New Engine Technology

[Brokinarrow]

Check it out:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42460541/

Despite shifting into higher gear within the consumer's green conscience, hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the internal combustion engine.
However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids. Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines.
The engine has a rotor that's equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins. These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy.

The Wave Disk Generator uses 60 percent of its fuel for propulsion; standard car engines use just 15 percent. As a result, the generator is 3.5 times more fuel efficient than typical combustion engines.
Researchers estimate the new model could shave almost 1,000 pounds off a car's weight currently taken up by conventional engine systems.
Last week, the prototype was presented to the energy division of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is backing the Michigan State University Engine Research Laboratory with $2.5 million in funding.
Michigan State's team of engineers hope to have a car-sized 25-kilowatt version of the prototype ready by the end of the year.

[wylde1]

Wow. Now that is cool.

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by Brokinarrow

Check it out:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42460541/

All sounds good in theory but the Wankle engine promised a lot of the same things..... I believe it when I see it.

[SS/RS NJ]

Very cool.

[Brokinarrow]

Originally Posted by Fearer2010SS

All sounds good in theory but the Wankle engine promised a lot of the same things..... I believe it when I see it.

Wankle was every bit as complicated as regular internal combustion engines. This thing is a lot simpler, less moving parts. I am very hopeful that this thing will do well, and definitely think that money should be put into additional research to make sure this thing has a chance to make it into production (so long as it lives up to the promises anyway).

[wylde1]

Originally Posted by Fearer2010SS

All sounds good in theory but the Wankle engine promised a lot of the same things..... I believe it when I see it.

it's nice to see they're taking a shot at something new though. The Wankle was an innovative different way of looking at internal combustion, but suffered many of the same faults as a piston engine. not that this one won't either, but you gotta try!

[G8GT4now]

University of Michigan and Michigan State University are not the same college!!

Sort of like mixing up University of Texas and Texas A&M.

Anyways cool article.

[Brokinarrow]

Originally Posted by G8GT4now

University of Michigan and Michigan State University are not the same college!!

Sort of like mixing up University of Texas and Texas A&M.

Anyways cool article.

Heh, shows how much i follow sports Fixed!

[Steve Dallas]

This looks interesting. Not anything we'll see any time soon, but still...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42460541...ce-innovation/

[8cd03gro]

Originally Posted by Fearer2010SS

All sounds good in theory but the Wankle engine promised a lot of the same things..... I believe it when I see it.

The goals of the wankle were very different and the result was one of the best racing designs in history. The wankle engines dominated every road racing event they were used in and were eventually banned from almost every form of professional racing because piston engines couldn't keep up. They suck for commuter vehicles, but they definitely served their purposes. Maybe this will have opposite results.

[State Funded]

Go Green!

[coolman]

Sounds like the basics of a scroll compressor.

[DGthe3]

This sounds promising, and I hope it all works out. But it will be a decade or two before it ever gets into a passenger car.

Originally Posted by Brokinarrow

Wankle was every bit as complicated as regular internal combustion engines. This thing is a lot simpler, less moving parts. I am very hopeful that this thing will do well, and definitely think that money should be put into additional research to make sure this thing has a chance to make it into production (so long as it lives up to the promises anyway).

Wankles are way simpler than a reciprocating piston engine. They've only got 1 moving part for what is equivalent to a bank of 3 cylinders.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallas

This looks interesting. Not anything we'll see any time soon, but still...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42460541...ce-innovation/

merged and moved