Recently
we celebrated 100 years of the Otto Internal Combustion Engine
Patent. Dozens of huge companies have put enormous funds into what
seems like all possible aspects of engine theory, design and
practice. What did they miss? What was so hidden from them that made
our engine so superior to today’s conventional solutions?
Answer.
want to
ensure you that in high tech development there
was always room for innovation. Innovation can
be minor or major, independent of how well the
technical area seems to have developed. As you
know, traditions in science are the greatest
tools for young people’s education and skill
development; they show the road map to new
knowledge through achievements and acquired
experience. But sometimes, traditions become
immobile fixtures that are challenging to
circumvent without punishment by a community
that keeps these traditional values as the most
important possessions. It always was and will be
like this. “Think outside the box” is a simple
statement to make, but under some circumstances,
nearly impossible to follow. In most cases,
innovation means going around well established
road maps and that is exactly what happened with
the AB Engine invention. Sometimes working in
areas outside engine technology, but with
similar fundamental scientific and engineering
knowledge, gives you an advantage to think
outside of traditional areas and see things from
a different perspective. This is exactly what
happened with my invention.
Almost 24 years ago, in 1984,
I filled my car’s fuel tank (Russian Giguli) with a very low
octane ratio gasoline by accident (76 instead of 89).
Nothing unusual happened – the engine started to detonate
only when I tried to throttle power almost to the maximum.
But what was unusual, was that it did not detonate with a
low power load, this ignited my curiosity. Why? My engine
was fed by fuel through the carburetor. Opening or closing
of the damper limits the amount of fuel that is going into
the combustion chamber, lowering or increasing engine power
output, but it was not only limiting fuel, but amount of the
air as well. So why was an engine that was designed with a
compression ratio of 8, not detonating with a fuel used by
engines with a compression ratio 6 design? It was because
the amount of gas was lowered to the point that even though
the designed compression ratio was 8, the actual gas
compression ratio was below 6, the point of detonation. A
fact is a fact, that anyone can observe, but I needed the
explanation. I put myself deep into thermodynamics and
easily found the reason why? The
physics behind it is described in detail within my patent
application.
So it was obvious that an
engine design with a high compression ratio can handle fuel
with a low octane ratio if the flow of intake gas is limited
to the exact amount that creates actual compression ratio
below point of detonation, retaining the expansion ratio as
high as engine design dictates. But what is the point of
wasting the engine volume and lowering engine cycle power
output?! It is against engine design traditions! Traditions
dictate that one should design an engine that fills the
engine combustion chamber with maximum amount of gas, or
even overcharging it with a compressor! Traditions state a
manifold design with perfect aerodynamics which lowers flow
resistance, but not limiting it! This all made perfect sense
from a conventional point of view. Great innovator Atkinson
showed that engines with a low actual compression ratio and
a high actual expansion ratio have a huge advantage in
fuel efficiency. He patented a version of the ICE with
complicated mechanics to achieve it. It was an overly
complicated engine and limited by the same problem as Otto
engine. Atkinson engine still needed to fill the combustion
chamber with gas through a resistant manifold, so the idea
never went to actual use. What was different in my
invention?
I have developed a method of modifying any traditional
piston or rotary type internal combustion engine such as
Otto, Diesel, Wankel, Miller or even the
Atkinson engine. Designed
compression-expansion ratio can be as high as it desire up to the
reasonable expansion of burnt mixture of fuels and oxidized
medium when exhaust pressure equivalent to the engine environment.
For diesel engine the minimum compression
volume, i.e. the maximum compression ratio is only limited
by the physical integrity of the engine, it is the
maximum compression ratio at which a normal engine can
safely operate without mechanical failure due to excessive
temperature and pressure. In order to avoid excessive
chamber conditions and maintain physical integrity of
combustion chambers, I limit the maximum amount of oxidized
gas (air) to a mass that yields the same pressure and
temperature conditions as in a conventional engine when
compressed.
So what is the catch? Simple
answer. In engines
utilizing my method the actual compression ratio will always
be optimized to the perfect burning conditions, but the
expansion ratio of burnt gases will be as high as needed to
convert burnt fuel into the theoretically maximum possible
energy for these types of internal combustion engines. My
invention proposes unique designs to realized itself in
practice.
I have developed an additional
intake gas valve directly before the high pressure heavy
duty intake valve. Traditionally, the Intake vale not only
handles intake gas, but is also designed to sustain high gas
pressure during
fuel gas combustion! Also, it has to sustain high
temperature and be completely hermetic! All those conditions
were making design of timed intake valves complicated,
expensive and inflexible with time manipulation. The valve I
invented only needs to work under atmospheric pressure and
temperature, and only requires a simple low power actuator
to manipulate it. But the valve is only part of the essence
of the invention. I have changed the engine compression
ratio design to the highest possible! So, fundamentally, the core of the invention
is controlled by the easy Intake valve and an engine with a
high compression ratio design. During every working cycle,
the AB Engine Intake valve injects a calculated and exact
amount of gas into the combustion chamber; this keeps
gasoline from early detonation. Calculations by the AB
Engine algorithm take into account temperature and pressure
of intake gas, type of fuel, RPM and design peculiarity;
specifically to optimize the conditions for fuel burning. At
the same time, burnt gas-fuel mixture expands much more in
an AB Engine than in a conventional engine; producing
significantly more mechanical energy from the same amount of
fuel. But this is not all! A combination of easy valve and
high compression ratio engine design allows using any kind
of fuel with a high fuel efficiency, including diesel! You know that diesel engines are more
efficient exactly because they have high compression ratio
designs and high burnt fuel-gas expansion as well. My
invention gives you a possibility to design a compression
ratio for diesel engines that are much higher than they are
now.
