GB2520109A

GB2520109A - 4-stroke, glow plug & compression ignited, semi-diesel engines with active glow plug technology

Info

Publication number: GB2520109A
Application number: GB1414776.3A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peter John Bayram
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2013-08-24
Filing date: 2014-08-20
Publication date: 2015-05-13
Also published as: GB201318748D0; GB201412253D0; GB201414776D0

Abstract

A four-stroke cycle or Wankel cycle internal combustion engine is connected to at least one controlled adiabatic engines and comprises at least one control system for controlling the internal combustion and adiabatic engines, wherein at least one combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine comprises at least one glow plug 8, 9 connected to a power supply from a motor generator 2, 3. The engine may comprise means for sensing voltage change across a glow plug or means for sensing combustion misfire, said means being connected to control means connected to actuating devices for varying the voltage or frequency of the electric power supply to the glow plugs. The engine may comprise on and off switching means in the power supply connected via control means to means sensing the cycle position of the engine and preferably sensing combustion ignition.

Description

4-STROKE, GLOW PLUG & COMPRESSION IGNITED, SEMI-DIESEL ENGINES with ACTIVE GLOW PLUG TECHNOLOGY.

This invention relates to 4-stroke, or Wankel, diesel engines having Bayram's invention 0B1209146.8 for improving their com-bustion efficiency -filed on the 23rd of May, 2011, and titled "Control of a Diesel Engine's Exhaust Condition to Improve S Catalytic Converter Efficacy". Such control, and the mechanical means therein, obviates the widely varying combustion tempera-tures (sometimes very low) that otherwise occurs in diesels such that, once started, combustion temperatures might then be sufficiently high to sustain a residual glow in electrically disconnected, or non-connected, glow plug, or glow filamentf elements from post combustion event through to ignition commen-cement (particularly if pistons are insulated with end-grain balsawood, or a substitute thereof, which thereby contains and retains more cylinder combustion heat than otherwise). In such ways glow plug, cylinder, piston crown and exhaust gas residual heats prior combustion would assist compression heat ignition of cylinder air/fuel (a/f) charges so that lower cylinder com-pression ratios (c.r.'s) might be used than hitherto which, in turn, enables the use of significantly higher volatility fuels than hitherto, which, in turn, have significantly lower ig-nition temperatures than hitherto used diesel fuels. In these ways significantly higher engine rpms and specific bhpflitre power outputs are obtainable than has hitherto been possible with diesels such that they become more like petrol engines without a spark ignition system.

(Without Bayram's invention for controlling a diesel engine's exhaust condition a diesel engine when idling runs at very lean a/f ratios and cold' combustion temperatures, so cool, partic-ularly at tow and sub-zero ambients, that it is not hot enough to sustain a glow in qlowplugs (after start-up electric dis-connection) from combustion event through to compression heat initiated ignition. And if full (throttle) fuel injection was applied at idle, when engine airflow is low, then the a/f ratio would immediately be so rich that the excessive fuel a/f mix would quench any residual gb-plug glow that there might be.] However, even lower c.r.'s and higher volatility fuels can be used if glow plugs are kept lit' by keeping them connected to their electric power supply whilst the i.c.engine is running such that their heat intensity, when added to the heat of com-pression of the said (lower compression and higher volatilty diesel fuelled) i.c.enqines, engenders the initiation of i.c.

This can be improved upon by sensing voltage drop across the gLow plugs since such voltage drop would vary with glow' tem-perature (electric resistance) of the glow plugs, which will vary from the initial low of sub-zero pre-heat start-up (though plugs can be kept lit at extreme sub-zero ambients to heat cy-linders, piston crowns and upper engine block when the engine SO is not running) to the highs of wide open throttle running at high summer ambients with hot' fuels. By sensing incipient voltage deltas the voltage or frequency of the electric power supply to glow plugs can be varied to keep their electric re-sistancetemperature nominally constant such that they would then be hot enough for cold start-ups without then being so hot when the i.c.engtne is running that they would be liable to cause pre-ignition diesel knock. Such delta voltage control can be incorporated within an engine management computer unit (ECU) incorporating control of the aforesaid adiabatic engined means for controlling i.c. efficiency.

Further, the voltage set-point of the above mentioned delta controls can be varied when the i.c.engine is running from the inputs of means sensing directly, or indirectly, one (1), or more of such combustion chamber conditions as temperature, pressure, pre-ignition knock, misfire, and or exhaust con-ditions. In this way a wider range of diesel' fuels can be accommodated than when glow plug glow temperature control is pre-set.

To reduce glow plug heat and power consumption lost during such iflc. engines exhaust cycles power supplied to glow plugs can be pulsed on and off by switching means controlled by means conn-ected to means sensing a (4-stroke) cycle position, the same such means sensing another cycle position or means sensing di-rectly, or indirectly, i.c. event/s, respectively switch on and off electric power to the plugs. With such pulsing bursts of power to glow plugs can be discharged by using electric power capacitors in their power supply/s. Such pulsing control can also be incorporated in the i.c.engine's ECU.

Such glow plug controls could also be linked to a sensor sen-sing rate-of-change in fuel injector throttle' flow rate/s so that incipient changes in glow plug temperatures can be antici-pated and voltage to them varied accordingly.

With such gb-plugged engines it would be preferable to have glow plugs, which could be more than one (1) per cylinder, sited away from cylinder intake ports to ainise cooling of them during intake cycles, and away from fuel injectors to obviate quenching of them during fuel injection into the i.c. chamber.

