WO1999032767A1

WO1999032767A1 - Rotary piston engine

Info

Publication number: WO1999032767A1
Application number: PCT/FR1997/002340
Authority: WO
Inventors: Louis-Charles Turbe
Original assignee: Turbe Louis Charles
Priority date: 1997-12-18
Filing date: 1997-12-18
Publication date: 1999-07-01

Abstract

The invention concerns a rotary piston engine M consisting of a rotating assembly or rotor (100) driven in a continuous circular motion (arrow R) driving in rotation a clutch shaft (200) inside a fixed part or stator (300). The invention is characterised in that said rotor (100) clutch shaft (200) is offset relative to the stator (300) centre and is driven in rotation by means of a connecting rod (400) comprising n branches (410, 420, 430, 440) in star-shaped arrangement around said shaft (200) and whereof the free ends receive pistons (510, 520, 530, 540) which, pivot-mounted parallel to the rotor (100) axis of rotation, slide each in a sleeve (610, 620, 630, 640) which they maintain in permanent sliding support while the rotor (100) rotates on the cylindrical stator (300) inside wall (310), which stator is pierced with holes (320, 330, 340, 350, 360, 370) opening into said sleeves (610, 620, 630, 640) and angularly arranged so as to ensure the intake of a pressurised working fluid into said sleeves (610, 620, 630, 640) for actuating the pistons (510, 520, 530, 540) towards the stator (300) inside and for exhausting the contents of the sleeves (610, 620, 630, 640) outside the stator. The invention is applicable to any motor vehicle.

Description

ROTARY MOTOR

The present invention relates to the field of motorization and in particular to piston engines and adaptations making it possible to produce a circular movement under the best conditions and at the best cost.

Conventionally, piston engines are fitted with a connecting rod-crankshaft transmission device in order to transform the translational movement produced by the piston or pistons in their cylinder, into a rotational movement which can be exploited for example for setting in motion the wheels of a vehicle.

Thus, internal combustion engines adopting this device, such as the gasoline engine or the "diesel" engine do not provide an optimized solution for the transmission of movement, since these internal combustion engines have thermal efficiencies ranging from twenty five for one hundred for the petrol engine to forty percent for the "diesel" engine. In addition, these engines only work with the combustion of a fossil fuel that exists only in limited quantities on Earth. Another drawback to this type of internal combustion engine is that it requires a piston-connecting-rod-crankshaft transmission which requires a lot of parts and machining on the casings, in particular the machining of the fuel inlet and delivery outlet holes. exhaust gas as well as the machining of threaded holes for the passage of spark plugs. The timing problems of the intake, exhaust and spark burst at the right time are multiplied by the number of pistons in the engine. The "Wankel" gasoline engine of the rotary piston type produces a circular movement without the aid of a crankshaft. It consists of a three-lobe rotor which rotates eccentrically in a combustion chamber. This chamber is divided by a rotor into three spaces of variable volume. During its rotation, the rotor remains in contact by its three points with the wall of the chamber. Because this type of engine has reliability problems and uses fossil fuel, wear on the piston leads to sealing problems between the chambers.

Based on this fact, the applicant carried out research which led to the design of an original rotary engine, simple, reliable and inexpensive, eliminating the connecting rod-crankshaft transmission system and making it possible to use several types of fluids. engines.

According to the invention, this rotary motor, consisting of a rotating assembly or rotor animated by a continuous circular movement driving in rotation a motor shaft inside a fixed part or stator, is remarkable in that the above-mentioned shaft rotor motor is eccentric relative to the center of the stator and is rotated by means of a connecting rod comprising n branches arranged in a star around said shaft and whose free ends receive pistons which, mounted in pivot parallel to the axis of rotation of the rotor, each slide in a jacket which they maintain in permanent sliding contact during the rotation of the rotor on the inner wall of the stator of cylindrical shape. This stator is pierced with holes opening into the interior of the stator and angularly arranged so as to ensure on the one hand the admission of a pressurized working fluid into the jackets to actuate the pistons towards the interior of the stator and on the other hand the escape of the contents of the liners towards the outside of the stator.

The eccentricity of the motor shaft combined with the free rotation of the latter has the advantage of allowing the translation of the pistons in the liners which, advancing and retreating according to their position in relative displacement relative to the liners in which they slide , generate engine torque at said shaft. The jacket slides on the internal wall of the stator of cylindrical shape, under the effect of the motor movement of rotation of the rotor, and is presented in front of the various inlet and outlet openings drilled in the stator. By keeping the jacket in sliding contact with the inside wall of the stator, a variable displacement mobile chamber is then created by the jacket, the piston and the inside wall of the stator of cylindrical shape.

