GB2099501A

GB2099501A - Motor vehicle I.C. engine air intake with steam supply

Info

Publication number: GB2099501A
Application number: GB8203606A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1981-06-01
Filing date: 1982-02-08
Publication date: 1982-12-08

Abstract

A chamber 28 supplies steam to a portion 27 of a carburettor air filter intake tube which has its inlet at the front of the vehicle so that air is forced into the tube. The steam generator (14...18). Figure 4 (not shown), is formed by a casing surrounding the exhaust manifold (13) or pipe. Air from the carburettor air filter or a separate filter (1b), Figure 5 (not shown), is supplied downstream of the carburettor throttle valve, this air flow being controlled by a throttle valve (10), Figure 3 (not shown), linked to the accelerator pedal. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Motor vehicle waste energy recovery system This invention relates to a system for recovering waste energy from a motor vehicle internal combustion engine, and to a motor vehicle provided with such a waste energy recovery system.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for recovering waste energy from a motor vehicle internal combustion engine, the latter including an air filter, an air-intake tube for supplying air to the air filter and provided with an air inlet, typically funnel-shaped, arranged at the front of the motor vehicle so that air is forced into the airintake tube with increasing velocity as the speed of forward movement of the motor vehicle increases, carburetting means for mixing fuel with air which has passed through the air filter, and exhaust means comprising an exhaust manifold and an exhaust pipe leading therefrom, the system comprising steam generating means including a water-fed chamber at least partly surrounding part of said exhaust means, and pipe means for delivering steam, generated in the steam generating means, to the said air-intake tube.

Typically the carburetting means includes an induction pipe having a throttle valve positioned therein. Auxiliary air supply means are conveniently provided for supplying auxiliary air to a part of the induction pipe downstream of the throttle valve. Conveniently the auxiliary air supply means comprises tubing incorporating throttle-operated valving means, e.g. a butterfly valve, leading to the induction pipe. Typically the auxiliary air supply means includes an auxiliary air filter. Alternatively the air filter may comprise a main chamber connected to the air-intake of the induction pipe and an auxiliary chamber connected to the said tubing.

The said water-fed chamber conveniently at least partly surrounds the exhaust manifold.

Typically the chamber is defined by a partlyperforated first casing surrounding the exhaust manifold to provide a steam cavity and a second casing surrounding the perforated part of the first casing to provide a water distributing cavity, the first casing having a steam outlet and the second casing having a water inlet. Suitably the said water inlet is connected to a feed pipe fed from water storage means. A control valve and/or a water pump may be provided for controlling the rate of flow of water through the said feed pipe.

Typically the said steam outlet is connected to a steam pipe which feeds a steam cavity, the latter being defined by a third casing surrounding a perforated portion of the said air-intake tube.

Conveniently the air-intake tube has a converging or tapering intermediate portion (typically of frusto-conical form) connecting the tube inlet with an outlet of reduced cross-section. Typically the said perforated portion of the air intake tube forms part of the said intermediate portion of the air-intake tube. Suitably the first, second and third casings are made of steel.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a motor vehicle provided with a waste energy recovery system according to said one aspect of the present invention.

The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic end view of part of one embodiment of a system, according to the invention, for recovering waste energy from a motor vehicle, Figure 2 is a schematic side view, on an enlarged scale, of part of the system shown in Figure 1, Figure 3 is a detail, on an enlarged scale, of part of the system shown in Figure 1, Figure 4 is a schematic, partly sectional view of a further part of the system shown in Figure 1, Figure 5 is a schematic end view of part of another embodiment of a system, according to the invention, for recovering waste energy from a motor vehicle, and Figure 6 is a schematic end view of a radiator of a motor vehicle in which is mounted air-intake tubes of the system shown in Figure 5.

