External-internal rotary combustion engine

An internal combustion engine in which various engine functions are carried out simultaneously rather than sequentially with the result that engine operation is smoother, less subject to vibrational forces, and has greater efficiency due to the elimination of the need to overlap functions. The engine comprises a rotatable cylinder made up of fuel charge, combustion, and working segments rotating in unison. The fuel charge and working segments each contain a plurality of radially arranged cylinders open at both ends and a spherical piston in and freely movable within each of the cylinders. A stationary cam surrounds the cylinder having cam surfaces to contact the spherical pistons within each of the cylinders causing each piston in its respective cylinder to reciprocate as the cylinder rotates. A stationary core is located within and enclosed by the rotatable cylinder for supplying and carrying away working fluid into and from the cylinders. Combustion chambers are formed within the combustion segment which separates the fuel charge and working segments. Within the stationary core is provision for delivering fuel charge to the combustion segment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a rotary internal combustion engine and 
more particularly to a rotary internal combustion engine with more 
effective use of time in the engine cycle. 
In the typical four cycle internal combustion engine a single piston and 
cylinder must accommodate four distinctly different events in successive 
order within the cylinder to deliver power. A fuel air mixture must be 
sucked into a chamber cool enough so that the fuel does not ignite from an 
earlier ignition. The mixture must then be compressed in the same chamber 
as much as possible without causing premature combustion from the heat of 
compression. Then the compressed fuel air mixture must be ignited in a 
manner that does not cause a rapid explosion, but rather a slow moving 
flame front which causes an expansion of the gases. Finally, it must rid 
this same chamber of the heat and waste products to prepare for the intake 
of a fresh fuel air mixture. 
In order for all this to take place at precise timing, valves must open and 
close and ignition must take place at just the right time. This is 
possible only when an engine is running at a constant, reasonable speed 
and its timing can then be fixed to the time it takes for ignition, 
combustion and expansion to occur. However, an engine runs at many 
different speeds and the faster it runs the less time each event has to 
perform, and at increased speed the events start to overlap into other 
cycles (for example, having ignition before top dead center) until it 
becomes impossible to perform properly with maximum efficiency. 
In addition, if the engine were running at a constant speed it is possible 
to supply just the right amount of fuel and cause ignition at just the 
right time for that speed to catch and consume all of the fuel before it 
is released into the atmosphere. However, in automotive engines the engine 
is constantly changing speed and it is impossible to have just the right 
amount of fuel and ignition and expansion to totally consume all the fuel 
before the next cycle takes place. This results in poor emission control 
and unburned hydrocarbons. 
Still another problem with the conventional internal combustion engine 
concerns the necessity to reverse direction of movement of pistons, 
valves, etc. In the case of the piston, for example, at top dead center 
the piston starts to move down from its stop position, then is accelerated 
to its maximum velocity of movement, followed by its decelerating and 
reversal of direction of movement. The valves and the fuel charges are 
subject to the same kind of motion. As the engine increases in speed, 
these movements are crowded into shorter and shorter periods of time and 
the effects of inertia cause additional wear problems and tend to decrease 
the efficiency of the engine. 
The rotary internal combustion engine deals with some of the aforementioned 
problems, but the limited amount of time to carry out the various 
functions is still a very crucial factor, especially as the speed of the 
engine increases. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In this invention, many of the problems associated with the internal 
combustion engine including those mentioned above as well as others to be 
noted below are avoided or diminished. 
The invention described herein is an improvement on the engine described in 
my U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,050 issued on Jan. 14, 1992. 
In accordance with the principles of this invention, an engine is provided 
in which the various engine functions described above are carried out 
continuously in separate parts of the engine rather than intermittently 
with the result that engine operation is smoother, less subject to 
vibrational forces, and with greater efficiency due to the elimination of 
the need to provide time in the engine cycle for the acceleration and 
deceleration of engine parts and fuel and exhaust gas flow. Furthermore, 
the overlapping of events in the cycle which contribute materially to 
inefficiency in engines presently in use are largely avoided. 
A preferred embodiment of this invention comprises a rotatable cylinder 
made up of fuel charge, combustion, and working segments rotating in 
unison. The fuel charge and working segments each contain a plurality of 
radially arranged cylinders open at both ends and a spherical piston in 
and freely movable within each of the cylinders. A stationary cam 
surrounds the cylinders having cam surfaces to contact the spherical 
pistons within each of the cylinders causing each piston in its respective 
cylinder to reciprocate as the cylinder rotates. 
A stationary core is located within and enclosed by the rotatable cylinder 
for supplying and carrying away working fluid into and from the cylinders. 
Combustion chambers are formed within the combustion segment which 
separates the fuel charge and working segments. Within the stationary core 
is provision for delivering fuel charge to the cylinders in the fuel 
charge segment. The spherical pistons in these cylinders compress the fuel 
charge for delivery to adjacent combustion chambers in the combustion 
segment. 