Since such actively gb-plugged engines can be run on various fuels that can be widely different, though possibly necessi-tating changing glow plugs to cold', normal' or hot' to suit a fuel and range of engine operating conditions, they promise to consign petrol and diesel engines, as such, to the dustbin of history by providing one-size fits all economies of scale in the manufacture, R & 11 and marketing of engines, fuels, power-trains and chassis.

Electrically connected glow plugs are used to initiate ignition during the start-up of most 4-stroke diesel engines, and all 2-stroke model gb-engines, that then continue to run when the electric power supply to their gloplug/s is discontinued. How-ever, it is anticipated that similar such gb-plugs as are currently being used might be further developed to suit such semi-diesel hybrid ignited and multi fuel 4-stroke i.cengines -fuels being aything from higher octane blends of diesel fuel to petrol, or petrol and ethanol or methanol, or nitromethane, L or methanol and nitromethane, or compressed natural gas (CNG), or ltquified petroleum gas (LPG), etc..

The invent ion will now be described by way of an example of a typical iteration of it, and with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Figure 1 shows, schematically, a glow plug constant temperature control system for such temperature controlled glow plugs in 4-stroke, or Wankel, eco-boosted, or eco-throttled, i.c.engines In Figure 1, vehicle battery I connects to motor-generators (P1-6's) 2 and 3 via their speed controllers 4 and 5 and in-verters £ and 7. P1-B 2's shaft transmits power between it and the vehicle's i.c.engine. P1-B 3's shaft transmits power between it and a throttling Wankel adiabatic engine in the i.c. engine's exhaust system where such engine is eco-throttled, or if it is eon-boosted there would be a further speed controlled P1-B conn-ected to an intake system (throttle controlled) supercharger, and electrically connected to 11-13 2. (In vee engines there would likely be dual exhausts with a throttling adiabatic en-gine in each, but where eco-boosted still only one (1) in the valley between the vee-banked cylinders). One (I), or more, cells of battery I connect to glow plugs 8 and 9, which could be in the same cylinder head/combustion chamber of the ve- hicle's i..c.engine, or in separate ones. Sensor 10 senses vol-tage changes in the direct current (DC) electric supply to glow plugs S and 9 and outputs a low voltage control signal to pro-portonal (N, or P plus integral (P+I), or pi-l plus derivative (r'-ili-D) electronic control unit 11 which, accordingly, outputs a low voltage control signal to the actuator 12 of voltage con-troller 13 such that said controls maintain a constant voltage drop across glow plugs 8 and 9 and, thereby, a nominally con-stant glow' temperature so that as combustion temperatures drop glow' temperatures don't also drop, and vice versa.

The value of the constant voltage drop across glow plugs 8 and 9 can be re-set, or varied, by means sensing combustion mis-fires or premature combustion ignition knocks', and optimised by means sensing such i.c.engine conditions as exhaust gas 02 content, fuel consumption, oil and coolant temperatures, etc., which can be optimised with an electronic engine management computer unit (ECU) having a self-learning programme, prefer-ably with a base/default programme learnt during bench testing.

s shown in Figure 1, glow plugs, which could be one (1), or more, are connected to a regular 12v battery, but they could alternatively be connected to a battery-pack, or a motor-gener-ator connected to means for accumulating-discharging energy.

Claims

CLAIMS: 1) A 4-stroke cycle, or Wankel cycle, internal combustion (i.c.) engine connected to one (I), or more, controlled adia- batic engines having one (I), or more, control systems contro- lling a such said i.c.engine and its one Cl), or more, adia- batic engines in which there are means for adding heat to char-ge air during the respective i.c.engines compression cycles to initiate ignition comprising of one (1), or more, glow plugs in an applicable i.c.engine's only, or more than one, combustion chambers, and which are connected to a power supply from motor-generators connected to the respective i.c.engine and its aforesaid one 41) or more, adiabatic engines, a battery, or a motor-generator connected to power accumulating-discharging means.
15) An i.c.engine's ignition system according to claim 1, in which there are means for sensing voltage change across the re-spective i.c.engine's one U), or more, glow plugs and which are connected to control means connected to means actuating de-vices for varying the voltage or frequency of the electric power supply to the said glow plugs.
3) An i.e. engine's ignition system according to claim I or claim 2, in which there are means for sensing combustion mis- fire and premature combustion ignition knock' in, as applic-able, a respective i.c.engine's one (I) combustion chamber, or at least one (1) of its combustion chambers, connected to con-trol means connected to means actuating devices for varying the voltage or the frequency of the electric power supply to the respective i.e. engine's one Cl), or more, glow plugs.
4) An i.c.engine's ignition system according to claim 2 or claim 3, in which there are means sensing rate-of-change of air flow, or fuel flow, to i.e. events connected to claim 2's or claim 3's control means.
5) An i.c.engine's ignition system according to any of the pre-ceding claims, in which there are on/off switching means in the electric power supply to the one Cl), or more, glow plugs in, as applicable, its only, or more than one CI), of the combust)-ion chambers of the respective applicable i.c.engine, and in which such switching means are connected via control means to means sensing the respective i.c.engine's cycle positions.
6) An i.c. engine's ignition system according to claim 5, en-cepting that off' switching of a combustion chamber's one (1), or more, glow plugs is triggered by means sensing combustion ignition in that combustion chamber.
7) An i.e. engine's ignition system according to any of the pre- ceding claims except claim 1, in which there are power dis-charging capacitors in the electric power supply to the one (1), or more, glow plugs, separately or collectively, in, as applicable, the only, or the more than one CI), combustion chambers of a respectively applicable i.e. engine.