DATA Technical Field

The present application relates generally to a method of minimizing fuel consumption in a combustion engine, and more particularly to a rotary styled piston engine utilizing an electronically controlled system to cycle-skip within the four-stroke cycle process in an effort to reduce fuel consumption.

Description of the Prior Art

Aside from the advent of the rotary Wankel engine developed in the late 1950s, the fundamental design of the conventional internal combustion engine has not fundamentally changed in the last one-hundred-and-fifty-years. After its introduction, virtually all improvements have been in the areas of increasing the mechanical and thermodynamic efficiencies from the original design.

In the conventional internal combustion engine (ICE), as seen in Figure 1 in the drawings, the pistons and their respective piston rods are connected to a crankshaft in the main engine. The combustion force is transferred to the crankshaft after the piston has moved past top dead center to produce turning effort or torque, which rotates the crankshaft.

Every piston in a conventional piston engine must go through four distinct phases (intake, compression, power, and exhaust). At any given instance, only one piston in the system will provide positive energy to the crankshaft during the power stroke phase. This action from a single piston not only supplies rotational energies to the crankshaft but must supply the energies to move the remaining pistons through their respective phases of expelling exhaust, sucking in new air, and compressing the air/fuel mixture. These resulting dynamics remove energies from the crankshaft rather quickly. The general equation for work done on an applied force that varies in a linear fashion within a single axis (i.e., up and down motion of a piston) is as follows:

Equation 1

Equation 1 becomes clear when examining the motion traveled by a single piston, as represented in Figure 2 of the drawings. Ignoring friction, note that the piston is always accelerating (except for a couple of brief instances when the pistons reach maximum velocity.) Since the mass of the piston and rod is in continuous acceleration, the source of energy providing this motion (in this case of the main crank) is providing energy which takes away from its rotational inertia. If you look closely at Figure 2, the maximum acceleration is seen to occur at TDC and BDC. This makes sense because the crank must deaccelerate the mass of the piston in one direction to a dead stop and re-accelerate the piston in the opposite direction from a dead stop. This takes quite a bit of effort from the crank. The average weight of pistons, rods, and pin assembly is approximately 30 lbs. That is quite sizable since that mass has to be moved a relatively short distance at high RPMs.

The invention described in the United States Patents 6,796,285 and 7,500,462 describes an example of an internal combustion engine that operates on a significantly different approach to the conventional combustion engine. Whereas the traditional internal combustion engine relies on the combusting downward motion of the pistons to drive the rotation of its crank, these patents describe variant of a rotary styled engine.

The merits of United States Patents 6,796,285 and 7,500,462 provide significant advantages in optimizing fuel efficiencies over the conventional combustion engines, and can be summarized as follows: 1 . A reduction in the number of internal moving parts and the elimination of seals to reduce net friction and extend the life of the engine.

2. The conventional crankshaft has been replaced with a “flywheel-disk” of significant mass, which can store substantial amounts of rotational inertia, and deliver torque to the mechanical load.

3. The design offers a novel approach for delivering torque to the engine as it applies force near the extreme distal ends of the rotating “flywheel-disk” tangent to the direction of rotation. The split-combustion-chamber (see definition below) provides the key mechanism in transferring the combustive force tangent to the circumference of the flywheel-disk in the direction that rotates the flywheel in one direction.

4. The original approach to the piston assembly moving inside their respective cylinder chambers has been replaced by a system of one or multiple pistons called combustion-gates, all of which sit inside their respective Gate Stroke Cavities (see definition below) and are the integral sub-assembly of rotating flywheel-disk. This entire combination of combustion-gate and Gate Stroke Cavities rotate as a single unit with the flywheel-disk. Because the combustion-gates are part of the flywheel-disk, it contributes to the rotational inertia since it makes up part of the flywheel’s mass. This can never be true with a conventional combustion engine since the pistons reside outside the rotating crank that drives the load.

The present invention in this application is an adjunct to United States Patents 6,796,285 and 7,500,462. The two patents referenced provide a radical approach to the combustion engine concept resulting in much lower amounts of fuel required to operate. Although strides have been with combustion engines, considerable shortcomings remain.

