The present invention relates to a separate-type rotary engine which comprises a compressor and a force generator respectively arranged in front of and in back of a rotary shaft 5 of a rotor. The compressor comprises a housing 1 which has a circular inner cross-sectional surface mostly and a groove formed in an upper portion thereof to accommodate therein a hinged vane 9, an air intake port 17 to inhale external air and a compressed air outlet 10 to supply air compressed by the compressor to a compressed air tank 12; a hinged vane 9 which has one end as a hinge point 20 within an upper portion of the housing 1 and the other end contacting an outer surface 4 of the rotor to reciprocatingly rotate, and is shaped like a blade that is completely accommodated by the groove of the hinged vane 9 of the housing 1 and does not interfere with a rotation of the rotor 3 when rotating to the maximum in a direction opposite to the center of the rotor 3; the rotor 3 which has a circular or elliptical shape or a combination of a circular and elliptical shape, and has one side line-contacting an inner surface 2 of the housing 1 from a rotor contacting point and the other side spaced apart from the inner surface 2 of the housing 1 using the center of the circular inner space of the housing 1 as an axis and has a cross-sectional surface without any sudden change; and side plates which secure the air-tightness of air from the sides of the housing 1, rotor 3 and hinged vane 9.
The force generator comprises a housing 1′ which comprises a circular inner cross-sectional surface, a combustion chamber space which is depressed from an upper portion thereof, a groove to accommodate therein a hinged vane 9′, a combustion chamber passage to supply compressed air from the compressed air tank 12 to the combustion chamber 7 and a gas exhaust port 18 to discharge exhaust gas to the outside of the force generator; a hinged vane 9′ which has one side as a hinge point 20′ within an upper portion of the housing 1′ and the other side contacting an outer surface 4′ of the rotor and reciprocatingly rotating centering on the hinge point 20′, is completely accommodated by the groove of the hinged vane 9′ of the housing 1′ when rotating to the maximum in a direction opposite to the center of the rotor 3′ not to interfere with a rotation of the rotor 3′and is shaped like a blade that shuts off the combustion chamber space from the inner space of the housing 1′ to seal the combustion chamber 7; the rotor 3′ which has a circular or elliptical shape or a combination of a circular and elliptical shape, and rotates with one side line-contacting an inner surface 2′ of the housing 1′ from the rotor contacting point 19 and the other side spaced apart from the inner surface 2′ of the housing 1′ using the center of the circular inner space of the housing as an axis and has a curved cross-sectional surface without any change; and side plates which secure air-tightness from the sides of the housing 1′, rotor 3′ and hinged vane 9′.
The separate-type rotary engine compresses air inhaled from a front end of an air intake space 6-1 of the compressor through the air intake port 17 at high-temperature and high-pressure to store the air in a compressed air tank 12 interposed between a one-way check valve 11 and a compressed air valve 12 through the compressed air outlet 10 installed in an end of a compression space 6-2, wherein the open/shut operation of the compressed air valve 13 is controlled in accordance with the rotation position of the force generator rotor 3′, opens the compressed air valve 13 and discharges the compressed air at a high speed to the combustion chamber 7 tightly shut by the hinged vane 9′ when the rotor contacting point 19 contacting the force generator rotor 3′ and the housing 1′ passes through the hinge point 20′ of the upper portion of the inner space 2′ of the housing and includes a fuel injecting device including a fuel controlling device 14 and a fuel nozzle 15 to inject fuel into the compressed air discharged at a high speed, and shuts down the compressed air valve 13 after the compressed air is completely discharged from the combustion chamber 7, and burns fuel mixed with air through the ignition device 16 provided at one side of the combustion chamber 7 to generate a force from the force generator and discharges combustion gas from the end of the exhaust space 6-4 of the force generator to the outside of the engine.
Wankel rotary engine is simple in configuration, light in weight per output and small in size and generates less vibrations and noise compared to a reciprocating engine. Nevertheless, the Wankel rotary engine is not widely used because a sealing between a triangular rotor eccentrically rotating around a central axis of the cylinder and the cylinder is not complete, a rotation interval at which the rotor absorbs force from combustion gas is short and has lower efficiency than an internal combustion engine and is less durable. As the rotor rotates eccentrically, a contacting angle between the sealing located at a vertex of the triangular rotor and the cylinder continues to change and the airtight sealing is not secured and the sealing effect is sharply reduced by a small wear of the sealing to thereby decrease efficiency.
As another type of a rotary engine different from the Wankel rotary engine, one of the oldest engines is the Hodson's patent rotary engine (Evan 6893) published in Evanion Catalogue of the British Museum. This steam engine (refer to
U.S. patent “combustion engine having fuel cut-off at idle speed and compressed air starting and method of operation (Pat. No.: 4,741,164; Date of patent: May 3, 1988) is a rotary engine which is similar in basic shape to the patent engine of Hodson and has a check valve, a compressed air reservoir including an air valve storing excess compressed air and utilizes such compressed air when the engine starts, an air gate, a fuel supply device, and a firing chamber between a compressor module and a combustor module including a cylinder, rotor and an air chamber valve (or firing chamber valve), respectively. The air gate is open by a solenoid operating by a rotation position signal of the rotor and supplies compressed air to the firing chamber and is shut down by a pressure of combustion gas generated by combustion of the firing chamber.
