New trend ofengine research and efficientquasi-reversible engineAuthor: Stanislaw Kazimierz Holubowicz

Partner and main contact: DamianE-mail:chram@gmx.comMobile (PL): +48

Key words: detonation of fuel; highest pressure meets horizontal crank; more than one power stroke in engine cycle; cooling only by heat into work conversion; elimination of heat losses observed in diesel engine.

AbstractIn this paper, a new direction of engine research is proposed,from which have resulted: a concept ofa new thermodynamic engine cycle;a concept of a new engine design according to the cycle;a concept of quasi-reversible engineaccording to the new design, which operates according to the cycle. The proposed engine expands exhaust more than Carnot enginedoes and thus itsefficiency is comparable to that of Carnot engine.The new engine design includes splitting cylinder by a splitter that is a disk into two chambers: one is a detonation chamber that containsfirst thermodynamic processes enforcing second thermodynamic processes in a second chamber in which energy of expanding exhaust recovers as pressure. Such an arrangement limits stress in parts to that inflicted by the load only and eliminates stress related to thermodynamic processes in cylinder dominating in engines today. Itconstitutes an explosion enforced thermo-harmonic oscillator that transfers heat back and forth from exhaust to air of energy recovery chamber to another. Every time the heat is transferred an additional power stroke converts more heat into work which adds to previous work, thus exhaust cools more and more until it is cooler thanthe ambient. Detonation produces much higher pressure and temperature than combustion, thus the fuel supply into cylinders must be reduced by 95 % to prevent robust cylinder, and so must be reduced the air supply to assure detonation of fuel as a much better alternative to current combustion.This indicates that popular cylinder charging is a blunder. The reduction of fuel supply does not reduce power output, because detonation produces more power from less fuel.In this paper only an introduction to this new engine technology is proposed and thus: details of the new design; mathematical analysis; results from testing etc. are left for future presentations.

IntroductionWe still use very inefficient and polluting IC engines in cars, trucks etc., because we have not yet been able to invent anything better. We also follow direction of engine research not able to find out what causes the inefficiency in engine for over 140 years history of engine development. The direction was created by Otto in XIX century when neither efficiency nor pollution was the issues. Though, it is true that the trend includes modern computer simulations, but the simulations of a bad by design XIX century engine cannot improve its design, so design flaws which had appeared in the first engine patented in 1876 by Otto,have been handed down from generation to generationsince then and computerization of process of designing engines cannot eliminate those flaws because nobody understands why engines are so inefficient.

The purpose of this presentation is to encourage vision of future designsto allow a quantum leap from XIX to XXI century. Thus this presentation directs reader rather towards reasoningand

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understanding what is wrong in engine today and also explains some solutions, yet without re-writing pages from existing publicationsso popular today.

BackgroundPhysics of gases states that any gas when expanding produces work and cools at the same time, thusphysics links the expansion toconversion of heat into work as well the efficiency.

Today’s interpretation ofthe second law,by engine experts,is based on Planck’s observation that working medium in Carnot engine can expand so much that it’s temperature drops toambient.MaxPlanck concluded that real engine cannot expand so well and considered that afoundation for the second law of thermodynamicsthat he re-stated.

Carnot engine was the first attempt to present theory of a conversion of heat energy into work. It provided basis for today’s heat engines to which reciprocating engines belong. Its efficiency is defined by equation (1).

(1) Carnot = 1-Tl /Th; where: Tl is the temperature of a lower temperature heat source ;This the temperature of a higher temperature heat source

There is a huge discrepancy between the efficiency of Carnot engine and a real engine and the gap between both has not been shrinking as fast as it should, because existing real engine is at least five times less efficient than it should be. However the discrepancy results rather from imperfections of today engine design, which could be corrected. This paper shows needed design corrections.

InheritanceEngines, thermodynamic cycles andcurrent trend of engine research are inheritance from XIX century, when neither efficiency nor pollution was the issues. Thus the inheritance includes: flawed engine design (not yet noticed by academia),flawedthermodynamic cycle together with resulting faults that prevent efficient engines in XXI century (not yet noticed by academia). Those faults have been handed down from generation to generationand still are penetrating into engines under development for the future, because todayresearch trend is not capable to spot those faults and that prevents their removal.