It is an object of the present application to provide a system for regulating performance of a rotary engine, namely a method of optimizing fuel consumption via one or more inputs. The inputs may include modules, sensors, and control units configured to receive and transmit data, process data and store data. This data is used for the purpose of operating, enhancing, and monitoring the performance of the rotary engine in general, including fuel consumption. The engine control computing system includes an input/output interface to receive and transmit data for the one or more inputs. A computing unit includes an algorithm configured to regulate the volume of fuel used in the rotary engine. The computing unit is in communication with the engine control computing system.

The more important features of the assembly have thus been outlined in order that the more detailed description that follows may be better understood and to ensure that the present contribution to the art is appreciated. Additional features of the system will be described hereinafter and will form the subject matter of the claims that follow.

Many objects of the present assembly will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being made to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

Before explaining at least one embodiment of the system in detail, it is to be understood that the assembly is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The assembly is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the various purposes of the present assembly. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present assembly.

Brief Description of the Drawings The novel features believed characteristic of the application are set forth in the appended claims. However, the application itself, as well as a preferred mode of use, and further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a conventional internal combustion engine.

Figure 2 is a chart illustrating the power, acceleration, and velocity of pistons in the conventional internal combustion engine.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a combustion-gate in a flywheel-disk sub-system of the rotary engine according to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 4 is a schematic of an exemplary electronic device for use with engine control unit in the rotary engine of the present application.

Figure 5 is a diagram of a fuel optimization controller used with the rotary engine of the present application.

While the assembly of the present application is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the application to the particular embodiment disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the process of the present application as defined by the appended claims. Description of the Preferred Embodiment

Illustrative embodiments of the preferred embodiment are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developer’s specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

In the specification, reference may be made to the spatial relationships between various components and to the spatial orientation of various aspects of components as the devices are depicted in the attached drawings. However, as will be recognized by those skilled in the art after a complete reading of the present application, the devices, members, apparatuses, etc. described herein may be positioned in any desired orientation. Thus, the use of terms to describe a spatial relationship between various components or to describe the spatial orientation of aspects of such components should be understood to describe a relative relationship between the components or a spatial orientation of aspects of such components, respectively, as the assembly described herein may be oriented in any desired direction.

The embodiments and method will be understood, both as to its structure and operation, from the accompanying drawings, taken in conjunction with the accompanying description. Several embodiments of the assembly may be presented herein. It should be understood that various components, parts, and features of the different embodiments may be combined together and/or interchanged with one another, all of which are within the scope of the present application, even though not all variations and particular embodiments are shown in the drawings. It should also be understood that the mixing and matching of features, elements, and/or functions between various embodiments is expressly contemplated herein so that one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate from this disclosure that the features, elements, and/or functions of one embodiment may be incorporated into another embodiment as appropriate, unless otherwise described.

Referring now to the Figures wherein like reference characters identify corresponding or similar elements in form and function throughout the several views. The following Figures describe embodiments of the present application and its associated features. With reference now to the Figures, embodiments of the present application are herein described. It should be noted that the articles “a”, “an”, and “the”, as used in this specification, include plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise.

The new approach adopts much of the same thermodynamics and mechanical principles related to the classical combustion engine, it differs significantly on how the combustive energies transfer to a rotating crankshaft. The present invention comprises of a stationary cylindrical outer housing block and a rotating cylindrical-shaped flywheel- disk of significant mass sitting concentrically inside the cavity of the housing block allowing it to spin freely about its axial shaft(s). Referring now to Figure 3 in the drawings, a perspective view of a combustion- gate 103 in the flywheel-disk sub-system 101 is illustrated. The flywheel-disk sub-system is comprised of additional key components that are essential to the basic function of the present invention. These elements include cavities or notched cutouts made into the flywheel-disk 102 called Gate Stroke Cavities 104, starting from a section of the outside surface of the flywheel moving inwards towards the centroid. The cavities represent the displacement volume in which the fresh fuel mixture is brought into the engine and compressed by the “combustion-gates.” There is a combustion-gate 103 for every cavity 104 embedded into the flywheel 102. In the present invention, the engine can have a single to multiple cavity/combustion-gate pairs in the design. The specific depth, length, and width of the resulting cavity are determined by the volumetric displacement required for the design and provides enough space for the combustion-gate to move freely through its full range of motion within the chamber cavity. Each combustion-gate within its cavity is attached to a fixed point at one end of the chamber with a pin 105 allowing it to pivot about that point through its full range of motion.

