You offer an excellent explanation as to where the problems arise in ICE development. The 6 stroke engines represent a good application of invention. I do worry about the complications and possibly extra weight that would be required to make these practical. With a little luck we will see LENR driven engines before these complexities show up in vehicles.
Dave -----Original Message----- From: Jones Beene <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, Feb 11, 2013 3:15 pm Subject: RE: [Vo]: Carnot efficiency and COE From:David Roberson I am a bit confused about your statement that the gasoline enginehas a Carnot efficiency of 65%. If that calculation is just based uponthe maximum temperature of the hot gas within the cylinder as compared to thecooler exhaust gas, then I would have to seek a reason for the extra lossesencountered. Yes, the Carnot number forthe ICE is based on the high temp of combustion near TDC – which does notchange much in any type of gasoline engine - and low temp being the exhausttemperature, which is significantly over ambient. Higher compression helps onthe high end, but there are limits. If you could squeeze moreenergy from the exhaust on the first pass, it would really help the efficiency- but there are a variety of interlocking reasons why an ICE cannot be “leaned-out”enough to lower the exhaust temperature. The best you can do is add aturbocharger. In a typical ICE of 30%thermal efficiency, roughly 35% of the losses are out the tailpipe and 35% areout the radiator. The engine must be kept cool so radiator losses are almost unavoidablewithout going to ceramics. The best TEG to captureexhaust heat operates at 5% thermal efficiency, so using one can only add (.05x .35 = .018) which will raise the 30% original efficiency to less than 32%which is not enough to matter much. That is why few cars have them. The solution that workswell --on paper-- to lower both of the major loss categories - out the tailpipeand out the radiator - is the six-stroke cycle, such as the design of Bill Crowerand others - which has not yet gained traction, so to speak. Wiki has a basic article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-stroke_engine