Figure 1 shows various parts of an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle (not shown). In particular there is shown an air filter 1 having an air-intake tube 2 provided with a funnel-shaped inlet 3 (see Figure 2), a carburettor 4 including an induction pipe 5, and an engine block 6. The air filter 1 comprises a main chamber 7 having an outlet 7a and an auxiliary chamber 8 having an outlet 8a. The induction pipe 5 has an air intake section 5a connected to the outlet 7a of the air filter 1 and an outlet section Sb positioned downstream of a conventional throttle valve (not shown) positioned in an intermediate section of the induction pipe.Auxiliary air supply piping 9 is connected to the outlet 8a of the air filter 1 and the outlet section Sb of the induction pipe to enable auxiliary air to be fed to the charge mixture supplied to cylinders of the engine block 6. A butterfly valve 10 (see Figure 3) operated via linkage 11 (partly shown in Figure 3), by the accelerator pedal (not shown) of the motor vehicle is positioned in the piping 9. The valve 10 is only opened when the accelerator pedal is operated, the valve 10 being fully opened when the accelerator pedal is fully depressed.

As shown in Figure 2, the air-intake tube 2 is arranged at one side of a radiator 12 with its funnel-shaped inlet 3 positioned at the front of the motor vehicle so that air is forced into the airintake tube 2 with increasing velocity as the speed of forward movement of the motor vehicle increases.

The internal combustion engine, partly shown in Figure 1, also includes an exhaust manifold 13 (see Figure 4) and an exhaust pipe (shown in dotted lines) connected thereto. A steel plate casing 14 having perforations 1 5 formed in its upper surface surrounds the exhaust manifold 13 to define a steam chamber 1 6. A further steel plate casing 17 is mounted on the casing 14 so as to surround the perforations 15 and define a water distributing chamber 18 positioned above the steam chamber 1 6 and in communication therewith via the perforations 15. The chamber 18 has a water inlet 23 and the chamber 1 6 has a steam outlet 24. Water is fed to the chamber 18 via a feed pipe 19 connected between the water inlet 23 and a water supply tank 20.A regulating valve 21 and motor driven pump 22 may be provided for controlling the supply of water to the chamber 18.

A steam pipe 25 is connected between the steam outlet 24 and a further steel plate casing 26 (see Figure 2) surrounding a tapering, perforated portion 27 of the air-intake tube 2. The casing and the tube portion 27 define a steam distributing chamber 28.

The parts 14 to 28 provide a waste energy recovery system for the internal combustion engine. In use, the exhaust manifold 13 becomes hot. Water fed from the water supply tank 20 to the chamber 1 8 passes through the perforations 1 5 and falls in droplets onto the hot exhaust manifold 13 where it is immediately converted into steam. The steam generated in the chamber 16 is forced along the pipe 25 to the chamber 28 where it is passed through perforations in the tube portion 27 to be mixed with incoming air passing through the air-intake tube 2.

The addition of steam or water vapour to the intake air causes the intake air to be preheated and moistened. The increase in temperature of the preheated air enables the liquid fuel (i.e.

petrol) admixed with the air to atomise and vaporise more effectively thereby improving engine power. The resultant mixture of air, petrol and water vapour or steam also improved the compression of the engine because of the increase in density of the mixture due to the water vapour mixed with the intake air.

It will be realised that intake air passing along the air-intake tube 2 is subjected to a decrease in pressure as it passes through the tapering portion 27 of the tube 2. This reduction in pressure of the incoming air assists in sucking the steam through the perforations in the walls of the portion 27 from the steam distributing chamber 28. By way of example it is preferred that the air-intake tube has the following dimensional relationships: D2 1 0, W3D and lsd, d2 where D is the diameter of the tube 2 at its inlet end, dis the diameter of the tube 2 at its outlet end, L is the length of the portion 27 and / is the length of the reduced diameter outlet end of the tube 2. Typically D20 centimetres.

In use of the system it is estimated that the amount of auxiliary or supplementary air supplied via the piping 9 is from 10% to 1 5% of the total intake air admitted past the carburettor throttle valve and that the amount of steam or water vapour generated for mixing with the atmospheric intake air is limited to approximately 5% of the atmospheric intake air by weight (i.e. the atmospheric air to steam ratio by weight is approximately 20:1).

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made to the invention. For example, in certain types of engine where there may be space limitations it may be necessary for the steam chamber 1 6 to surround part of the exhaust pipe instead of part of the exhaust manifold 13. Alternatively the steam chamber 1 6 may surround parts of both the exhaust manifold 13 and the exhaust pipe (see the dotted lines modification to Figure 4).