Another U.S. patent rotary engine (Pat. No. 5,247,916) is similar to the rotary engine according to the present invention in that it includes a compression eccentric as a compressor and a power eccentric as a force generator. However, unlike the rotary engine according to the present invention, this rotary engine includes a compression gate and a power gate which have one side fit into a cylinder slot and the other side contacting an outer surface of a rotor by a spring and go inside and come outside the slot when the rotor rotates.
PCT Patent hybrid cycle rotary engine (Patent application No. PCT/US2007/074980) has a compressor module and combustor module but uses a reciprocating rotation valve called rocker instead of a hinged vane. The rocker is closely adhered to the rotor which has one side rotating by an additional cam device or force of a spring.
The rotary engine (Pat. No. 5,247,916) and hybrid cycle rotary engine (patent application No. PCT/US2007/074980) which employ gate (or rocker) instead of hinged vane should push the gate (or rocker) to closely contact the outer surface of the rotor through a spring and thus require a strong spring to maintain the contact with the rotor rotating at a high speed. To install such spring, a considerably large space is additionally required for the engine and thus increases the size of the engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,164 (May 3, 1988) engine is designed to supply air compressed by a compressor module to a combustor module through a gate valve and stores the excess compressed air in a compressed air reservoir including an air valve controlling outlet of air to use such air for starting the engine. With the foregoing configuration, the air compressed by the compressor module is not discharged from a cavity of the compressor module immediately before the gate valve is open. Thus, the pressure of the compressor rises sharply to be higher than air pressure required for a firing chamber and accordingly energy taken for rotating the rotor of the compressor is drastically large and deteriorates efficiency of the engine. Also, a rotational angle of the rotor of the compressor module and the combustor module should be precisely controlled so that the firing chamber of the combustor module is tightly shut by the firing chamber valve and receives the compressed air when the air is completely compressed by the compressor module.
The reciprocating engine uses a cam mechanism which moves together with the rotation of a crankshaft to open an air valve. U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,164 (May 3, 1988) is designed to open a gate valve through a solenoid to supply compressed air to a firing chamber. To provide enough time to supply the compressed air to the firing chamber, the gate valve should be open in a very short time after a signal is transmitted by a sensor of a rotor rotating angle, and thus the solenoid should react at a high speed to the signal. For example, in an engine rotating at 5,000 rpm, the solenoid should complete its operation within 0.00017 second to open the gate valve while the rotor rotates to 5 degrees after receiving a signal from the sensor of the rotor rotating angle. The solenoid should be large enough to open the gate valve shutting down the passage of the high compressed air with large force, in a very short time.
The rotary engine is very light in weight per output and small in size compared to the reciprocating engine, and is most suitable for aircraft engine. However, the rotary engine also has such characteristic as a general engine that deteriorates in output due to scarce air at high altitude. Thus, improvement is required to use the rotary engine for aircraft engine.
The problem of the rotary engine (U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,916) and hybrid cycle rotary engine (patent application No. PCT/US2007/074980) employing the gate (or rocker) is solved by using the hinged vanes 9 and 9′. The hinged vanes 9 and 9′ receive a force to closely contact the outer surfaces 4 and 4′ of the rotor by compressed air and combustion gas and thus do not require an additional device such as a spring to be pushed to the outer surfaces 4 and 4′ of the rotor. However, if the pressure of the compressed air and combustion gas is drastically reduced, i.e., if the rotor contacting point of the rotor 3 of the compressor is interposed between the hinge point 20 and the air intake port 17 and when the rotor contacting point 19 of the rotor 3′ of the force generator is interposed between the gas exhaust port 18 and hinge point 20′, the pressure of the compressed air and combustion gas is low and thus the force pushing the hinged vanes 9 and 9′ to the rotors 3 and 3′ is weak and an additional device such as a spring may be needed. Even then, the compressor has yet to implement a full-scale expansion stroke and the force generator has the hinged vane 9′ pulled upward by a rotating rotor and starts to shut down the combustion chamber 7. Thus, operation or performance of the engine is not hurt even without any additional device such as a spring.