The combustion chambers have provision to ignite the compressed fuel charge 
delivered from the fuel charge segment and transfer the burning fuel 
charge to adjacent cylinders in the working segment after a sufficient 
delay to permit combustion to continue until turbulence largely disappears 
which results in increased efficiency in the engine. A portion of the 
burning fuel charge from the combustion chambers is fed back after a delay 
sufficient to quench the combustion to mix with incoming fresh fuel air 
mixture to clear the combustion chambers in preparation for a fresh 
compressed fuel air charge. The combustion products expand to cause the 
spherical pistons within the working segment to rotate the shaft assembly 
connected to the rotatable cylinder delivering the output shaft power of 
the engine. 
By separating within the engine the compression, burning, and expansion 
events of the cycle, the need to overlap any of these events is avoided 
with the result that greater efficiencies are attained. 
It is thus a principal object of this invention to provide an internal 
combustion engine which makes more effective use of the time available 
during the cycle. 
Other objects and advantages will hereinafter become obvious from the 
following description of preferred embodiments of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring to FIG. 1, internal combustion engine 10 comprises a housing 12 
consisting of a pair of front and rear end plates 14 and 16, respectively, 
and a plurality of stacked housing rings 18 held together by elongated 
bolts 22 and nuts 24 forming the hollow interior illustrated. 
Front end plate 14 is provided with a central opening 32 for passage 
therethrough of shaft 34 which is supported on the outside of housing 12 
by bearings 36 secured by ring 38 mounted on the outside of end plate 14 
by bolts 42. 
Rear end plate 16 is provided with an opening 44 to accommodate manifold 
assembly 46 which provides for the supply of fuel-air mixture through 
conduit 48 and the exhaust of combustion products by way of conduit 52 in 
a manner which will be explained below. 
As also seen in FIG. 2, mounted on shaft 34 within housing 12 is a gear 
system 54 consisting of sun gear 56 mounted on shaft 34, gears 58, and 
surrounded by ring gear 62. Gears 58 are supported on shafts 64 supported 
in bearings 66 and 68 mounted in front end wall 14 and manifold assembly 
46 as will be more particularly described later. Attached to ring gear 62, 
and driven by, is a rotor assembly 72 which comprises ring-shaped segments 
74, 76, 78, and 82 which are keyed together in a conventional manner (not 
illustrated) so as to rotate together. 
Spacer segment 74 provides connection between the remaining segments and 
ring gear 62 in the manner illustrated. These segments will hereinafter be 
referred to as fuel charge segment 76, combustion segment 78, and working 
segment 82. 
Manifold assembly 46 which is stationary during the operation of engine 10 
comprises an end wall 84 in which are mounted bearings 68 previously 
described, an annular outer wall 86, and an inner, exhaust duct 52 
previously described. As seen by the arrows, fresh fuel-air mixture flows 
into the annular space between duct 52 and annular wall 86 from duct 48 
and the exhaust products of combustion flow out through duct 52 which will 
be more particularly described below. 
A number of extension blocks 87 mounted between end walls 14 and 84 on 
shafts 87a provide rigid support for manifold assembly 46 within housing 
12. 
As also seen in FIG. 3, fuel charge segment 76 contains a plurality of 
radially arranged cylinders 88 circular in cross section which are open at 
both the inside and outside of segment 76. The radially inward end of each 
cylinder 88 forms a spherical socket 92 with a passageway 94 penetrating 
the inner surface of segment 76. Within each cylinder 88 is a spherical 
piston 96 free to slide up and down, and rotate within, cylinder 88. 
Radial movement of piston 96 is controlled by a cam 98 mounted in ring 
segments 18 of housing 12. Cam surface 98a of cam 98 contacting pistons 96 
is circular but is off-center from rotor assembly 72 with the consequence 
that as rotor assembly 72 turns as shown by arrows A in FIG. 3, pistons 96 
will reciprocate within cylinders 88 from the most inward position shown 
at the top, to the most outward as shown in the bottom of FIGS. 1 and 3. 
As seen in FIG. 3, a single rotation of rotor assembly 72 results in each 
piston 96 moving radially in and out just once. 
Referring to FIG. 3, it will be seen that annular outer wall 86 of assembly 
46 is provided with an annularly extending port 102 which extends from 
just past top dead center (TDC) to just before bottom dead center (BDC) so 
that as piston 96 moves outwardly as shown by arrows B for almost 180 deg. 
of rotation, fresh fuel-air mixture is being drawn into each cylinder 88. 
As each cylinder 88 moves past wall 104 ending port 102, BDC is reached 
and each cylinder opens into a groove 106 in outer wall 86 which extends 
from just past BDC to just before TDC. Groove 106 communicates with a 
passageway 108 which runs parallel to the axis or length of assembly 46 to 
communicate with a groove 112 directly under combustion segment 78 (as 
seen in FIG. 4). Groove 112 is seen to extend for a distance from just 
before to just after TDC. 
From just after BDC to near TDC (see FIG. 3), pistons 96 are compressing 
the fuel-air mixture which is forced by way of groove 106 into passageway 
108 and then by way of groove 112 to combustion segment 78 as will now be 
described. 