The combustion-gate 103 is a wedge-shaped flap that is slightly arced to closely match the outer circumference of the flywheel-disk in its fully extended position. It is equivalent to the piston in a conventional combustion engine in terms of its function. The exterior top surface of the combustion-gate represents the area in which the compressed fuel/air mixture reaches the top-dead-center when the combustion-gate is fully extended outwards. Instead of the use of a piston connecting rod, the combustion-gate 103 is attached with a pin 105 to a fixed location at one end of the chamber’s cavity 104, allowing it to pivot within the chamber. The combustion-gate reaches its fully open position (bottom-dead-center) following combustion.

The flywheel-disk 102 eliminates the need for the conventional crankshaft, and the two Gates instead of pistons translates the combustive forces perpendicular to the radius of the flywheel-disk through its center of rotation. The diameter of the flywheel-disk 102 and its mass are significantly greater than that of a conventional engine crank which can store large amounts of kinetic energy in the form of rotational inertia.

The flywheel-disk 102 is comprised of an axle shaft on either or both sides of the flywheel and is supported by one or both ends of the flywheel-disk through the means of shaft mounts securely fixed inside the housing structure. These shaft mounts can be fixed directly on the interior side of the housing lid or elsewhere internally within the housing.

Clearance between the outside radial surface making up the flywheel-disk mass assembly and the interior wall of the outer cylindrical housing block are adequate to prevent internal rubbing between the two surfaces to prevent wear. Additional seals, much like wiper blades, can be optionally used in areas where seals may be crucial. In the present invention, elimination of seals that isolate fresh air/fuel mixture from air/fuel mixture that has already been ignited by making all combustion-gates synchronized to take in fresh air/fuel mixture and ignite the same time called “mono-chambering.” Another crucial element in the present invention includes the remaining components residing outside the stationary outer housing crucial to providing basic functions to the engine. These include a series of fuel injectors, spark plugs, intake, exhaust ports, and valves, which are all introduced from around the outside outer surface of the housing and extends inwards through the housing towards the rotating flywheel- disk and cavity.

Additionally, another critically important aspect of the invention is the introduction of a split-combustion-chamber. In the conventional engine, the combustion chamber is situated at the uppermost part of the cylinder and is defined as the volume making up the space between the top of the piston surface when the gas is fully compressed at top- dead-center upwards towards the cavity area of the engine block head where the valves, spark plug electrodes, and fuel injection spray tip resides. The split-combustion-chamber in the present invention is situated where a portion of the combustive chamber cavity resides within the interior edge of the housing (Outer Split Combustion Chamber) and the portion which resides as a cavity (Inter Split Combustion Chamber) notched into the outer surface of the combustion-gate. Any number and combination of intake valves, exhaust valves, fuel injectors, and spark plugs can be placed in any location appropriately to support optimization of any number of possible designs, including configuration consisting of one or multiple combustion-gates. The split-combustion-chamber is a key configuration for converting the combustive force of expanding hot gas to the rotational kinetic energy of the rotating flywheel-disk. The combustive force produced in this configuration forces the split chambers to push away from each other, resulting in the flywheel spinning continuously in one direction. The lines of force produced by the gas combustion in the present invention are tangent to the axis of rotation, thus eliminating losses from mechanical inefficiencies from the linear reciprocating to rotational translation of motion. Any net energies produced from firing the Gates gets stored in the flywheel. Some key points of the present application are: 1. The dimensions, mass, and radius of the flywheel-disk allows for the flexible configuration of for controlling the desired inertia and torque and combustion gate dimensions desired

2. The split-combustion-chamber provides a mechanism to translate the combustive reaction to resultant force that is tangent to the outer circumference of the flywheel- disk provide more efficient way of translating rotating energy to the crank

3. The placement of the chamber towards the distal edge of the flywheel-disk providing optimal production of torque.

4. Rotating Chamber and Piston sub-assembly contribute to stored energies of the flywheel-disk.

5. The ability to significantly store large amounts inertia allows for single-piston 4- stroke design.

The present application describes a rotary engine that is at least partially regulated by one or more electronic components and devices that are configured to receive and transmit data, process data and store data for the purpose of operating, enhancing, and monitoring the performance of the engine. Any number of modules, sensors, and control units work seamlessly together to accomplish the desired tasks. Any and all of these systems, modules, and sensors (in some way electronic) may be have communication, storage, and potential processing capabilities.