Current engine has three distinguished speeds and those are: Best power output Best torque Best efficiency

The major flaw of engine today is that it includes intentional energy wastes becausetoday,the engine needs cooling due to incomplete expansion of exhausts that converts only a part of heat released from fuel into work and the rest of heat accumulates in parts and must be removed or engine melts down. Also engine releases exhausts that still possess enough energy to

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deliverfour more power strokes in its cycle and those are serious design flawsthat must be eliminated or engines will remain inefficient forever.

We also inherit, from XX century a way of making “scientific discovery” by browsing publication or surfing the Internet and looking for a solution and that prevents us from thinking and reasoning, so engines remain as were in XIX century.

To recap the most devastating to efficiency are:1. Intentional energy losses (more than 80%) prevent engine efficiency the most2. The intentional energy loses are needed to prevent engine from melting down, because

engine expands exhaust only partly3. Wrong pressure building over piston as function of crank position4. Only one chamber in cylinder where thermodynamic processes occur that prevents

energy recovery from expanded exhaust.

Hypothesizing:Hypothesis#1Extending expansionof exhausts below that in existing engine is a method leading to efficient engines andthe extensionof expansion should be suchthat the temperature of exhaust dropsto, or below ambient. Hypothesis #2The max pressure when acting uponthe work piston in half way down in cylinder will increasetorque by half of the CRand thus will increase energy conversion and the efficiency by the same, so the same torque and power output will result from fuel consumption reduced by half CRHypothesis #3Detonation of vaporized fuel plus better expansion of exhaustswill cut fuel consumption by up to 95%of that in existing real engine, so design corrections should include a method that will make engine withstand detonations of fuel. Hypothesis #4Engine must preserve highest possible torque and highest possible efficiency from starting up to max speed to be maximally efficient.Hypothesis #5Adding a second chamber in cylinder in which the energy still contained in expanded exhaust would recover will: allow production of more than one power stroke in engine cycle; boost energy conversion and the efficiency; make engine withstand detonation of fuel; make engine expand exhaust until its temperature drops below ambient;

With reference to: Hypothesis#1, today exhaust expands in volume displaced by piston stroke so the

expansion is not complete. Thus an additional volume of cylinder, in which exhaust can expand more, if added, will improve the expansion.

Hypothesis #2, such a method that makes highest pressure acting upon piston half-way down in cylinder exists [1], but has not yet been noticed by academia or industry.This paper presents a second such a method.

Hypothesis #3, no existing engine can withstand detonation of fuel without corrections of its design that should include:

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Cushioning the tremendous forces of detonation to prevent mechanical damages, observed in engine today when fuel detonates

Fast internal cooling to prevent thermal damages observed in engines today when fuel detonates

Current engine has three distinguished speeds and those are: Best power output Best torque Best efficiency

With reference to hypothesis #4 the three speeds result from ignition advancement and flawed pressure building upon work piston in engines today and thus the pressure buildingneed special attention, not yet in place during designing stage of engine development.

It is the author’s opinion that pressure building should be such that the stress in parts would result only from applied load and not from thermodynamic processes in cylinder.

Let’s employ a long forgotten scientific method used by Aristotle of ancient Greece, which is based on observation, reasoning and thinking rather than experimentation or simulation

Let’s observe an engine and notice that every engine has two abilities to produce work in time and that is:

Power available from fuel,which is determined by fuel supply and the rate of energy release from fuel thathas been intentionally suppressed by current direction of engine research, so as to avoid detonation of fuel in engines.

Power available on shaftof engine, which is determined by ability to produce torque by power released from fuel.

Wherein: power available from fuel determines thermodynamic processes in cylinder, so results in pressure and temperature that determine the ability to produce torque, which should be maximized so asto maximize the power on shaft that drives needed processes in applicationsby producing useful work.