This particular arrangement has the advantage of eliminating the conventional crankshaft of piston engines and of having only one housing for all of the pistons thus eliminating the complex shapes and the machining operations necessary for the operation of four pistons of an engine. four-stroke for example. This arrangement also has the advantage of authorizing operation with an intake, an exhaust and a possible spark plug.

According to a particularly advantageous characteristic of the invention, the abovementioned liners adopt a tubular shape and marry at their free end the shape of the inner wall of the cylindrical stator so that the axes of the pistons and liners pass through the center of the stator . Thus the translation path of the pistons passes through the center of the stator and is therefore offset to the eccentric rotation shaft of the rotor. When the pistons are actuated, the translational thrust of these then creates a rotational movement of the connecting rod and therefore of the shaft on which it is fixed.

According to another particularly advantageous characteristic of the invention, the aforesaid cylindrical stator is pierced over its circular thickness with holes arranged distant from one another so that the phase of admission of a volume of the working fluid into a piston liner operates at the same time as the exhaust phase of another volume outside the liner. The stator can also have several inlet openings angularly spaced from the center of the stator but close enough so that they can together ensure the admission of the working fluid in the same jacket

The rotary engine of the invention allows a very wide choice of engine fluids which can be a flammable fuel or a pressurized fluid or the combination of the two

The tightness of the chambers created by the sleeve / piston assemblies in contact with the internal cylindrical surface of the stator is advantageously guaranteed by two devices

The first consists of a sliding caliper on each branch of the rotor maintained in abutment at its two ends on the jacket of the piston at its two ends by means of springs which, linked to the aforesaid piston and to the caliper provide a force of recall of the shirts to the stator. Indeed, the pistons pivotally mounted on the branches of the connecting rod, provide fixed anchor points at the ends of the springs, the other ends of which are associated with the caliper, so that when the piston moves in relative displacement in the jacket due to the eccentricity of the rotor, the springs are then in extension and therefore makes it possible to exert a restoring force on the jacket towards the stator,

For the second sealing device, the liners of the pistons have on their contact surface with the stator and around their inner surface peripheral inner edges forming pressure lips These lips have the advantage of allowing the fluid under pressure to '' apply a pressing force on the liners in the direction of the stator thus ensuring permanent contact of the liners with the surface of the latter In fact, during the injection of pressurized working fluid into the liner, the piston moves back in relative displacement in the jacket by rotating the rotor, the working fluid then spreads with pressure on the walls of the variable displacement chamber created by the piston, the jacket and the inner wall of the cylindrical stator The pressurized fluid is supported on the lips pushing the piston liners towards the stator, thus keeping the jacket in permanent contact on the inner wall of the stator to guarantee tanchéité room to variable displacement created by the piston, the jacket and the wall of the stator.

These two devices have the advantage of complementing each other especially when the jacket is not filled with pressurized fluid and there is no pressure on the lips thereof or when the pistons are not engaged enough inside the liners to allow sufficient extension of the springs.

The fundamental concepts of the invention having just been exposed above in their most elementary form, other details and characteristics will emerge more clearly on reading the description which follows giving by way of nonlimiting example and opposite. of the accompanying drawings, an embodiment of a rotary motor according to the invention. This description refers to the appended drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional view of a rotary motor according to the invention. Figure 2a is a detail view of an engine member of Figure 1 Figure 2b is a detailed sectional view of the drawing of Figure 2a. FIG. 2c is a detail view of the member of the drawing in FIG. 2a in a different position

As shown in the drawing of FIG. 1, the rotary motor referenced as a whole M, comprises an eccentric rotor 100 animated by a continuous circular movement (arrow R) driving a motor shaft 200 inside a cylindrical stator 300 The rotor 100 is rotated by means of a connecting rod 400 with four branches 410, 420, 430, 440 arranged in a star at regular angular interval, and so that a piston 510, 520, 530, 540 pivots on an axis 41 1, 421, 43 1, 441 at the free end of each These pistons slide in a jacket 610, 620, 630, 640 which they maintain in permanent sliding contact on the internal surface 310 of the stator 300 Balance inertia of the rotating assembly is allowed by advantageously freezing the number of branches of the connecting rod to four.

According to a particularly advantageous characteristic of the invention, the curvilinear contact surface of the liners 610, 620, 630, 640 with the internal wall 310 of the stator of cylindrical shape 300 perfectly matches the latter so that the axis of the pistons 510, 520, 530, 540 and liners 610, 620, 630, 640 pass through the center of the stator 300 This arrangement has the other advantages of allowing better sliding of the liners on the internal wall 310 of the cylindrical stator 300 and better sealing variable displacement chambers created by each piston sliding in its jacket closed at its other end by the wall 310 of the stator 300. Thus, when the pistons 510, 520, 530, 540 under the effect of the motor fluid injected into the jacket 610 , 620, 630, 640 initiate a translation towards the center of the stator and the fact that they are pivotally mounted on an axis 41 1, 421, 431, 441 relative to the four branches 410, 420, 430, 440, the result of the force created which is located at each of the axes 41 1, 421, 431, 441 is aligned with the center of the axis of the stator 300 and therefore is offset, because of its eccentricity, relative to the rotation shaft 200 of the rotor 100 thus creating a motor torque causing the latter to rotate. Advantageously, the n branches 410, 420, 430, 440 of the connecting rod 400 are bent so that the eccentricity of the motor shaft 200 of the rotor 100 is accentuated and thus allows greater torque transmission.