Referring now to Figure 4 in the drawings, a schematic of an electronic device used in the regulate of the rotary engine of the present application is provided. This is an exemplary layout of the functions and features of the electronic components that work to operate the engine, either singularly or collectively.

Figure 4 illustrates only one type of an exemplary electronic device 10. The electronic device 10 may include an input/output (I/O) interface 12, a processor 14, a database 16, and a maintenance interface 18. Alternative embodiments can combine or distribute the input/output (I/O) interface 12, processor 14, database 16, and maintenance interface 18 as desired. Embodiments of the electronic device 10 can include one or more computers that include one or more processors and memories configured for performing tasks described herein below. This can include, for example, a computer having a central processing unit (CPU) and non-volatile memory that stores software instructions for instructing the CPU to perform at least some of the tasks described herein. This can also include, for example, two or more computers that are in communication via a computer network, where one or more of the computers includes a CPU and non-volatile memory, and one or more of the computer’s non-volatile memory stores software instructions for instructing any of the CPU(s) to perform any of the tasks described herein. Thus, while the exemplary embodiment is described in terms of a discrete machine, it should be appreciated that this description is non-limiting, and that the present description applies equally to numerous other arrangements involving one or more machines performing tasks distributed in any way among the one or more machines. It should also be appreciated that such machines need not be dedicated to performing tasks described herein, but instead can be multi-purpose machines, for example computer workstations, that are suitable for also performing other tasks.

Furthermore, the computers may use transitory and non-transitory forms of computer-readable media. Non-transitory computer-readable media is to be interpreted to comprise all computer-readable media, with the sole exception of being a transitory, propagating signal.

The I/O interface 12 provides a communication link between external users, systems, and data sources and components of the electronic device 10. The I/O interface 12 can be configured for allowing one or more users to input information to the electronic device 10 via any known input device. Examples can include a keyboard, mouse, touch screen, microphone, and/or any other desired input device. The I/O interface 12 can be configured for allowing one or more users to receive information output from the electronic device 10 via any known output device. Examples can include a display monitor, a printer, a speaker, and/or any other desired output device. The I/O interface 12 can be configured for allowing other systems to communicate with the electronic device 10. For example, the I/O interface 12 can allow one or more remote computer(s) to access information, input information, and/or remotely instruct the electronic device 10 to perform one or more of the tasks described herein. The I/O interface 12 can be configured for allowing communication with one or more remote data sources. For example, the I/O interface 12 can allow one or more remote data source(s) to access information, input information, and/or remotely instruct the electronic device 10 to perform one or more of the tasks described herein.

The database 16 provides persistent data storage for electronic device 10. While the term "database" is primarily used, a memory or other suitable data storage arrangement may provide the functionality of the database 16. In alternative embodiments, the database 16 can be integral to or separate from the electronic device 10 and can operate on one or more computers. The database 16 preferably provides non-volatile data storage for any information suitable to support the operation of the electronic device 10.

The maintenance interface 18 is configured to allow users to maintain desired operation of the electronic device 10. In some embodiments, the maintenance interface 18 can be configured to allow for reviewing and/or revising the data stored in the database 16 and/or performing any suitable administrative tasks commonly associated with database management. This can include, for example, updating database management software, revising security settings, and/or performing data backup operations. In some embodiments, the maintenance interface 18 can be configured to allow for maintenance of the processor 14 and/or the I/O interface 12. This can include, for example, software updates and/or administrative tasks such as security management and/or adjustment of certain tolerance settings.

The processor 14 is configured to process data received as inputs from one or more sources such as subsystems, sensors, injectors, and other engine components for providing optimal performance of the system. Processor 14 is configured to transmit data to provide instruction to one or more devices to perform a task and/or relay monitoring performance data for example. Other types of information may be transmitted and/or received. The processor 14 can include various combinations of one or more processors, memories, and software components.