The engine deterioration problem arising from the configuration of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,164 (May 3, 1988) in which compressed air is directly supplied to a combustor module through a gate valve may be solved by installing the check valve 11 and compressed air tank 12 sequentially between the compressed air outlet 10 and compressed air valve 13 of the compressor. Then, the air compressed by the compressor is stored in the compressed air tank 12 through the check valve 11, and the air stored in the compressed air tank 12 is blocked by the check valve 11 allowing the flow of air only in one direction and thus the air cannot go back to the compressor and is supplied only to the combustion chamber 7 when the compressed air valve 13 is open. The compressed air tank 12 is one to three times larger in size than the combustion chamber 7 (the figure is an example and the size may vary) and does not sharply increase its pressure even if it receives all of the compressed air from the compressor, and thus prevents the pressure of the compression space 6-2 of the compressor from rising sharply. The rotor 3 of the compressor receives the rotational force from the force generator through the rotor rotating shaft 5, but the compressor receives and compresses air through the air intake port 17 and stores such compressed air in the compressed air tank 12. The force generator does not receive the compressed air as necessary directly from the compressor, but from the compressed air tank 12 storing therein compressed air. Thus, the rotors 3 and 3′ of the compressor and force generator are not needed to be precisely controlled at a consistent angle and installed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,164 (May 3, 1988) opens the gate valve through a solenoid operating by an electrical signal to supply compressed air to the firing chamber. The solenoid should be large enough to open the gate valve blocking the high-pressure compressed air at a high speed. Supplementary devices generating a voltage, current and operating signal are required to operate the solenoid. The foregoing problem is solved if a valve using a cam device generally applying to a reciprocating engine for automobile or a two-way check valve 51 whose open/shut operation is controlled by moving together with the movement of the hinged vane 9 applies instead of the gate valve operating by the solenoid (refer to
To use the rotary engine as a more efficient aircraft engine, a variable compression rate compressor which has an open/shut air intake port in a rotor rotating direction in addition to the air intake port installed in the housing of the compressor applies (Refer to
Hereinafter, an operation of a separate-type rotary engine according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to accompanying drawings.
As shown in a and b in
When the rotor contacting point 19 contacting an inner surface 2′ of the housing with the rotation of the rotor 3′ of the force generator passes the hinge point 20′ on a top of the inner surface 2′of the housing, the hinged vane 9′ which is pushed upwardly by the rotor 3′ of the force generator shuts down the inner surface 2′ of the housing and forms an airtight combustion chamber 7. Concurrently, the compressed air valve 13 is open by a proper device and air from the compressed air tank 12 is rapidly introduced to the shut combustion chamber 7. Concurrently with the introduction of the compressed air, fuel is injected by a fuel nozzle 15 installed in a passage of the compressed air and is mixed with the compressed air to be introduced to the combustion chamber 7 (refer to c in
If the introduction of the compressed air and the fuel to the combustion chamber 7 is completed, the compressed air valve 13 is shut down and an ignition device 16 operates to perform combustion. Upon opening of the hinged vane 9′ with the rotation of the rotor 3′, high-temperature and high-pressure combustion gas is discharged from the combustion chamber outlet 8 and goes into an expansion space 6-3 to transmit a rotational force to the rotor 3′ (refer to d in
To utilize the separate-type rotary engine as a compression ignition engine like a diesel engine, the size of the combustion chamber is reduced to raise a compression rate so that the air supplied by the compressor through the compressed air tank reaches a temperature to spontaneously ignite and burn a fuel supplied to the combustion chamber. In the case of diesel oil, the size of the combustion chamber should be determined to have a compression rate of 20 or more. However, as the compression rate for spontaneous ignition depends on the type of fuel, the size of the combustion chamber may vary by fuel.
A two-way check valve 51 may be one of types of the compressed air valve 13 (refer to
b in
While the valve stick 52 is pushed upward to the maximum, the supply of the compressed air to the combustion chamber is completed (c in
As shown in
To utilize the rotary engine as a more efficient aircraft engine, a variable compression rate compressor in which an open/shut air intake port is installed in a rotor rotating direction is installed, in addition to an air intake port 17 installed in the compressor housing (refer to
As the hinged vanes 9 and 9′ receive the force to closely contact the outer surfaces 4 and 4′ of the rotor by the compressed air and combustion gas, an additional device such as a spring pushing the hinged vanes 9 and 9′ to the outer surfaces 4 and 4′ of the rotor is not required. However, at the moment when the pressure of the compressed air and combustion gas is sharply decreased, i.e., when the rotor contacting point of the rotor 3 of the compressor is interposed between the hinge point 20 and the air intake port 17 and the rotor contacting point 19 of the rotor 3′ of the force generator is interposed between the gas exhaust port 18 and the hinge point 20′, an additional device may be required since the force pushing the hinged vanes 9 and 9′ to the rotors 3 and 3′ is weak. Even in this case, the compressor has yet to perform a full-scale expansion stroke. In the case of the force generator, the hinged vane 9′ is pushed upwardly by the rotating rotor 9′ and starts to shut down the combustion chamber 7. Thus, even without the additional device such as a spring, operation or performance of the engine is not hurt.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2009-0039073 | May 2009 | KR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/KR2010/002782 | 5/1/2010 | WO | 00 | 10/12/2011 |