Engineering:Compound internal combustion engine
A compound internal combustion engine is a type of internal combustion engine (ICE) where gasses of combustion are expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound ICE is that the fuel/air is first combusted and expanded in one of two alternating 4-stroke combustion high-pressure (HP) cylinders, then having given up heat and losing pressure, it exhausts directly into a larger-volume low-pressure (LP) cylinder, where it is re-expanded extracting more work from it.
The crankshaft is arranged so the two high-pressure cylinders have synchronized reciprocating motion, while the low-pressure cylinder throw is positioned at a 180-degree phase difference from the high-pressure throws causing opposing reciprocating motion between the high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders.
History
Compound ICEs have been around for nearly as long as standard ICEs with the first patent being issued to Nicolaus Otto’s Deutz company in 1879; this design having likely been created by then Deutz employee Gottlieb Daimler.[1]
Other designs for compound ICEs were patented by well known engine designers Rudolf Diesel in 1892 and James Atkinson in 1903.[1]
The Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle Company produced a series of automobiles with compound ICEs from 1900 -1908.
The engines in these vehicles ranged from 2 cylinders (1908 model) to 6 cylinders (1907 model).[2]
In 2000 the design was “re-patented” as the five-stroke engine by Gerhard Schmitz. This design was prototyped by British engineering company Ilmor.
Compound ICE patents
- Deutz 1879
- Forest-Gallice 1888
- Connelly 1888
- Diesel 1892
- Bales 1897
- Atkinson 1903
- Babled 1903
- Butler 1904
- Eisenhuth (multiple) 1904-1907
- Abbot 1910
- Schmitz 2000
See also
- Atkinson cycle
- Four-stroke engine
- Free piston engine
- History of the internal combustion engine
- Compound steam engine
- Turbo-compound engine
References
 |  |
