CA2752653A1

CA2752653A1 - Modified piston for an internal combustion engine

Info

Publication number: CA2752653A1
Application number: CA2752653A
Authority: CA
Inventors: John Lipinski
Original assignee: Trinity High Tech Products Ltd
Current assignee: Trinity High Tech Products Ltd
Priority date: 2011-09-12
Filing date: 2011-09-12
Publication date: 2013-03-12
Also published as: WO2013037063A1

Abstract

An internal combustion engine comprises a piston cylinder having a cylinder head and a piston in the piston cylinder. An upper surface of the piston, the piston cylinder and the cylinder head define a combustion chamber. The upper surface of the piston is contoured to increase turbulence in the combustion chamber.

Description

TITLE
[0001] Modified piston for an internal combustion engine FIELD

[0002] This relates to a modified piston for an internal combustion engine.
BACKGROUND

[0003] Traditional internal combustion engines ignite a fuel-air mixture in combustion chambers to drive the pistons. The quality of combustion relates to the amount of power applied to the pistons. Accordingly, it is important to achieve a high quality mixture of combustion air and fuel prior to igniting the mixture.

[0004] United States patent no. 6,237,579 (Singh) entitled "Design to improve turbulence in combustion chambers" describes one way in which the air/fuel mixture may be improved by providing a pattern on the piston to enhance turbulence , which provides a more uniform mixture to ensures a more complete combustion.

SUMMARY

[0005] There is provided an internal combustion engine, comprising a piston cylinder having a cylinder head and a piston in the piston cylinder, an upper surface of the piston, where the piston cylinder and the cylinder head define a combustion chamber.
The upper surface of the piston is contoured to increase turbulence in the combustion chamber.

[0006] According to an aspect, an upper end of the piston cylinder within the combustion may also be contoured to increase turbulence in the combustion chamber.

[0007] According to an aspect, one or both of the upper surface of the piston and the upper end of the piston cylinder comprise at least one groove.

[0008] According to an aspect, the cylinder head comprises one or more grooves in the combustion chamber.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] These and other features will become more apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to be in any way limiting, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view in section of a piston of a combustion engine.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view in section of an alternative of a combustion engine.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view in section of a further alternative of a combustion engine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0010] An internal combustion engine, generally identified by reference numeral 10, will now be described with reference to FIG. 1 through 3.

Structure and Relationship of Parts:

[0011] Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a cross-section of internal combustion engine 10. Internal combustion engine has a piston cylinder 12, a cylinder head 14, and a piston 16 in piston cylinder 12. A combustion chamber 18 is defined by an upper surface 20 of piston 16, piston cylinder 12 and cylinder head 14. As piston 16 reciprocates within piston cylinder 12, it drive crank shaft 22. Combustion chamber 18 is fed by an inlet 24 and exhausted by an outlet 26. While FIG. 1 only depicts one four-stroke piston cylinder 12, the design of internal combustion engines is well known, and it will be understood that the modifications discussed herein may be applied generally to other internal combustion engine designs that use pistons and piston chambers, including the various types of four-stroke engines, two-stroke engines, etc. As these designs and their principles of operation are well known in the art, only a limited discussion will be given herein.
[0012] Piston 16 is driven by the explosive combustion of the air-fuel mixture in combustion chamber 18. The combustion may be improved by ensuring a more thorough mixture of the combustion air and the fuel. This results in a more complete combustion, which causes a greater force to be applied to piston 16 as well as a cleaner burn, which reduces the pollutants being exhausted from engine 10. In order to increase this mixing effect, upper surface 20 of piston 16 is contoured. The contours on upper surface 20 increase turbulence, and therefore promote a more uniform mixing throughout combustion chamber 18. In the depicted embodiment, this contouring is provided by one or more grooves 28 machined into upper surface 20. This would be suitable when modifying an existing engine, as generally straight grooves 28 are relatively easy to produce with a minimum of specialized equipment. However, upper surface 20 may also be contoured in other ways and with other designs. This would be particularly applicable if the piston 16 were to be manufactured with a contoured upper surface 20.

[0013] Referring to FIG. 2, in addition to upper surface 20 of piston 16 being contoured, it may also be beneficial to contour an upper end 30 of piston cylinder 12 to increase turbulence in combustion chamber 18. As used herein, the term "piston cylinder" refers to the cylindrical portion with a constant diameter that houses and guides piston 16.
Accordingly, the contouring may be a departure from the round shape, such as one or more grooves 32 around an inner diameter of piston cylinder 12. Other examples of contours may include partial grooves, grooves with an axial component, or other contours that remove material from the standard shape of piston cylinder 12. It will be understood that it may not be possible to apply a contour to piston cylinder 12 as there may not be enough room (such as in the example shown in FIG. 1), depending on the design of engine 10. As depicted in FIG. 2, groove 32 is positioned above the top of the stroke of piston 16, the spacing of which has been exaggerated in order to make the design more clear.

[0014] In another example, referring to FIG. 3, there may also be a groove 34 in cylinder head 14. Preferably groove 34 aligns with grooves 28 in piston cylinder 12 as shown, although other groove designs may also be used.

[0015] In this patent document, the word "comprising" is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article "a" does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be one and only one of the elements.

[0016] The following claims are to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually equivalent, and what can be obviously substituted.
The scope of the claims should not be limited by the preferred embodiments set forth in the examples, but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the description as a whole.

Claims

1. An internal combustion engine, comprising:
a piston cylinder having a cylinder head and a piston in the piston cylinder, a combustion chamber defined by an upper surface of the piston, the piston cylinder and the cylinder head;
the upper surface of the piston being contoured to increase turbulence in the combustion chamber.

2. The internal combustion engine of claim 1, wherein an upper end of the piston cylinder within the combustion is contoured to increase turbulence in the combustion chamber.

3. The internal combustion engine of claim 1, wherein the upper surface of the piston comprises grooves.

4. The internal combustion engine of claim 2, wherein the upper end of the piston cylinder comprises at least one groove.

5. The internal combustion engine of claim 1, wherein the cylinder head comprises one or more grooves in the combustion chamber.