EXTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

The External Combustion Engine was first created in the early

1920s. Because it was introduced after Internal Combustion
Engines had become the norm, it was widely ignored for much
of the 20th century. Then in 1993, Dr. Timothy McVeigh
became intrigued with the device and patented it. In April of
1995, McVeigh tested it in his Oklahoma City laboratory.
Following the External Combustion Engine's remarkable
success in McVeigh's real world test, he started a company and
began manufacturing the engines on a large scale. The company
was later bought by Ralph Nader, who stepped up production
and began installing External Combustion Engines standard on
all Ford Pinto automobiles. a heat engine (as a steam engine)

While External Combustion Engines only account for just under 3% of the combustion engine
market today, their popularity is on the rise. Environmentalists in particular have expressed
interest in External Combustion Engines because of their energy savings, and a growing number
of consumers are purchasing vehicles equipped with them in order to cut down on costs of
gasoline.

There's some recent evidence that engineering is a profession specializing in determination the
various methods of converting internal combustion engines to their external counterparts. The
popularity of educational programs of engineering therefore predicts external combustion
engines' new appraisal.

The technology may one day even be harnessed for military applications, creating what may
eventually be termed an "explosive."
DEFINING EXTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE
An external combustion engine (EC engine) is a heat engine where a working fluid, contained
internally, is heated by combustion in an external source, through the engine wall or a heat
exchanger. The fluid then, by expanding and acting on the mechanism of the engine, produces
motion and usable work. The fluid is then cooled, compressed and reused (closed cycle), or (less
commonly) dumped, and cool fluid pulled in (open cycle air engine). "Combustion" refers to
burning fuel with an oxidizer, to supply the heat. Engines of similar (or even identical)
configuration and operation may use a supply of heat from other sources such as nuclear, solar,
geothermal or exothermic reactions not involving combustion; they are not then strictly classed
as external combustion engines, but as external thermal engines. The working fluid can be of any
composition and the system may be single phase (liquid only or gas only) or dual phase
(liquid/gas). that derives its heat from fuel consumed outside the cylinder

EXAMPLE OF EXTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

ADVANTAGE OF EXTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE
These engines are self-started, less vibration due to rotary type,involves use of cheaper fuels,
high starting torque is required. It's true that an external combustion engine such as steam-engine
can use cheaper or more or less any fuel; but the other qualities are not so, A steam turbine
(external combustion) can (and must) run without vibration, but so must a gas-turbine (internal
combustion). Otherwise the internal combustion engine is the more efficient because its heat
losses are much lower. Really, the i.c. engine has the advantage over the e.c. as it is more
efficient (less fuel energy per HP or kW output), simpler in principle, lighter overall, cheaper and
easier to make.

IMPORTANCE OF EXTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

An external combustion engine is a heat engine where an (internal) working fluid is compressed
and heated by combustion of an external fuel through the engine wall or a heat exchanger. The
fluid then, by expanding and acting on the mechanism of the engine (piston or turbine), produces
a shaft power. Steam engines and Stirling engines are most known external combustion engines.

The strength of external combustion engines vis-à-vis internal combustion engines is

compatibility with a wide variety of renewable energy and fuel sources. They may use a supply
of heat from any sources such as biomass and biomass derived products, municipal waste,
nuclear, solar, geothermal, or exothermic reactions not involving combustion. In the later case
they are not then strictly classed as external combustion engines, but as external heat engines.
Other important advantages of external combustion engines are low emissions, due to continuous
external combustion, and low noise, due to elimination of exhaust of high-pressure combustion
products.
Promising external combustion engine concepts are Stirling engines that convert thermal energy
into mechanical energy of reciprocating piston(s). The pistons are moved due to a cyclic change
of gas phase working fluid pressure under the influence of its temperature and volume change.
High theoretical thermal efficiency (Carnot efficiency), long maintenance interval, fewer moving
parts are additional advantages of Stirling engines.

In practice the Stirling thermodynamic cycle deviates from the theoretical cycle due to frictional
losses, working fluid leakage, dead volumes etc. Technical problems, in particular balancing of
pistons (or piston and displacer) reciprocating with a phase lag and sealing of the hot piston,
currently prevent the wide application of Stirling engines.
Significant improvements of Stirling engines are expected by using engines in which the
displacer is rigidly connected to the power piston. In these engines the piston-displacer assembly
is moved due to the cycling pressure change of the working fluid under the influence of change
of its temperature and amount inside the engine chamber. This engine concept has a number of
advantages compared to state-of-the-art external (Stirling) and especially internal combustion
engines. The engine has only one moving parts and no gas springs, piston rings or any other
rubbing components requiring lubrication. It solves the problems of high-temperature sealing and
balancing of the pistons and reduces heat losses. Moreover, both strokes of the piston are
working ones in contrary to any other types of piston engines.