Two holes 320 and 330 are drilled in the stator 300 perpendicular to its axis and close enough to each other to allow a gradual admission of a pressurized fluid when the jackets 610, 620, 630, 640 are have in front and allow a liner to present itself in front of the two orifices simultaneously in order to ensure a substantial thrust on the pistons 510, 520, 530 and 540 to give them a translational movement (the direction of which passes through the center of the stator 300) transmitted to branches 410, 420, 430, 440. The eccentricity of the motor shaft 200 has the further advantage of allowing the translation of the pistons 510, 520, 530 and 540 in the liners 610, 620, 630 and 640 .

A third orifice 340 known as the outlet for the content of the liners 610, 620, 630, 640, is advantageously arranged remote from the above-mentioned inlet orifices 320 and 330 so that the evacuation of the contents of a liner 610, 620, 630, 640 can operate when another folder 610, 620, 630, 640 is in the admission phase. Holes 350, 360 and 370 are drilled in the thickness of the cylindrical stator 300 so that when the pistons 510, 520, 530 and 540 due to the eccentricity of the shaft 200 advance in relative displacement in the liners 610, 620, 630, 640, the working fluid not escaped through the orifice 340 and the contents (air, oil, etc.) always present in the liners are evacuated to the outside and do not become an obstacle to the displacement of the rotor 100 while being compressed by the translational movement of the pistons 510, 520, 530 and 540 in the decompression phase. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a threaded hole 380 can be made between the inlet orifice 330 and the orifice 340 so as to be able to screw a candle into it which by emitting a spark in order to ensure the explosion of the working fluid in the jacket in front allows a rotary thermal engine to be obtained. This flexibility of arrangement of the stator has the advantage of allowing the use of several motor fluids for driving the pistons.

By way of nonlimiting example, one can define an operating cycle for an engine M as described above, which would follow the cycle described below:

- Firstly, a jacket 410 is presented at the entry of an inlet orifice 320, an electro-valve lets the pressurized fluid pass, the piston 510 advances and causes the connecting rod 400 to rotate. - In a second time, the jacket 410 is presented in front of the second orifice 330 of admission, an electro-valve lets pass in the jacket 410 the fluid under pressure with possibly a flammable fuel and the piston 510 continues to advance and to make turn the rod 400.

- Thirdly, the jacket 410 comes before the spark plug (if a fuel was injected during the previous phase), which emits a spark causing an explosion which causes the connecting rod 400 to rotate.

- In a fourth step, the jacket 410 is presented in front of the exhaust orifice 340 allowing the outlet of the pressurized fluid and possibly the combustion gases. - In a fifth step, the shirt 410 is presented in front of the other orifices 350, 360, 370 allowing the contents of the shirt 410 to escape and to avoid compression before admission.

One of the piston / liner assemblies is shown in section in FIG. 2a, with the piston 510 which, pivotally mounted around an axis 411 carried by the end of a branch 410 of the connecting rod 400, slides inside d 'a jacket 610. The end 61 1 of the jacket 610 in contact with the inner wall 310 of the stator is preformed so as to perfectly match the cylindrical shape of the arc of a circle of said inner wall 310 of cylindrical shape. This end further comprises around its inner surface a peripheral inner rim forming a pressure lip 61 1a. The advantage of this lip 611a is that it allows the pressurized fluid to keep the jacket 410 in permanent contact against the inner wall 310 of the stator 300, thus guaranteeing the chamber formed by the walls of the jacket 410, the surface of the stator 200 and the piston. 310, a perfect seal.

