharged from the exhaust valve of one cylinder is captured by the associated branch of the second manifold and distributed by the second manifold to the exhaust ports of adjacent cylinders where the exhaust valves are closed and leave the exhaust ports of the adjacent cylinders through the associated branches of the first manifold, scouring the closed ends of the exhaust ports in the process.

2. An exhaust manifold system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second manifold is also connected to the downpipe of the exhaust system through a valve to vary the proportion of gases that are recirculated through the second manifold in dependence upon the engine operating conditions.

3. An exhaust system as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a turbocharger connected between the first manifold and the downpipe, the turbocharger having a waste gate connected between the second manifold and the downpipe, whereby the waste gate acts as the proportioning valve between the manifolds.

4. An exhaust system as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein exhaust gases for recirculation to the engine intake system are taken from the second manifold through an EGR valve.

5. An exhaust system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the engine has a bank of N cylinders, and the branches of the second manifold are each dimensioned to capture a fraction no greater than (N-1)/N of the total exhaust flow discharged from the exhaust valve of the associated cylinder.

6. An exhaust system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the branches of the respective first and second manifolds within the exhaust port are formed by a generally flat partition wall dividing the exhaust port.

7. An exhaust system as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, wherein one of the branches of the first and second manifolds is formed by a pipe extending into the exhaust port.

8. An exhaust system as claimed in any preceding claim, having an exhaust gas oxygen sensor mounted near the exit of the first manifold.

9. An exhaust system as claimed in any preceding claim, having an exhaust gas oxygen sensor mounted in the common plenum of the second manifold.

10. An exhaust system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the second manifold has low thermal capacity, and is insulated to minimise heat loss.

11. An exhaust system constructed, arranged and adapted to operate substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.