| 摘要 |
An internal combustion engine comprises a toroidal combustion chamber housing within which slides at least one piston. The combustion chamber housing has a circumferential longitudinal slot sealed by a ring seal to which the pistons are rigidly attached. A mechanism is provided for reversibly creating one or more transverse seals within the combustion chamber housing. The space between the transverse seals constitutes one or more combustion chambers. The simplest embodiment of the engine has one combustion chamber and one piston. The combustion chamber is operationally divided by the piston into two regions. The space between the transverse seal and a trailing surface of the piston defines a combustion region. The space between the transverse seal and a leading surface of the piston defines an exhaust region. In each power cycle of the engine, compressed air, fuel and steam are injected into the combustion region and ignited. The resulting hot combustion gases drive the piston around the circular path defined by the toroidal housing, with power being transferred from the piston and the ring seal via a suitable linkage to a central power shaft. Meanwhile, the leading surface of the piston pushes the combustion gases of the previous cycle out of the combustion chamber housing, preferably into a similar toroidal expansion chamber housing, where further expansion of the combustion gases drives a second piston that is similarly linked to the power shaft. The scope of the invention also includes a protocol for injecting air, fuel and steam into the combustion housing. |
