Low Carbon Technology Research Group
Zero constraint free piston energy converter
The aim of the project is to realise and demonstrate a completely novel energy conversion technology, which has the potential for high efficiency, low emissions, and low manufacturing cost.
Its main applications are likely to be in series hybrid vehicles and portable power generation. The technology is based around a single-cylinder free-piston internal combustion engine (ICE), which is run on a 4-stroke cycle, with an integral linear electromagnetic machine and electromagnetically operated poppet valves.
By freeing the piston from crank shaft motion, it removes most of the constraints of crank rod-slider ICEs, and facilitates many advanced combustion strategies - by enabling variable compression ratio operation, throttle-free operation, different piston strokes during compression and expansion, and other previously unattainable piston trajectories.
It represents, therefore, a major step change in ICE operating flexibility and offers unparalleled design scope.
- Funding body
- EPSRC
- Project duration
- 3 years
- Project team (researchers)
- Professor Rui Chen, J Patterson, R Winward and Z Liu
- Industrial collaborators
- Sheffield University, Lotus Engineering
- Contact
- Professor Rui Chen
Project outputs / results
The project has realised and demonstrated a completely novel energy conversion technology, which has the potential for high efficiency, low emissions, and low manufacturing cost.
Its main applications are likely to be in series hybrid vehicles and portable power generation. The technology is based around a single-cylinder free-piston internal combustion engine (ICE), which is run on a 4-stroke cycle.
By freeing the piston from crank shaft motion, it removes most of the constraints of crank rod-slider ICEs, and facilitates many advanced combustion strategies - by enabling variable compression ratio operation, throttle-free operation, different piston strokes during compression and expansion, and other previously unattainable piston trajectories. It represents, therefore, a major step change in ICE operating flexibility and offers unparalleled design scope.
In addition, a new combustion concept, quasi-constant volume combustion, has been developed from the project. The concept has the potential to significantly improve the ICE’s energy efficiency and pollutant emissions reduction proven by the project.
Publications
- A. Gazis, D. Panousakis, J. Patterson, W. H. Chen, R. Chen, and J. Turner, “Using In-Cylinder Gas Internal Energy Balance to Calibrate Cylinder Pressure Data and Estimate Residual Gas Amount in Gasoline Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Combustion”, Experimental Heat Transfer, Volume 21, Issue 4 October 2008 , pages 257–280.
- Zhen Liu, Rui Chen, “A Three-Zone Engine Combustion Model with Reduced Kinetics for Knock Simulation”, Combustion Science and Technology, Volume 181 Issue 6, pp828-852, 2009.
- Rui Chen, Edward Winward, Paul Stewart, Ben Taylor, Dan Gladwin, “Quasi-Constant Volume (QCV) Spark Ignition Combustion”, SAE 099-01-0700, pp1-10, SAE 2009 World Congress.
- R. Chen, Z. Liu, “Multi-Zone Kinetic Model of Controlled Auto Ignition Combustion”, SAE 2009-01-0673, pp1-12, SAE 2009 World Congress.
- Gladwin D., Stewart P., Stewart J., Chen R. and Winward E., "An adaptive decision support methodology for process-in-the-loop optimisation", SCS/IEEE International Workshop on Modelling and Applied Simulation (MAS2008), Calabria, Italy September 17-19, 2008.