As also seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, combustion segment 78 is provided with an 
insert 78a which contains a plurality of combustion chambers 114 which are 
shaped in the form of inwardly directed pockets. Chambers 114 are 
rectangular in cross section and become charged with compressed fuel-air 
mixture from groove 112 extending just past TDC. As segment 78 moves in a 
clockwise direction, chambers 114 containing compressed fresh fuel-air 
mixture will become exposed to an annularly extending groove 116 formed in 
wall 86. 
A spark plug 118 located in groove 116 ignites the mixture. It is 
anticipated that once the engine is running it will not be necessary to 
use spark ignition as combustion from previously fired combustion chambers 
will supply the ignition for the freshly charged chambers. The flame front 
moves down the length of groove 116 and into a port 119 connected to a 
passageway 120 which extends axially through wall 86. Passageway 120 
communicates with an annularly extending expansion chamber 122 as seen in 
FIG. 5 which returns (counter clockwise) the heated combustion products to 
an axially extending passageway 124 communicating with a groove 126 (see 
FIG. 6) supplying the compressed combustion products to power segment 82 
which will be described below. The purpose of transferring the compressed 
combustion products in a counter clockwise direction back to a point 
earlier in the cycle is to provide more time for the combustion to 
continue and become less turbulent and thereby produce a more efficient 
expansion of the combustion products when producing the shaft output of 
the engine. 
As seen in FIG. 4, the remaining combustion products within chambers 114 
not discharged into passageway 120 as chambers 114 pass the end of groove 
116 are discharged (to clear chambers 114 for a new charge) through a 
groove 128 and a passageway 132 which communicates with an annular 
passageway 133 (shown by hidden lines in FIG. 3) discharging the remaining 
combustion products through ports 133a into fresh fuel charge entering 
cylinders 88 in segment 76. The long path traversed by the combustion 
products from groove 106 to ports 133a is to insure that combustion is 
quenched so that no burning will take place in the fuel intake. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 6, power segment 82 is similar in construction to 
segment 76 in that this segment is provided with a plurality of axially 
extending cylinders 134 containing spherical pistons 136 free to 
reciprocate and rotate therein as previously described. The compressed 
combustion products enter cylinders 134 from groove 126 by way of 
passageways 138. A cam 142 mounted in the outer housing segments 18 has a 
cam surface 144 which is circular but having a center which is offset from 
the center of rotor 72 so that pistons 136 riding on cam surface 144 under 
pressure by the compressed combustion products will cause the rotation or 
rotor 72 and provide the shaft output for engine 10. Pistons 136 will make 
a single forward and reverse stroke during one complete rotation of 
segment 82. 
Past BDC, passageways 138 of cylinders 134 will discharge the spent 
combustion products into a groove 146 and out through tubes 148 and 152 
into exhaust conduit 52 through ports 148a and 152a, respectively. 
It is understood that conventional lubricating and cooling systems as 
required may be incorporated into the engine as described herein. 
In the operation of engine 10, as illustrated also in FIGS. 7a-7f and 8, 
fresh fuel-air mixture is drawn into cylinders 88 of segment 76 between 
TDC and BDC after which the mixture is compressed and fed by way of groove 
106 and passageway 108 to groove 112 and into combustion chambers 114. 
Hence, it is seen that cylinders 88 continuously draw in, compress, and 
discharge compressed fuel-air mixture. 
In segment 78 the compressed fuel-air mixture in combustion chambers 114 
continuously begins to fire and burn the mixture as each chamber 114 
passes over groove 116. This permits the pressure to rise and the 
combustion products to spread through groove 116 and passageway 120 into 
chamber 122 counterclockwise to port 124 leading to groove 126 under power 
segment 82. The time delay introduced by chamber 122 permits a greater 
part of the combustion to be completed before the combustion products are 
inserted into working segment 82 thereby decreasing the amount of 
turbulence present with the consequent loss of efficiency. As previously 
noted, some of the combustion products not trapped in groove 116 are fed 
back into fuel charge segment 76 to mix with the incoming fresh fuel air 
charge. 
Pistons 136 are driven to expand under the pressure of the combustion 
products to drive rotor 72 and produce the power output of engine 10. 
By separating in different parts of the engine into compression, combustion 
and expansion steps, it is possible for all three to occur simultaneously 
without any one interfering or overlapping with any of the others. This 
produces greater efficiency and permits higher engine speeds to be reached 
without sacrificing any of this efficiency. In addition, since the fuel is 
always completely burned no matter how fast the engine is running, there 
are few emission problems to contend with. 
It is thus been provided an internal combustion engine capable of 
increasing engine speed without the necessity to overlap various engine 
events and sacrifice efficiency. 
While only certain preferred embodiments of this invention have been 
described it is understood that many variations are possible. For example, 
the order of segments 76, 78, and 82 may be reversed so that segment 82 is 
nearest to gear system 54, with segment 78 remaining in the middle. Other 
changes may also be made without departing from the principles of this 
invention as defined in the claims which follow.