Of particular note herein is the use of a Fuel Optimizer Engine Control Unit to provide fuel optimization control to the engine. This is an advancement beyond the disclosure of United States Patents 6,796,285 and 7,500,462. It represents a blend of electronic computing hardware and software for controlling fuel optimization algorithms for the engine design based on both real-time and historic traffic patterns and conditions. The application of this invention is not strictly limited to the rotary engine herein but is equally applicable with other types of new and conventional engines. It could also be deployed on any conventional engine and drivetrain systems incorporating ECO-like (Economical Mode in the Car) functions commonly found in cars today.

Referring now also to Figure 5 in the drawings, a diagram of a fuel optimizer engine control unit 109 is illustrated. This unit 109 is operable with other conventional electronics used in vehicles and may be installed on other prior existing vehicle having a control unit to regulate performance of the engine. Unit 109 may be installed as an original equipment manufacture (OEM) device and/or as a retrofit.

The Engine Control Computing System of the present application represents any combination and collection of electronic circuitries, microprocessors, external sensors, memory, and software necessary optimize the fuel efficiency in the current engine design. Unlike the traditional internal combustion engine, the current engine can store significant amounts of mechanical energy. This gives the opportunity for properly managing the amount of stored inertia based on predicted need demanded by both the traffic conditions and physical factors of the route being taken. Basically, the system consists of several inputs that are transmitted to a computing unit where a software algorithm in the computing unit directly manages the fuel optimizing features of the engine. The diagram of Figure 5 represents one such embodiment of the invention with following categories of inputs:

External Proximity Sensors - These sensors are used to provide information such as relative position and velocity between vehicles in front, road curvature, obstructions and weather such as snow and rain all of which affects the driving pattern of the driver. Typical sensors in this class includes cameras, radar and Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) sensors to name a few.

Mapping Information - This includes on-board mapping and/or geographic information system (GIS) for gathering, managing, and analyzing data collected from sensors which is then correlated to the local geography. This data will be processes in conjunction with the external proximity sensors.

3rd Party Commercial or Government Traffic Data - The source of traffic data is similar to that of the Mapping Information mentioned above except that the traffic information is analyzed and compiled off-board and provided directly by a third party commercial or government entity. Google Maps is one such example of a commercial based entity. This data is useful to determine the variable nature of travel conditions related to street congestion, accidents, construction, road closures and so forth.

Disruptive Pattern Recognition - This part of the system monitors the incline angle in real-time of the actual road being traveled on and correlates that to the mapped route allowing it to be able to respond real-time to the vehicle torque needs. The steeper the uphill incline the vehicle is traveling on, the more inertia the vehicle will require on average. Conversely, the steeper the downhill incline is, the less stored inertia is required for that duration of incline. The incline to the route history is also stored in memory and later recalled to further enhance the predictive algorithm while traveling down identical paths at some point in the future. Similar process can be done with the tracking and storing of stop and go events demarking locations of intersections requiring full stops. These attributes can also optionally be reported and uploaded to such 3rd party services as Google Maps and subsequently provided to the system of the present application. The data gathered through these different inputs are processed in view of one another to arrive at a particular action regarding engine performance. Optimization of this data is configured to optimize fuel economy and performance of the engine. The inputs to the algorithm(s) of unit 109 can be implemented using one or any combination of 3rd party information as inputs to the fuel conservation algorithms; of on-board local sensors as inputs to enhance or cross-validate correlation of the 3rd party information; of on-board GPS/GIS software such as FalconView mapping system software; of disruptive pattern recognition real-time tracking and recording of steep uphill and steep downhill topography and stop and go events to identify full stop intersections; and the ability to report any or all of the information to any 3rd party service.

The current application has many advantages over the prior art including at least the following: A method of using traffic information to improve the control of fuel conservation subsystem in the vehicle’s engine and drivetrain systems.

The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the application may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified, and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the application. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the description. It is apparent that an application with significant advantages has been described and illustrated. Although the present application is shown in a limited number of forms, it is not limited to just these forms, but is amenable to various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.