EPIC Cycles for the EPIC Cycle Engine
US20260117695A1
Abstract
A rotary engine is provided, comprising a planar housing with a circular center cavity, a pair of rotary wall valves flanking and overlapping the circular center cavity and centered on an axis extending through the circular center cavity, a truncated ellipsoid rotor rotatably mounted within the circular center cavity, and fore and aft cover plates flanking the planar housing.
Description (excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The invention is a Continuation of, claims prior to and incorporates by reference entirely U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/772,368 filed Jul. 15, 2020 and assigned Navy Case 211375-2 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/831,023 filed Mar. 26, 2020 and assigned Navy Case 108378. FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT The invention described was made in the performance of official duties by one or more employees of the Department of the Navy, and thus, the invention herein may be manufactured, used or licensed by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor. INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE The disclosure of “NOVEL HIGH POWER DENSITY ENGINE FOR MILITARY APPLICATION” by Christopher Lamb at the University of Maryland, published on Nov. 29, 2023, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The EPIC Cycle (modified Exhaust-Power-Intake-Compression strokes) Engine is a family of engine versions based on the modification of cycles into a complex yet elegant new multi-variant cycle, and the application of technology to capitalize on those cycle modifications of these new EPIC [Buchanan] Cycles. The EPIC Engine Family includes the EPIC Generator and other and offspring products/applications/variations. The EPIC Cycles include, but are not limited to, simultaneous strokes, shared space, maximized leverage, conservation of motion, transference of compressed gasses from the leading to trailing sides of pistons and/or wall valves for combustion, specific power/power density (SP/PD) increase with addition of pistons and wall valves, along with temporal compressed gas storage. The EPIC Cycle Engine Family utilizes any hardware configuration, along with supporting HW and SW to enable the EPIC Cycle and other key aspects of the EPIC Engines. The Buchanan Cycle can be ordered in several ways for application to various versions of the EPIC Engines. The EPIC [Buchanan] Engine utilizes Wall Valve(s) [(WV), i.e. movable cylinder head(s)] to reach far into and out of cylinder(s) thus increasing internal engine volume beyond that which would otherwise be possible, along with internal, external and sandwiched compression tunnels within, through or between any components for partial to full compressed gasses transference. The Buchanan Engine also increases power at some exponential rate by adding WVs and piston lobes in its shared internal volume and that SP/PD gain over comparable piston engines is proportional to the number of pistons. The physical number of cylinders is equal to the number of pistons. The equivalent number of cylinders is defined by the multiplicative equation of the # pistons times the # of WVs. The number of power strokes per revolution is the equivalent number of cylinders divided by 2. Conventional rotary engines yield disadvantages addressed by various exemplary embodiments of the present invention. In particular, various exemplary embodiments provide a rotary engine to produce torque. The engine includes a planar housing, a truncated ellipsoid rotor, a pair of double-concave blades, fore and aft cover plates, and a gear box. The housing has a circular main cavity, and a pair of circular lateral cavities overlapping the main cavity and disposed along a longitudinal axis. The rotor is disposed within the main cavity on a rotor shaft along a rotation axis perpendicular to the planar housing. The blades flank the rotor and are disposed within their corresponding lateral cavity and turn on corresponding blade shafts parallel to the rotor shaft. The fore and aft cover plates flank the housing along the rotation axis to cover the center and lateral cavities. The gear box is disposed on the aft cover plate and has a rotor gear wheel with adjacent corresponding blade gear wheels. The rotor gear wheel turns with the rotor shaft while engaging both blade gear wheels along their peripheries. The blade gear wheels turn with the corresponding blade shafts. The blades turn opposite to the rotor. Another aspect of the present disclosure is that the stroke order may be varied. In the Buchanan Cycle the EPIC strokes may be varied to occur in 24 combinations. The strokes may occur in any of the following variations: EPIC, EPCI, EICP, EIPC, ECPI, ECIP, PECI, PEIC, PICE, PIEC, PCIE, PCEI, IECP, IEPC, ICEP, ICPE, IPCE, IPEC, CEIP, CEPI, CPEI, CPIE, CIEP, or CIPE. Further, the EPIC Cycle combines 2 strokes at a time as part of it's modification of each standard cycle (e.g. IPCE combines IP on one side of a rotor with CE on the other side). Another aspect of the present disclosure is that the rotary engine may be operated in a modified diesel EPIC Cycle. In the modified diesel EPIC Cycle, the diesel four-stroke two piston two WV EPIC ignites under pressure on one end (at one rotary wall valve) every ½ revolution or 2 times p
Filing details
- Inventors
- William Gregory Buchanan
- Assignee
- United States Of America, As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy
- Filed
- Nov 29, 2024
- Granted
- Application pending
Bibliographic data and excerpted text sourced from Google Patents (public record) as part of IP TechMatch's current-filings monitor. This filing is not part of the 2019 historical archive. For the authoritative full text, drawings, and legal status, see the source links above or consult USPTO records directly.