Controlled combustion engine (CCE) is a term used by TechViki, an engine design company, to identify a type of experimental internal combustion engine (ICE) designed by Brad Howell-Smith. It uses two counter-rotating cams instead of a crankshaft. Pairs of cylinders oppose each other in a boxer flat engine or X engine arrangement.
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The idea came to Howell-Smith, an automotive engineer residing in Australia, during REM sleep in 1995. He designed five different engine layouts with variations on each and established Revolution Engine Technologies Pty Ltd in 1996 with a budget of A$2,000. The first working prototype was built by father-in-law Peter Koch in Howell-Smith's garage. Howell-Smith founded a company named Revetec Limited and set up a research and development site in Sydney. The prototype was displayed at the 1996 Sydney International Motor Show which brought public awareness to the design. Work began on a second prototype intended for use in generators and pumps, however interest expressed by the Middle East automotive market shifted focus towards automotive applications.
The Revetec engine [1] design consists of two counter-rotating "trilobate" (three lobed) cams geared together, so both cams contribute to forward motion. Two bearings run along the profile of both cams (four bearings in all) and stay in contact with the cams at all times. The bearings are mounted on the underside of the two inter-connected pistons, which maintain the desired clearance throughout the stroke.
The two cams rotate and raise the piston with a scissor-like action to the bearings. Once at the top of the stroke the air-fuel mixture is fired. This is the power stroke during which the maximum mechanical advantage is reached after the piston has moved approximately 5% of its travel from top dead centre (approx. 10° ATDC), which makes better use of the high cylinder pressures at this point in the cycle. In comparison, a conventional engine reaches its maximum mechanical advantage after the piston has moved approximately 40% of its travel from TDC (approx. 60° ATDC). A side effect of this is a CCE can idle at much lower RPM.
Because the piston assembly only moves in one dimension (unlike the case in an engine with connecting rods), contact with the cylinder wall is minimised, which reduces wear and lubrication requirements. The cams create less piston shock, which allows ceramic components to be used. The engine can run in either direction if symmetrical lobes are used.
The effective cranking distance is determined by the length from the point of bearing contact to the centre of the output shaft (not the stroke).
The dual bearings contact the two cams in the opposite side which cancels the side forces out. The piston assembly does not experience any side force which reduces wear and lubrication requirements at the cylinder contact. One module, which consists of a minimum of five moving components, produces six power strokes per revolution. Increasing the number of lobes on each cam to five produces ten power strokes without increasing the number of components.
The following advantages are claimed for the CCE engine at. [2]
The following have yet to be verified independently.
U.S. Patent 5,992,356 "Opposed piston combustion engine "; November 30, 1999; Howell-Smith; Bradley David (Worongary, AU).
Revetec has a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent application pending for the "X" design lodged late 2006.
A dyno graph of the Revetec 1.38litr engine is shown on their development page, shows a flat torque curve. [1]
Test results (11 November 2007) on the X4v2 engine showing torque and power curves and the fuel injection map. [7]
In April 2008, Revetec completed their first Independently Certified Test Report carried out by Orbital Australia, achieving a repeatable BSFC figure of 212g/kW-h (38.6% efficiency). [5]
Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the mechanical horsepower, which is about 745.7 watts, and the metric horsepower, which is approximately 735.5 watts.
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of all types. The main types are: the internal combustion engine, used extensively in motor vehicles; the steam engine, the mainstay of the Industrial Revolution; and the Stirling engine for niche applications. Internal combustion engines are further classified in two ways: either a spark-ignition (SI) engine, where the spark plug initiates the combustion; or a compression-ignition (CI) engine, where the air within the cylinder is compressed, thus heating it, so that the heated air ignites fuel that is injected then or earlier.
A four-strokeengine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either direction. The four separate strokes are termed:
A Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas between different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work.
In spark-ignition internal combustion engines, knocking occurs when combustion of some of the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder does not result from propagation of the flame front ignited by the spark plug, but when one or more pockets of air/fuel mixture explode outside the envelope of the normal combustion front. The fuel–air charge is meant to be ignited by the spark plug only, and at a precise point in the piston's stroke. Knock occurs when the peak of the combustion process no longer occurs at the optimum moment for the four-stroke cycle. The shock wave creates the characteristic metallic "pinging" sound, and cylinder pressure increases dramatically. Effects of engine knocking range from inconsequential to completely destructive.
Engine tuning is the adjustment or modification of the internal combustion engine or Engine Control Unit (ECU) to yield optimal performance and increase the engine's power output, economy, or durability. These goals may be mutually exclusive; an engine may be de-tuned with respect to output power in exchange for better economy or longer engine life due to lessened stress on engine components.
The Toyota S Series engines are a family of straight-four petrol engines with displacements between 1.8 and 2.2 litres, produced by Toyota Motor Corporation from January 1980 to August 2007. The S series has cast iron engine blocks and aluminium cylinder heads.
The Bourke engine was an attempt by Russell Bourke, in the 1920s, to improve the two-stroke internal combustion engine. Despite finishing his design and building several working engines, the onset of World War II, lack of test results, and the poor health of his wife compounded to prevent his engine from ever coming successfully to market. The main claimed virtues of the design are that it has only two moving parts, is lightweight, has two power pulses per revolution, and does not need oil mixed into the fuel.
An axial engine is a type of reciprocating engine with pistons arranged around an output shaft with their axes parallel to the shaft. Barrel refers to the cylindrical shape of the cylinder group whilst the Z-crank alludes to the shape of the crankshaft.
In a reciprocating engine, the dead centre is the position of a piston in which it is either farthest from, or nearest to, the crankshaft. The former is known as top dead centre (TDC) while the latter is known as bottom dead centre (BDC).
A hydraulic motor is a mechanical actuator that converts hydraulic pressure and flow into torque and angular displacement (rotation). The hydraulic motor is the rotary counterpart of the hydraulic cylinder as a linear actuator. Most broadly, the category of devices called hydraulic motors has sometimes included those that run on hydropower but in today's terminology the name usually refers more specifically to motors that use hydraulic fluid as part of closed hydraulic circuits in modern hydraulic machinery.
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The term six-stroke engine has been applied to a number of alternative internal combustion engine designs that attempt to improve on traditional two-stroke and four-stroke engines. Claimed advantages may include increased fuel efficiency, reduced mechanical complexity, and/or reduced emissions. These engines can be divided into two groups based on the number of pistons that contribute to the six strokes.
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The Michel engine was an unusual form of opposed-piston engine. It was unique in that its cylinders, instead of being open-ended cylinders containing two pistons, were instead joined in a Y-shape and had three pistons working within them.
A cam engine is a reciprocating engine where, instead of the conventional crankshaft, the pistons deliver their force to a cam that is then caused to rotate. The output work of the engine is driven by this cam.
An internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine. The force is typically applied to pistons, turbine blades, a rotor, or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into kinetic energy which is used to propel, move or power whatever the engine is attached to.
This glossary of automotive terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts related to automobiles, including their parts, operation, and manufacture, as well as automotive engineering, auto repair, and the automotive industry in general. For more specific terminology regarding the design and classification of various automobile styles, see Glossary of automotive design; for terms related to transportation by road, see Glossary of road transport terms; for competitive auto racing, see Glossary of motorsport terms.