According to a particularly advantageous characteristic of the invention, the pistons 510, 520, 530, 540 and the liners 610, 620, 630, 640 in which they operate are of oblong shape which allows on the one hand the forces created by the pressure of the working fluid to be more concentrated in the radial plane of symmetry of the connecting rod 400 and on the other hand to the rotary engine M to have a small width which will facilitate its integration by its small size. According to another particularly advantageous characteristic of the invention and as illustrated in FIG. 2b, a stirrup 710 is slidably mounted (arrow C) on the branch 410 with its ends 71 1 and 712 retained in abutment on the end 612 of the jacket 610 This caliper 710 is advantageously linked to the piston 510 via two springs 710a and 710b (cf fig 2a) which stretch when the piston 510 advances in relative movement in the jacket 610, as can be seen in the drawing of the figure 2c This extension of the springs 710a and 710b ensures a restoring force applied via the ends 71 1 and 712 of the stirrup 710 on the jacket 610

It is understood that the rotary engine which has just been described and shown above, was for the purpose of disclosure rather than limitation. Of course, various arrangements, modifications and improvements may be made to the example. above, without departing from the scope of the invention taken in its broadest aspects and spirit. Thus, for example the skilled person can fill the bottom of the stator with oil so that when passing the shirts be lubricated

In order to allow a better understanding of the drawings, a list of references with their legends is listed below

M Rotary motor

100 Rotor

200 Motor shaft

300 stator

310 Inner wall of the stator

320, 330 Intake ports

340 Exhaust port

350, 360, 370 Pressure relief ports

380 Spark plug thread

400 connecting rod

410, 420, 430, 440 Branches of the connecting rod

411, 421., 431, 441 Piston rotation axes

510, 520, 530, 540 Pistons

610, 620, 630, 640 Shirts 61 1, 612 Ends of the shirt 61 1a Lip of the shirt 610

710 Sliding bracket on the branch 410

710a, 710b Springs

71 1, 712 Stirrup ends 710

R Direction of motor rotation M

C Stroke of piston 510

Claims

1 rotary motor M consisting of a rotating assembly or rotor (100) driven by a continuous circular movement (arrow R) driving in rotation a motor shaft (200) inside a fixed part or stator (300), CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the aforesaid motor shaft (200) of the rotor (100) is eccentric with respect to the center of the stator (300) and is driven in rotation by means of a connecting rod (400) comprising n branches (410, 420, 430, 440) arranged in a star around said shaft (200) and the free ends of which receive pistons (510, 520, 530, 540) which, pivotally mounted parallel to the axis of rotation of the rotor (100), each slide in a jacket (610, 620, 630, 640) which they maintain in permanent sliding contact during the rotation of the rotor (200) on the internal wall (310) of the stator of cylindrical shape (300), which stator is pierced with holes (320, 330, 340, 350, 360, 370) opening into said liners (610, 620, 630, 640) and angularly arranged in f how to ensure on the one hand the admission of a pressurized working fluid into the aforesaid jackets (610, 620, 630, 640) to actuate the pistons (510, 520, 530, 540) towards the interior of the stator ( 300) and on the other hand the exhaust of the contents of the liners (610, 620, 630, 640) to the outside of the stator

2 rotary motor M according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the number n is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

3 rotary motor M according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the n branches (410, 420, 430, 440) of the connecting rod (400) are bent so that the eccentricity of the rotor (100) relative to the stator (300) is accentuated and thus allows a higher torque transmission

4. Rotary motor M according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE

FACT THAT the above-mentioned liners (610, 620, 630, 640) adopt a tubular shape and marry at their free end (61 1) the shape of the internal wall (310) of the cylindrical stator (300) so that the axes pistons (510, 520, 530, 540) and sleeves (610, 620, 630, 640) pass through the center of the stator (300)

5. Rotary motor M according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE

FACT THAT the aforesaid sleeves (610, 620, 630, 640) of the pistons (510, 520, 530, 540) have on their contact surface with the stator (300) and on the circumference of their internal surface with peripheral inner flanges forming pressure lips (61 1a)

6 rotary motor M according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT a stirrup (710) sliding on each branch of the rotor (100) is held in abutment at its two ends (71 1 and 712) on the jacket (610) of the piston (510) by means of springs (710a and 710b) which, linked to the aforesaid piston (510) and to the caliper (710) provide a return force from the liners (610, 620, 630, 640) to the stator (300)

7 rotary motor M according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the bodies of the pistons (510, 520, 530, 540) and the liners (610, 620, 630, 640) associated, adopt an oblong shape in the plane of symmetry radial of motor M

8 A rotary motor M according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the aforesaid cylindrical stator (300) is pierced on its circular thickness with holes (320, 340) which are arranged distant from each other so that the phase of admission of a volume of the working fluid into a jacket (410, 420, 430, 440) of piston (510, 520, 530, 540) takes place at the same time as the exhaust phase of another volume outside the jacket (410, 420, 430, 440)

9. rotary motor M according to claim 8, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the aforesaid stator (300) comprises a second intake orifice (330) angularly spaced apart from the center of said stator (300) from the first (320) but sufficiently close so that the two orifices can together ensure the admission of the working fluid in the same jacket (410, 420, 430, 440)

10 A rotary engine M according to claim 8, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the above stator (300) has a threaded hole (380) for the passage of the spark plug placed following said intake orifice (320) in order to explode the contents of the shirts (410, 420, 430, 440) when they pass in front of it, following the admission phase