ECT has initiated the development of a radically new external combustion single-piston engine,
and built a thermodynamic model of the engine (new thermal cycle), a detailed mathematical
model of the engine and a numerical programme for engine performance simulation. It also
prepared construction drawings for the engine that is currently being built.

ECT has initiated the development of a radically new external combustion single-piston engine
(see picture below). A thermodynamic and detailed mathematical models of the engine (new
thermal cycle) and a numerical program for engine performance simulation were elaborated.
Using the theoretical results the engine was designed and construction drawings were prepared.
After manufacturing of the engine components the engine was assembled. First engine tests have
been started.
 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE
 3rd century: The earliest evidence of a crank and
connecting rod mechanism dates to the 3rd century AD
Hierapolis sawmill in Asia Minor (Turkey) as part of the
Roman Empire.
 5th century: Roman engineers documented several
crankshaft-connecting rod machines used for their
sawmills.
 9th century: The crank appears in the mid-9th century in
several of the hydraulic devices described by the Banū
Mūsā brothers in their Book of Ingenious Devices.[1]
 In 1206, al-Jazari invented an early crankshaft,[2][3] which
he incorporated with a crank-connecting rod mechanism
in his twin-cylinder pump. Like the modern crankshaft,
Al-Jazari's mechanism consisted of a wheel setting
several crank pins into motion, with the wheel's motion
being circular and the pins moving back-and-forth in a
straight line.[2] The crankshaft described by al-Jazari[2][3]
transforms continuous rotary motion into a linear reciprocating motion,
 17th century: Samuel Morland experiments with using gunpowder to drive water pumps.
 17th century: Christiaan Huygens designs gunpowder to drive water pumps, to supply
3000 cubic meters of water/day for the Versailles palace gardens, essentially creating the
first idea of a rudimentary internal combustion piston engine.
 1780s: Alessandro Volta built a toy electric pistol[4] in which an electric spark exploded a
mixture of air and hydrogen, firing a cork from the end of the gun.
 1791: John Barber receives British patent #1833 for A Method for Rising Inflammable Air
for the Purposes of Producing Motion and Facilitating
Metallurgical Operations. In it he describes a turbine.
 1794: Robert Street built a compressionless engine. He
was also the first to use liquid fuel in an internal
combustion engine.[5]
 1794: Thomas Mead patents a gas engine.[6]
 1798: John Stevens builds the first internal combustion
engine in America.
 1801: Philippe LeBon D'Humberstein comes up with the
use of compression in a two-stroke engine.
 1807: Nicéphore Niépce installed his "moss, coal-dust
and resin" fueled Pyréolophore internal combustion
engine in a boat and powered up the river Saône in
France. A patent was subsequently granted by Emperor
Napoleon Bonaparte on 20 July 1807.
 1807: Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz built an
internal combustion engine powered by a hydrogen and oxygen mixture, and ignited by
electric spark. (See 1780s: Alessandro Volta above.) [7]
  1823: Samuel Brown patented the first internal combustion engine to be applied
industrially. It was compressionless and based on what Hardenberg[8] calls the "Leonardo
cycle", which, as the name implies, was already out of date at that time.

 1824: French physicist Sadi Carnot established the

thermodynamic theory of idealized heat engines.
 1826 April 1: American Samuel Morey received a
patent for a compressionless "Gas or Vapor
Engine."[8] This is also the first recorded example of
a carburetor.
 1833: Lemuel Wellman Wright, UK patent 6525,
table-type gas engine. Double-acting gas engine,
first record of water-jacketed cylinder.[9]
 1838: A patent was granted to William Barnett, UK Patent 7615 April 1838. According
to Dugald Clerk, this was the first recorded use of in-cylinder compression.[10]
 1853-57: Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci invented and patented an engine using
the free-piston principle that was possibly the first 4-cycle engine.[11][12]

Early internal combustion engines were used to power farm equipment similar to these models.

Patent of Otto-Langen engine -1863.

This internal combustion engine was an integral aspect of the patent for the first patented
automobile, made by Karl Benz on January 29, 1886

Karl Benz

 1856: in Florence at Fonderia del Pignone (now Nuovo

Pignone, later a subsidiary of General Electric), Pietro
Benini realized a working prototype of the Italian engine
supplying 5 HP. In subsequent years he developed more
powerful engines—with one or two pistons—which
served as steady power sources, replacing steam engines.
 1857: Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci describe the
principles of the free piston engine where the vacuum
after the explosion allows atmospheric pressure to deliver
the power stroke (British patent No 1625). Otto and
Langen were the first to make a marketable engine based
on this concept 10 years later.[12]
DEFINING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE
The internal combustion engines are generally a major source of air pollution. However the spark
ignition engines are recognized by their carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbon emission.
One of the methods used to reduce the emission of these pollutants is the use of external
combustion engine. This paper describes the development of an external combustion engine
which uses air in tanks at pressures of 30 - 50 МPа and at ambient temperature as combustion
energy carrier, and hydrogen, alcohols or traditional motor fuel from organic minerals as
chemical energy carrier. Research workings out are in the field finished to level of practical use.
The mathematical and simulation model has been developed, tested, and verified to simulate a 4-
stroke cycle of a spark ignition engine fuelled with gasoline. The results obtained from the
present study have shown the capability of the model to predict the performance satisfactorily.

