S.I. Fishgal. INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

US PTO Application No. 964,280 dated 11-28-78

From S.I. Fishgal  “Automotive Inventions”
(KDP Amazon, CreateSpace and Lulu publishers)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

   An internal combustion engine has a cylinder-piston device, an inlet, an exhaust, and a crankshaft with a kinematic chain between the latter and said piston. That chain includes joints and at least one member of the group consisting of a connecting rod, a rocker beam, a piston rod, and a connecting traverse. Said kinematic chain is provided with a resiliently biased means to displace when the cylinder’s gas pressure reaches a predetermined value, to store the gas excess energy and release it during returning the resiliently biased means to the initial position.
Above means represents at least one said member shaped as one or more springs, such as disc springs. The latter are placed in at least one gap between said piston, piston rod, joint with said crankshaft and a telescopic joint of said piston rod, or the spring-actuated movable support of the fulcrum of said rocker beam. Said joints can be made of elastic materials, such as rubber and plastic. The latter joints can have their internal collar biased to the piston and taking up the middle position during the operation.
The natural oscillating frequency of said means can be close to the forced frequency of the piston motions at the rated speed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to internal combustion (diesel and gasoline) engines having a cylinder-piston device, an inlet, an exhaust, and a crankshaft with a kinematic chain between the latter and said piston. Said chain includes joints and at least one member of the group consisting of a connecting rod, a rocker beam, a piston rod, and a connecting traverse.
The objective of the present invention is to decrease the creation of NO and the occurrence of knocking. This is achieved by restricting the maximum pressure in the combustion chamber. Such a restriction lowers the chamber temperature and decreases NO formation too.
Known devices restricting the maximum pressure are mainly hydraulic (e.g. Edward F. Obert. Internal Combustion Engines and Air Pollution. Intext Educational Publishers, New York (1973); Dizeli (Diesels). Mashinostroenie, Leningrad (1977); US patents Nos. 4,033,304; 4,079,707; 4,016,841; 4,084,557; 3,156,162; 3,161,112; 3,185,137; 3,185,138; 3,303,831; 3,311,096; 3,402,662; 3,418,982; 3,450,111; 3,417,738; 3,417,739; 3,450,112; 3,527,265; 3,405,698; 3,405,697; 3,405,113; 3,407,791; 3,667,433; 3,704,695 and many others). The known devices do not accumulate the energy corresponding to the restricted pressure and, therefore, increase the fuel consumption. That is why another objective of the present invention is to accumulate this energy and then give it back.
Still another objective of this invention is to get the expansion and exhaust which are more complete by their longer lasting strokes (the complete-expansion cycle is described, for example, in above Obert’s book). The cycle with longer strokes for expansion and exhaust, than for induction and compression, is used in a convenient engine (US patents Nos. 4,033,304 and 4,084,557), swing-beam engines (Canadian patent No. 1 020 094 and US patent No. 4,092,957), Swing-Beam Engine. Automotive Engineer, August/September, 1977; David Scott. Quiet Swing-Beam Diesel has Variable Compression Ratio. Automotive Engineering, April 1977) and a cam engine (H. Quigley. The K-Cycle. Canadian Aviation, February 1977; British patent No. 1,467,969 and US patent No. 4,022,167).
Still another objective of the present invention is to decrease the quantity of elements for swing-beam engines by one linkage and joint.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Above objectives are achieved by providing the kinematic chain of the engines with a resiliently biased means to displace when the gas pressure in the cylinder reaches a predetermined value, to store the gas excess energy gas and release it back during returning the resiliently biased means to the initial position.
The resiliently biased means represents a connecting rod, a rocker beam, a piston rod, or a connecting traverse shaped as one or several springs, such as disc springs, placed in at least one gap between the piston, piston rod, joint with the crankshaft, and a telescopic joint of a piston rod. The latter is made of telescopically connected parts.          The joint can be made of elastic materials, such as rubber and plastic (e.g. neoprene).
The elastic joint can have its internal collar biased the piston and taking up the middle position during the operation.
In one embodiment, the resiliently biased means represents the spring-actuated movable support of the fulcrums of the rocker beams.
