GB1282261A - Improvements in positive-displacement rotary internal combustion engines - Google Patents

Abstract

1282261 Rotary positive-displacement engines V O GOUMENT 19 April 1971 [5 Jan 1970] 382/70 Heading F1F An I.C. engine has a non-rotary housing 2 containing a hollow rotor 4 that revolves in a planetary manner and has outwardly-sliding vanes 5 in housings 18. A tubular shaft 31 at each end of the rotor has a gear-wheel 32 fixed thereto and meshing with a gear-wheel 33 on a tubular output-shaft 34 and with a stationary internally-toothed gear 40 to control the motion of the rotor. Another gear-wheel 42 on the shaft 34 drives air impellervanes 48 mounted on a tubular shaft 46 within the rotor, the torque being transmitted through a gearwheel 43 and shaft 44. An annular plate 29 is mounted freely on each end of the rotor to seal the ends of spaces between the vanes and is separated from a housing end-plate 6 by a sealing ring 10. Axially-extending recesses 13 have at each end a bridging piece 12 and a lip 14 to effect communication with exhaust apertures 7 in the plate 6, which apertures are radially aligned with apertures 56 and precombustion chambers 57. Transfer ports 41 in the rotor are controlled by pivoted valve-members 52. Each vane comprises telescopic pistons 22, 23, the vanes on the leading sides of said recesses also comprising transfer apertures 25 controlled by pivoted valve-members 26. An air aperture 20 is optional. A step 30 in each of the plates 29 accommodates the adjacent end of the piston 22. The radially outermost edge or tip of the piston 23 is pivoted, Fig. 31 (not shown). Axial sealing of the vanes is effected by tapered pieces lodged in grooves formed in the vanes, Fig.32 (not shown). When the engine is operating and the rotor is in the position shown in Fig.26, exhaust gases are discharged from the uppermost space between the vanes through the upper aperture 7 as compressed-air flows through the aperture 25 in the adjacent leading vane. After closure of said port due to continuing rotation of the rotor in a clockwise direction the air is further compressed in said space until the corresponding recess 13 is in register with the apertures 56 giving the air access to the precombustion chamber 57 on the left-hand side of the housing 2 (according to Fig.26). Fuel is then injected through a nozzle 58 into the said chamber 57. The combustion products expand in said space until the corresponding recess comes into register with the lower aperture 7. A similar cycle is performed in the diametrically opposite space. Each of the spaces on the leading sides of the apertures 25 are charged with partially compressed air through the associated port 41 whenever this space undergoes expansion, subsequent contraction of the space causing further partial compression. The engine may be modified in that the impeller is dispensed with, the air is supplied by a supercharger and each vane has a single piston. The valve-members 26 may be omitted and the respective apertures are then controlled by radial movement of the vanes in the housings 18. An aperture may be provided in each of the pistons of the vanes leading the recesses 7. The ports 41 may be dispensed with, air then being transferred from the interior of the rotor through either the pistons 22, which are rendered hollow and furnished with apertures, or grooves in said pistons, these pistons being only those comprised in the vanes on the leading sides of the recesses 7. Cooling may be effected by water injected periodically through nozzles 59, the steam thus produced being used to rotate the rotor. Water and fuel may be injected alternately.