Torque maximizes when max force (max pressure) acts onto max distance, which in existing engines occurs when piston is half the way down in cylinder, because crank is at max length of the crank from its center of rotation, but at that moment the max pressure has expanded and is half of CR times smaller, which indicates reduction of power output by half of the CR and that causes increase of fuel consumption by the same. Indeed this is a serious design flaw not yet noticed by academia, because today’s direction of researching engine is not able to spot that flaw and this calls for changing the direction of engine research.

Explanation: If the CR = 14, the above design flaw causes increase of fuel consumption by 14:2=7 times ifthe max pressure would have been acting onto piston half way down in cylinder. Isn’t that simple and obvious?

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Yet another inferiority in engine today is that the max pressure acts onto zero distance, because it acts onto piston in TDC, when crank aligns with the centerline of cylinder and thus the distance of crank from its center of rotation is zero, so is the resulting torque and power contribution and thus the max potential to produce torque does not contribute to torque and power output at all. Instead, the maximal potential creates an unwanted stress in crank and bearings. This reduces life of parts and time in between overhauling. Indeed this is a serious design flaw not yet noticed by academia. This paper proposes a new direction of researching engines to solve that flaw.

Intellectual challengesengine research and new direction of Because the second law is based on engine’s ability to expand exhaust, the author proposes a new direction of researching engines that must include these intellectual challenges as the foundation for a new direction of engine research:

Inventing methods that would make engines withstand detonations of fuel so engines would produce more power from less fuel

Inventing methods that would make engine expand the exhaust so much that the temperature of releasing exhaust drops toambient; so as to convert all released heat into work.

Inventing methods that would make the highest pressure to push onto piston half way down in cylinder to boost torque by two orders.

Inventing methods that would make a recovery of energy from expanding exhaust practical.

Inventing methods that would make the recovered energy to recompress exhaust, so as to produce more power strokes in engine cycle.

Concept of quasi-reversible engine per hypothesis #1 to #5In a concept of quasi-reversible engine, a concept of gun combines with a concept of either:Atkinson, Otto or diesel engine. Gun has a barrel that augments the cylinder of engine. The augmented cylinder is blocked by piston of the engine. The bullet is replaced by an additional piston sliding freely up/down that floats on a compressible air cushion over the work piston. The air cushion constitutes an energy recovery chamber that varies in volume. Gunpowder is replaced by an explosive mixture of vaporized or gaseous blends of fuel and air. The fuel supply is only a fraction of that in diesel engine (not higher than 5% to 10%), which does not lower power output. A zero clearance makes complete evacuation of cylinder. The compressible air cushion is pressurized. Pressure in air cushion determines CR of the quasi-reversible engine, thus CR is adjustable withina wide range as needed.

Detonation moves the additional piston forcefully, so that it gains kinetic energy. This transfers energy from exhaust into the compressible air cushion. Thus energy of expanding exhausts recovers in air cushion as pressure. This pressure acts onto work piston blocking the augmented cylinder. The duration of the squeeze delays pressure building over traditional piston until crank is horizontal. This increases torque by two orders over that in ordinary engine. The increase of torque indicates a real potential to save up to 99% of fuel.

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The total squeeze of the air cushion stops the additional piston, which bounces re-compressing exhaust. The complete re-compression occurs at the end of a first power stroke, so exhaust expands again producing a second power stroke in engine cycle. These processes of compression and expansion continue until exhaust cools down below the ambient (better than in Carnot engine), so cool exhaust releases and next engine cycle commences.

The arrangement of gun/engine expands exhaust more than diesel engine alone, because the exhaust expands in a volume displaced by piston’s stroke (as in diesel engine) and also in the augmented volume of air cushion (volume of the barrel of gun). This expands exhaust more, so more heat converts into work than that converted in diesel engines.

Please notice that the length of the elongation is as needed to expand the exhaust so much that its temperature drops below the ambient. That definitely questions the validity of today’s interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics based on wrong assumption that real engine would never expand exhaust so well as the Carnot engine does.

Also, the arrangement has eliminated need for advancement of the ignition and thus the quasi-reversible engine retains max torque and max efficiency from starting up to max speedand that eliminates the need to employ a transmission or reduction gears in applications.