The natural oscillating frequency of said means can be close to the forced frequency caused by the piston motions at the rated engine speed.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a design scheme of an engine with a piston-connecting-rod-crankshaft kinematic chain;
Fig. 2 is a design of a swing-beam engine with the fulcrums of the beams in the middle of the latter (a conditional scheme);
Fig. 3 is the cross-sectional view taken along line III-III in Fig. 2;
Fig. 4 is the longitudinal sectional view of an elastic joint with its biased internal collar;
Fig. 5 is the cross-sectional view taken along line V-V in Fig. 4;
Fig. 6 is the same as in Fig. 2, with the fulcrums placed in the beams ends at the pistons;
Fig. 7 is the same as above, with the fulcrums placed in the beams ends at the crankshaft, the joints being elastic;
Fig. 8 is a partial longitudinal sectional view of above engine with spring rods and beams;
Fig. 9 is the same as above with a leaf spring between the fulcrums;
Fig. 10 is a sectional view of an engine with a traverse connecting two crank gears;
Fig. 11 is the same as above with the traverse between the cylinders;
Fig. 12 is a sectional view of an engine with a yoke;
Fig. 13 is a sectional view on line XIII-XIII of Fig. 12;
Fig. 14 is a design of a telescopic piston rod with springs;
Fig. 15 is a comparative P-V diagrams of cycles of a convenient (dash lines) and present (full lines) engines.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A conventional engine (Fig. 1) has a piston 1, a cylinder 2, an inlet 3, an outlet 4 and a crankshaft 5 connected to the piston 1 with a connecting rod 6, a crank 7 and joints 8 and 9. The connecting rod 6 is shaped as a leaf spring (the resiliently biased means).
In a swing-beam engine (I.I. Artobolevsky, Mechanisms in Modern Engineering Design. Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1975, v. 2; L.J.K. Setright, Some Unusual Engines, Mechanical Engineering Publications Ltd., London (1975); Arthur W. Judge, High Speed Diesel Engines, Chapman & Hall, London (1967); K.G. Draper, The Two-Stroke Engine, Henley-on-Themes (1968); Arthur W. Judge, Automobile Engines, R. Bentley, Cambridge, Mass. (1965); J.N. Seale, Questions and Answers on Diesel Engines, Drake Publishers, N.Y. (1972), different combinations of leaf-spring elements are conditionally shown in Fig. 2 only in way of illustration.
Here opposed pistons 1 are linked with connecting rods 6 by of rocker beams 12, many variations being possible. For example, either all the elements of the kinematic chain, or even only one, can be shaped as a leaf spring, and an elastic joint 13 in the fulcrums of the beams 12 can be used.                Depending on the flexibility of the kinematic chain elements, a piston rod 14 shown in the right side of Fig. 2 can be omitted (shown in the left). This simplifies the chain.
The elastic joint 13 can be made of materials such as rubber or plastic, e.g. neoprene.
For a better compensation of the deformation caused by the piston motions in swing-beam engines, the elastic joint 13 can have its internal collar 15 biased to the piston and taking up the middle position during its operation (Fig. 4 and 5).
Swing-beam engines with the fulcrums in the beams ends (Fig. 6-9) are more advanced, the expansion and exhaust strokes being longer, than for induction and compression (see above cited Canadian patent, Automotive Engineer and Automotive Engineering, for advantages and disadvantages of different types of awing-beam engines).
Again, many variations are possible.
The fulcrums 13 are placed in the ends of the beams 12 at either the pistons 1 (Fig. 6), or the crankshaft 5 (Fig. 7-9). The engines in Fig. 6 and 7 do not have piston rods and, therefore, depend on the flexibility of their elastic fulcrums 13. The engine in Fig. 7 is analogous to that described in cited Scott’s article, wherein, instead of self-centering eccentric sleeves on wrist pins, the elastic joints 13 are employed.
In way of illustration, connecting rods 6 are shaped as a leaf spring in Fig. 6, so are piston rods 14 and rocker beams 12 in Fig. 8 where the fulcrums 13 are either convenient, or elastic.
A leaf spring 16 can be placed between fulcrums 13, the latter being movable (Fig. 9). The necessity of piston rods here depends on the fulcrums degree of freedom.
