Patent Application
20180371972
This invention relates generally to a system for reducing the noise and increasing the performance of an internal combustion engine. More specifically, this apparatus utilizes standard mechanics of the vehicle itself to achieve its objectives. While this invention is generally intended for engines mounted on bicycles, the principles apply to any motor vehicle.
One of the biggest objections to motorized bicycles is the noise that emulates from the exhaust. Conceptually, prior art has generally attempted to utilize mufflers to reduce the noise that emanates from an internal combustion engine. U.S. Pat. No. 582,485 for an “Exhaust muffler for engines” was awarded to Milton O. Reeves and Marshall T. Reeves of Columbus, Ind. of the Reeves Pulley Company on 11 May 1897 and is one of the earliest concepts for engine noise reduction. Despite the passing of over a century, the technology has remained fairly stagnant. As disclosed in Reeves '485, mufflers are installed within the exhaust system of most internal combustion engines. Although the muffler is not designed to serve any primary exhaust function, it is engineered as an acoustic soundproofing device designed to reduce the loudness of the sound pressure created by the engine by way of acoustic quieting. The majority of the sound pressure produced by the engine is emanated out of the vehicle using the same piping used by the silent exhaust gases absorbed by a series of passages and chambers lined with roving fiberglass insulation and/or resonating chambers harmonically tuned to cause destructive interference wherein opposite sound waves cancel each other out.
An unavoidable side effect of muffler use is an increase of back pressure which decreases engine efficiency. This is because the engine exhaust must share the same complex exit pathway built inside the muffler as the sound pressure that the muffler is designed to mitigate. When the flow of exhaust gases from the engine to the atmosphere is obstructed to any degree, back pressure arises and the engine's efficiency, and therefore power, is reduced. Performance-oriented mufflers and exhaust systems thus strive to minimize back pressure by employing numerous technologies and methods to attenuate the sound. For the majority of such systems, however, the general rule of “more power, more noise” applies. Further, while mufflers do reduce noise, they are stationary devices that make no use of the moving parts of the vehicle or engine they attempt to quiet.
One way to amplify the power output of an engine is to increase the amount of air and fuel that it can burn. Some of the prior art has attempted this by adding cylinders or increasing the volumetric capacity of the existing cylinders. However, in many applications, these changes are not feasible. In these cases, the prior art has leaned towards adding a turbocharger.
Turbochargers are a type of forced induction system. They compress the air flowing into the engine. The advantage of compressing the air is that the existing cylinder can now hold more air and fuel in the same space. As a result, there is more power from each explosion in each cylinder. The typical boost provided by a turbocharger is six to eight pounds per square inch (psi). Since normal atmospheric pressure is 14.7 psi at sea level, the increase corresponds to about a fifty percent increase of air and fuel into the engine. However, due to various inefficiencies in an internal combustion engine, the engine will only see a thirty to forty percent power improvement. This discrepancy is explained by the fact that turbochargers use the exhaust flow from the engine to spin a turbine, which in turn spins an air pump, which compresses the air that will be injected into the cylinder to achieve the increased power. The unfortunate byproduct of having a turbine in the exhaust flow is that it also increases the restriction in the exhaust. This causes the engine to have a higher back side pressure, which, like the mufflers previously discussed, subtracts some of the power from the cylinders that are firing at the same time.
The use of existing and standard engine or vehicle parts to quiet the engine noise level has not previously been applied to the issue of reducing the noise level or increasing performance. The invention utilizes standard mechanics and parts of the vehicle itself to achieve its objectives. While this invention is generally intended for engines mounted on bicycles, the principles apply to any motor vehicle equipped with spokes, wheels, or fans.
The general concept of the invention is to install a pipe (2) from the exhaust port (11) of the engine (1) and direct the pipe to preexisting spokes (33), wheels (3), fans, or any other rotating part attached to the vehicle. This angular movement creates a vortex where the pipe meets the spokes. The vortex in turn generates a low pressure system that pulls gasses out of the engine through the pipe thereby increasing the volume and velocity of the exhaust air and with it maximizing the efficiency of the combustion engine.
Simultaneously, the spokes also act as a baffle to minimize the sound emanating from the engine exhaust. This result is achieved through the oscillation of the spokes which dampen the noise from the engine by dissipating the energy stored in the sound waves.
