18-05-2013, 11:40 AM
AIR POWERED ENGINE
AIR POWERED.docx (Size: 627.58 KB / Downloads: 46)
Need of the technology:
Today fossil fuels are widely used as a source of energy in various different fields like power plants, internal & external combustion engines, as heat source in manufacturing industries, etc. But its stock is very limited and due to this tremendous use, fossil fuels are depleting at faster rate. So, in thisworld of energy crisis, it is inevitable to develop alternative technologies to use renewable energy sources, so that fossil fuels can be conserved. One of the major fields in which fossil fuels are used is Internal Combustion Engine. An alternative of IC Engine is “AIR POWERED ENGINE”. It is an engine which will use compressed air to run the engine. It is cheap as it uses air as fuel, which is available abundantly in atmosphere.
There are several technical benefits of using this engine, like as no combustion takes place inside the cylinder, working temperature of engine is very close to ambient temperature. This helps in reducing wear and tear of the engine components. Also there is no possibility of knocking. This in turn results in smooth working of engine. One more technical benefit is that there will not be any need for installing cooling system or complex fuel injection systems. This makes the design simpler. Here air is compressed using compressor which in turn uses electricity, to run, which is cheaper and widely used. This adds value to its economic benefits. Also, as discussed earlier, as no combustion takes place which results in smooth working of the engine with minimum wear and tear, this will require less maintenance. So these are some of its economic benefits.
One more interesting thing is that the exhaust temperature of this engine will be slightly less than the atmospheric temperature (i.e. 15-25c). So this will help in cooling the environment.And if this technology is widely used than it will help in controlling global warming. These are some green bytes associated with this technology. Exhaust gases leaving the engine will be only air having low temperature. So this will eliminate the problem of harmful emissions, in conventional engines. This gives us environmental benefit of using this engine.Also as there will be no thermal radiations produced, radar can’t detect these vehicles. So this will help our army too. Also the components used in this are: conventional SI engine, air vessel to store compressed air, and timing circuit are economical.These economical and readily available components make the technology easily adaptable. The only problem related to its working is at the time of start. It requires some initial torque to be supplied, manually, to bring the engine into motion. This problem can be resolved by providing a DC powered exciter motor which will provide required initial torque to the engine.
Process description and discussion:
To convert a conventional IC engine into an Air Powered one, few components are to be replaced. First of all replace the spark plug with a pulsed pressure control valve which can create required pressure. Now the pulsed air firing in this valve is controlled by controlling the supply of electrical signal to the plunger. For this we require an electronic timing circuit which can control the flowof electrical supply to the plunger of this valve. This can be achieved by using PLC circuit. Now speed of the engine will be controlled by controlling this input signal. Now fuel tank is to be replaced with air vessel, as it requires pressurized air as input. And two things are to be taken care while designing air vessel:
1) First is its strength to withstand high internal pressure, which exists due to compressed air.For this outer body of it should be made of a material, having high strength, like carbon fiber.
2) Second is its capacity to store air and its weight