Instead of the system incorporating a single air filter 1 having separate main and auxiliary chambers 7 and 8, respectively (as shown in Figures 1 and 2), a system according to the invention may include a main air filter 1 a and a separate auxiliary air filter 1 b (see Figure 5). In this case the auxiliary air filter 1 b has an air-intake tube 2a provided with a funnel-shaped air inlet 3a. Typically the air-intake tubes 2 and 2a are mounted side by side in a motor vehicle radiator 30 as shown in Figure 6. Conveniently each of the air filters 1 a and 1 b has a construction similar to that shown in Figure 2 with the exception that each filter only has a single chamber instead of separate main and auxiliary chambers.

Furthermore only the air filter 1a has a connection for admixing steam (from pipe 25) with incoming air.

Claims

1. A system for recovering waste energy from a motor vehicle internal combustion engine, the latter including an air filter, an air-intake tube for supplying air to the air filter and provided with an air inlet arranged at the front of the motor vehicle so that air is forced into the air-intake tube with increasing velocity as the speed of forward movement of the motor vehicle increases, carburetting means for mixing fuel with air which has passed through the air filter, and exhaust means comprising an exhaust manifold and an exhaust pipe leading therefrom, the system comprising steam generating means including a water-fed chamber at least partly surrounding part of said exhaust means, and pipe means for delivering steam, generated in the steam generating means, to the said air-intake tube.

2. A system according to claim 1, in which the said air-intake tube has a funnel-shaped air inlet.

3. A system according to claim 1 or 2, in which the carburetting means includes an induction pipe having a throttle valve positioned therein and in which auxiliary air supply means are provided for supplying auxiliary air to a part of the induction pipe downstream of the throttle valve.

4. A system according to claim 3, in which the auxiliary air supply means comprises tubing incorporating throttle-operated valving means for controlling the supply of auxiliary air to the induction pipe.

5. A system according to claim 4, in which the said valving means comprises a butterfly valve.

6. A system according to any of claims 3 to 5, in which the auxiliary air supply means includes an auxiliary air filter provided with an auxiliary airintake tube arranged at the front of the motor vehicle so that air is forced into the induction pipe with increasing velocity as the speed of forward movement of the motor vehicle increases.

7. A system according to claim 6, in which the said auxiliary air-intake tube has a funnel-shaped air inlet.

8. A system according to claim 4 or 5, in which the said air filter comprises a main chamber connected to the air-intake of the induction pipe and an auxiliary chamber connected to the said tubing.

9. A system according to any of the preceding claims, in which the said water-fed chamber is defined by a partly-perforated first casing surrounding the said part of the exhaust means to provide a steam cavity and a second casing surrounding the perforated part of the first casing to provide a water distributing cavity, the first casing having a steam outlet and the second casing having a water inlet.

10. A system according to claim 9, in which the said water inlet is connected to a feed pipe fed from water storage means.

11. A system according to claim 10, comprising a control valve and/or a water pump for controlling the rate of flow of water through the said feed pipe. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12. A system according to any of claims 9 to 11, in which the said steam outlet is connected to a steam pipe which feeds a steam cavity, the latter being defined by a third casing surrounding a perforated portion of the said air-intake tube.

13. A system according to claim 12, in which the said perforated portion of the air-intake tube forms part of a converging or tapering intermediate portion of the air-intake tube which connects the said air inlet with an outlet of reduced cross-section of the air-intake tube.

1 4. A system according to claim 13, in which the said intermediate portion is of frusto-conical form.

1 5. A system according to any of claims 9 to 14, in which the said water-fed chamber at least partly surrounds part of the exhaust manifold.

1 6. A system according to claim 15, in which the said water-fed chamber also surrounds part of the exhaust pipe.

17. A system for recovering waste energy from a motor vehicle internal combustion engine, the system being constructed and arranged substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 1 to 3 and Figure 4 as shown in full and chain lines.

18. A system for recovering waste energy from a motor vehicle internal combustion engine, the system being constructed and arranged substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 3, 5 and 6 and Figure 4 as shown modified by dotted lines.

19. A motor vehicle provided with a waste energy recovery system according to any of the preceding claims.