The Linear Combustion Engine

Hybrid electric vehicles use rotary internal combustion engines to generate electricity. But what if you took the generator, and 'unrolled' it into a line, did away with all that crankshaft and flywheel nastiness, and replaced the lot with a straight bit of tube with a combustion chamber at each end?

That is the idea of researchers at the Czech Technical University who are developing a linear combustion engine, with two opposing pistons at either end of a cylinder.

The design of engine promises greater efficiency than rotary combustion engines paired with generators, however, this efficiency requires sophisticated control electronics to keep the system in check.

Because the compression ration of the system can be variable - controlled by electronics - not fixed as in a rotary engine, there is the possibility to design vehicles that will run on a wide variety of fuels.

Check out the Linear Combustion Engine Project here.

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A Two-Stroke?
written by Mike, March 17, 2007

The picture in this article is of a 2-stroke (or also known as a 2-cycle engine). This is an inherently polluting engine--with a lot of unburned and partitially burned combustion byproducts.

Can work as a 4-stroke
written by kballs, March 20, 2007

They state on their web page that you can link 4 pistons together onto the same linear motor shaft to get a 4-stroke cycle (since there would always be a combustion stroke going to power the exhaust and compression strokes in the other pistons)...

...
written by Terry Sisson, March 21, 2007

The linear ICE is not new. The Bourke engine (1930s) design is like your drawing. Since then, others have modified it with coils and moving magnets in the center to simultaneously be a generator.

2 stroke engine
written by nathan, June 16, 2007

although these people are saying it is not green because waste fuel escapes through the exuast port
,it has a injector that only functions when both ports are closed,and as it produces more power than a 4 stroke for its weight,it is more efficent than a 4 stroke version

inventor
written by fred roberts, February 28, 2008

i made one of these engines using my own design in 1999 and hoped it could be built lagre enough to power subdivisions.....the hardest part turned out to be cycles per second at varying speeds and loads

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written by Vincent Beall, October 27, 2008

In 2006 the idea for the engine occured to me. I tried to contact someone at my fraternity to communicate the idea.

I am just today search the net and an glad to find that the engine is being researched. Without knowing this I made a video about it that I uploaded yesterday.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3408858699311763289&hl=en

Dreamer
written by Don Jones, May 02, 2009

I came up with this design in my head in the late 70s, soon after first reading about free-cylinder engines. The obvious (to me) application as a hybrid electric vehicle. I was ahead of the times and technologies, I guess. Batteries, controllers not ready. I have come up with a better 4-cycle layout than the two parallel cylinder design mentioned. Can use more conventional bearings, more conventional alternator design components. No, it doesn't require any more parts or conversion of motion to rotating.

Linear machine
written by Uwe Schierhorn, June 09, 2009

Dear Ladies & Gentlemen,

if you are interested in developing a linear machine with a multifunction, then I can support you.
Use please no.:
WO 00 2007 016943 A1 or
DE 21 2005 0000 82 U1.
Thank you for your interest.

Yours sincerely !

Uwe Schierhorn