To recap: We inherit: flawed thermodynamic cycles; flawed engine designs and wrong

direction of engine research and thatprevents a progress To improve engine we should find a correct direction of engine research from

which should result: methods making engines withstand detonations of fuel; methods making engine expand exhaust so much that the exhaust

temperature would have dropped below ambient, so as to convert more of the released heat into work

Methods making engine to produce more power strokes in engine cycle

Conclusions: Today, engine expands working medium (exhausts) only partly, so it converts only a part

(about 18% [4]) of the released heat into work and thus released exhaust still possesses enough heat energy to produce four more power strokes in its cycle

Cooling and release of hot exhaust are intentional energy losses needed to prevent melting of inefficient engine today

Carnot engine expands the working medium until it cools down to ambient temp, so working medium cannot expand anymore and that led Max Planck to a conclusion that it is impossible to expand exhausts so well in real engine

Going against technological wind still blowing from XIX century brought the needed new direction of researching engines from which resulted:

1. Better direction of researching engines2. Better engine thermodynamic cycle

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3. Clean and efficient quasi-reversible engine that: detonates fuel; expands exhaust more than Carnot engine does; produces more than one power stroke in its cycle; is cooled only by a process of conversion of the released heat into work ; is free from heat losses seen in engine today; has zero toxic emissions and GHG emissions cut by 95%.

With reference to Fig. 1 a flow of heat in a quasi-reversible engine is presented. High temperature heat source is the detonation chamber in which fuel detonates releasing heat energy as pulses of pressure and temperature. The heat flows into intermidiet temperature heat source in which heat energy recovers from expanding exhausts due to the energy recovery process. Please notice that heat flows back and forth by a reversible process of recovery of heat energy from expand exhaust, and that produces more than one power stroke in engine cycle.

The Fig.3 presents a simplified diagram of the quasi-reversible engine during detonation of fuel. The detonation creates spikes of pressure and temperature that push onto splitter. The splitter accelerates gaining kinetic energy. The kinetic energy transfers energy from exhaust into air pocket back and forth.This arrangement prevents:

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transfers of forces of detonation to parts. stress in parts resulting from thermodynamic processes

in cylinder.

Whith reference to Fig. 4 a method of repeating pressure of of detonation over work piston is presented. The kinetic energy of splitter (additional piston) squeezes the energy recovery chamber in which pressure has risen almost to that of the detonation. At this moment crank is horizontal and thus torque is increased by two orders above that in traditional engine which combusts fuel mist. This indicates a potential to save up to 99% of fuel.

This high pressure stops the splitter, which bounces recompressing exhaust. The re-compression ends at the end of a first power stroke of the cycle, so exhaust can expand again producing a second power stroke in the cycle. These processes repeat until the temperature of exhaust has droped to or below ambient.

Conversioninto a semi-reversibleConversion of existing engine includes these steps:

1. Disassemble engine2. Elongate cylinders 3. Assemble as semi-reversible engine4. Add source of air pressure5. Add fuel vaporizer6. Paint semi-reversible engine nicely7. Test the semi-reversible on test bed8. Replace transmission of vehicle with a clutch to have a transmission free vehicle9. Connect the semi-reversible engine to wheels with the clutch10. Test the transmission-free vehicle on roads.

This conversion apllies to every existing engines and vehicles. Also it is easy and fast to convert existing production line of any engine into the semi-reversible engine.

Final conclusion Boosting mileage of vehicles by fifteen times is not rocket science!

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References:1. Kazimierz Holubowicz-independent inventor “New direction of engine research resulting in new thermodynamic cycle and new

engine for zero toxic emissions and transmission free vehicle” International conference of International Journal of arts & Sciences held in Prague-Check Republic June 2011;

2. Kazimierz Holubowicz “New engine design behind clean emissions & Ship efficiency =Boost of Shipping profits “33Motorship Propulsion & Emissions International Conference” held in Copenhagen-Denmark on May 2011

3. Kazimierz Holubowicz Canadian patent application “Fuel Flex Internal Explosion Gun-Engine that Completely Converts Energy of Fuel into Work or Electricity or Both” registration # CA 2,476,167

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