For engines, such as marine diesels (e.g. German patent No. 655 093 and US patent No. 3,521,615), with two crank gears connecting to the opposite ends of a connecting traverse resting upon a piston rod, the traverse 20 can be shaped as a leaf spring (Fig. 10).
For engines, such as in US patent No. 4,011,842, wherein a traverse rests upon a connecting rod and connects two double-ended pistons of two double-ended cylinders, the connecting traverse 20 has a similar shape (Fig. 11).
In engines with an yoke 25 of Fig. 12 and 13, said resiliently biased means represents disc springs 26 placed in at least one gap between the piston 1, the piston rod 14 and the yoke 25 (in Fig. 12 and 13 both the two variants are conditionally shown together). That is similar to US patents Nos. 2,122,676; 2,122,677; 2,172,670; 3,906,908 and 4,013,048. Besides, the piston rod 14 can be made of two parts 27 and 28 linked telescopically by disc springs 26 (Fig. 14).
The piston rods 14 can be connected to borings 29 of the pistons 1 and yoke 25 by convenient means, such as pins 30 allowing the piston rods 14 to slide relatively to the borings 29, slots 31 restricting the sliding (Fig. 12 and 13), or thread (Fig. 14).
Operation of described resiliently biased means depends on the purpose in hand. If the objective is only to eliminate a piston rod and joint for each cylinder (as can be in Fig. 6 and 7) at the expense of the flexibility of the elastic fulcrums, the cycle of the engine is similar to that of a convenient engine.
If the objective is to decrease the maximum pressure in the combustion chamber, the resiliently biased means does not operate during the compression stroke and low load operation of the engine. Since the pressure in the combustion chamber at this is less, than the preset load of the means, the combustion cycle is similar to that of a conventional engine.
In case of acceleration or high speed driving, the pressure is maximum and the likelihood of knocking, and NO creation increases. The resiliently biased means is compressed when the pressure reaches a predetermined value. At this the volume of the combustion chamber is increased and the means stores energy corresponding to the restrained pressure. When the pressure in the combustion chamber is gradually decreased after combustion, the means steadily extends to return to its normal position and releases the stored energy. Depending on the regime of operating, the maximum pressure decrease can be between 5% and 25%.
If the resiliently biased means return continues after passing the dead center by the piston, the return of the latter is accelerated under spring action, and the stroke completes quicker, than under only crankshaft action. Such a case is shown in P-V diagram (Fig. 15) by the full line, whereas the dash line shows a convenient cycle. At this, the power stroke can be elongated up to 30%.
It is possible, especially for stationary engines, to elevate the engine efficiency by presetting the natural oscillating frequency of the resiliently biased means close to the forced frequency caused by the piston motions at the rated engine speed.
It is clear for those skilled in the art that many other changes and variations of the illustrated embodiments and working cycles are apparent within the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. An internal combustion engine having a cylinder-piston device, an inlet, an exhaust, a crankshaft and a kinematic chain between the latter and said piston, said chain including joints and at least one member of the group consisting of a connecting rod, a rocker beam, a piston rod and a connecting traverse, wherein said kinematic chain is provided with a resiliently biased means to displace when the gas pressure in said cylinder reaches a predetermined value, to store the gas excess energy and release it during returning the resiliently biased means to its initial position.
2. The engine of claim 1 wherein said resiliently biased means represents at least one said member shaped as a spring.
3. The engine of claim 1 wherein said resiliently biased means represents at least one said joint made of elastic materials such as rubber or plastic.
4. The engine of claim 3 wherein said elastic joint has its internal collar biased to the cylinder and taking up the middle position during the operation.
5. The engine of claim 1 wherein said resiliently biased means represents the spring-actuated movable support of the rocker beams fulcrums.
6. The engine of claim 1 wherein said resiliently biased means represents a spring, such as disc springs, placed in at least one gap between said piston, piston rod, joint with said crankshaft, and in a telescopic joint of said piston rod made of telescopically connected parts.
7. The engine of claim 1 wherein the natural oscillating frequency of said resiliently biased means is close to the forced frequency caused by the piston motions at the rated engine speed.