An internal combustion engine (ICE) is a heat engine where the combustion of a fuel occurs
with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working
fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high-temperature and
high-pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the
engine. The force is applied typically to pistons, turbine blades, rotor or a nozzle. This force
moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into useful mechanical
energy. The first commercially successful internal combustion engine was created by Étienne
Lenoir around 1859[1] and the first modern internal combustion engine was created in 1864 by
Siegfried Marcus.

The term internal combustion engine usually refers to an engine in which combustion is
intermittent, such as the more familiar four-stroke and two-stroke piston engines, along with
variants, such as the six-stroke piston engine and the Wankel rotary engine. A second class of
internal combustion engines use continuous combustion: gas turbines, jet engines and most
rocket engines, each of which are internal combustion engines on the same principle as
previously described.[1][2] Firearms are also a form of internal combustion engine.[2]

Internal combustion engines are quite different from external combustion engines, such as steam
or Stirling engines, in which the energy is delivered to a working fluid not consisting of, mixed
with, or contaminated by combustion products. Working fluids can be air, hot water, pressurized
water or even liquid sodium, heated in a boiler. ICEs are usually powered by energy-dense fuels
such as gasoline or diesel, liquids derived from fossil fuels. While there are many stationary
applications, most ICEs are used in mobile applications and are the dominant power supply for
vehicles such as cars, aircraft, and boats.

Typically an ICE is fed with fossil fuels like natural gas or petroleum products such as gasoline,
diesel fuel or fuel oil. There's a growing usage of renewable fuels like biodiesel for compression
ignition engines and bioethanol or methanol for spark ignition engines. Hydrogen is sometimes
used, and can be made from either fossil fuels or renewable energy.
IMPORTANCE:
The invention and development of the internal-combustion engine in the nineteenth century has
had a profound impact on human life. The internal-combustion engine offers a relatively small,
lightweight source for the amount of power it produces. Harnessing that power has made
possible practical machines ranging from the smallest model airplane to the largest truck.
Lawnmowers, chainsaws, and electric generators also may use internal-combustion engines. An
important device based on the internal-combustion engine is the automobile.

In all internal-combustion engines, however, the basic principles remain the same. Fuel is ignited
in a cylinder, or chamber. Inside the sealed, hollow cylinder is a piston (a solid cylinder) that is
free to move up and down and is attached at the bottom to a crankshaft. The energy created by
the combustion, or burning, of the fuel pushes down on the piston. The movement of the piston
turns the crankshaft, which then transfers that movement through various gears to the desired
destination, such as the drive wheels in an automobile.

The most common internal-combustion engines are the piston-type gasoline engines used in most
automobiles. In an engine, the cylinder is housed inside an engine block strong enough to contain
the explosions of fuel. Inside the cylinder is a piston that fits the cylinder precisely. Pistons
generally are dome-shaped on top, and hollow at the bottom. In a four-stroke engine, the piston
completes one up-and-down cycle in four strokes: intake, compression, power, and exhaust.

The first stroke, the intake stroke, begins when the piston is at the top of the cylinder, called the
cylinder head. As it is drawn down, it creates a vacuum in the cylinder. This is because the piston
and the cylinder form an airtight space. This vacuum helps to draw the fuel-air mixture into the
cylinder through an open intake valve, which closes when the piston reaches the bottom of the
cylinder.

On the next stroke, called the compression stroke, the piston is pushed up inside the cylinder,
compressing or squeezing the fuel-air mixture into a tighter and tighter space. The compression
of the mixture against the top of the cylinder causes the air to heat up, which in turn heats the
mixture. Compressing the fuel-air mixture also makes it easier to ignite and makes the resulting
explosion more powerful. There is less space for the expanding gases of the explosion to flow,
which means they will push harder against the piston in order to escape.

At the top of the compression stroke, the fuel-air mixture is ignited by a spark from a spark plug
placed in the cylinder head, causing an explosion that pushes the piston down. This stroke is
called the power stroke, and this is the stroke that turns the crankshaft.

The final stroke, the exhaust stroke, takes the piston upward again, expelling the exhaust gases
created by the explosion from the cylinder through an exhaust valve. When the piston reaches the
top of the cylinder, it begins the four-step process again.