Wave disk engine

http://gas2.org/2011/03/21/the-wave-disk-engine-cheap-efficient-clean-and-different/

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The Wave Disk Engine: Cheap, Efficient, Clean, and Different
13 comments
March 21, 2011 in Engines

The basic design of the internal combustion engine has not changed much in the last 100-something years. I think its time for a change, and the disk wave engine could be the answer to a future free of combustion engines.

To power any combustion engine you need fuel, air, and either compression or spark to cause an explosion that provides the moving power most of us rely on. The wave disk engine is no different, as it combines air, fuel, and compression to produce power. Developed by researchers at the University of Michigan, this small engine could be up to 3.5 times more efficient than the piston-driven engines found in most cars. How? Well the engine does away with those heavy pistons and replaces them with a single disk with small channels carved out to carry air and fuel…any fuel, from hydrogen to gas to biodiesel. The inside and outside edges of the disk alternately open and close to combine the air and fuel, and shockwaves produced from the rotation of the disk compress and ingite the combination. By hooking the engine up to a generator, you can produce electricity to feed the motor, while getting almost four times better gas mileage and producing 95% less carbon dioxides.

Image: The New Scientist

Considering that today’s most advanced, expensive, and efficient combustion engines only put out between 15% and 40% tops of the energy (fuel) put into them, an improvement of 3.5 times more efficiency would mean more power and more miles-per-gallon from an engine that is 20% smaller and estimated to cost just $500 for a unit large enough to power a car. And since I’m sure somebody will mention this, turbine engines can achieve up to 70% energy efficiency….but I don’t think the average person wants to drive a jet (I do but I’m nuts.) The U.S. alone burns through something like 19 million barrels of oil per day, so we’re wasting anywhere from 60% to 85% of that potential energy. Imagine if we could harness most of that wasted energy?

Why we’d use a fraction of the oil we do, saving money, natural resources, and the air we breathe. And this wave disk engine could be an important step towards seriously cutting back on our oil usage. Of course, there is a catch (as there always is.) The engine is only most effective at high RPMs, meaning that it has the same problem as turbine cars; namely, acceleration sucks. But it could provide more than enough electricity to an electric motor, serving as a much cheaper range extender than your typical detuned combustion engine. Between this and the Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder (OPOC) engine, there might yet be a future for combustion-type engines. The researchers from the University of Michigan already have a working prototype, and they hope to have a car-sized wave disk engine completed by the end of the year. Whether or not that engine will cost more than $500 remains to be seen, though I might even have a few cars I could donate to the cause…as long as I get to keep the finished product.

Source: The New Scientist

Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs. You can read about his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout or follow his non-nonsensical ramblings on Twitter @harshcougar.
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13 comments
Tags:

* engine
* engine efficiency
* how efficient are combustion engines
* shock wave
* shock wave engine
* shockwave engine
* wave disk engine
* wavedisk

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1.
Jason Lancaster 7 days ago

Knowing you Chris, you’ll argue that this engine should have been designed 100 years ago and that, despite it’s clear benefits, you’d rather have a bicycle! :-)

Seriously, cool post. Very interesting news.
Reply
2.
Alan McInnes 7 days ago

Another engine that you may want to investigate/write about is the MYT engine by Raphial Morgado at http://angellabsllc.com/ I don’t know if the technology is for real, but the videos on YouTube look very convincing and his web site seems to explain a lot about how it works. Your idea of a generator creating electricity for an electric motor is great. At the very least you get rid of transmission losses and you can run at constant RPM and tune the engine for the most efficient combustion at that RPM. This is why I would love to see a diesel/electric car.
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3.
Tim Cleland 7 days ago

It’s a great idea for Volt-type cars and may eventually catch on. If it’s really that efficient, who needs the Volt’s batteries?! Just have it run as a generator all the time. If it truly is inexpensive and practical, then the market will eventually give it its due.
Reply
4.
Ed 7 days ago

Huge claims – but absolutely no credibility
3.5X more efficient than today’s engines. Today’s engines are 43%-48% efficient so 3.5X would be 170% efficient… WRONG!
Turbines are 70% efficient… WRONG! Best mobile turbine engines are maybe 50%
95% less carbon dioxides – Did anyone even check these numbers before spouting them out? You still have to burn the fuel so unless the fuel is suddenly free from carbon this is ridiculous.
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Christopher DeMorro 7 days ago

@ Ed

Where are you getting your info for ICE engine efficiency? Because even the MOST efficient ICE engines get, at most, 40% efficiency. Most are less than 20% efficient when it comes to converting energy to forward motion.
Reply
5.
Mac McDougal 7 days ago

Is there a good animation of how it works? That would be pretty cool.
Reply
6.
grayjay 6 days ago

Researching the 3.5X claims a bit, it looks like they are citing a 15% OVERALL efficiency (power to the wheels)for a conventional IC engine vehicle and saying that a hybrid system using the wave disk might thus be able to achieve 52% efficiency overall.
So, efficiency of the wave disk is probably on-par with a conventional turbine engine but perhaps there are fewer difficulties with construction and operation of the wave disk as compared to a turbine?
Reply
7.
Felix 5 days ago

Why not bind this with a Hybrid and use electric motors to save all the acceleration problems?
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*
Lee 4 days ago

Like the article said, wave disk + generator + electric motor.
Reply
8.
Tomek 4 days ago

Read this.

Numerical investigation of the Wave Disk Micro-Engine

wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/gtsj/jgpp/v02n01tp01.pdf
Reply
9.
Uncle B 2 days ago

Folks! Even if this engine surpassed all expectations, even if it proved to be a ‘Miracle of American Design’, even if it were more economical, reliable, than turbo-diesel engines from Europe. Would the current Corporatist,Capitalist controllers of America relent and allow it to progress? For a Fact: Diesel fuel was traditionally much cheaper than gasoline – enter successful Euro-diesel designs, diesel fuel prices rose even higher than gasoline, and Americans took a screwing from the oil barons.
A strong accusation, right? Unfounded? Hell No! Google, torrent, the documentary, “Who Stole The Electric Car”. Study it. Ask, Where did these miracle batteries that worked so well, go? Who buried them? Why were the advanced, super-magnet motors destroyed? Who benefited? Who lost? Why? Did corporate interests stand to lose on their investments in gasoline engines? oil investments? transmission factories? Sunk Capital? Did the American patriots lose a good reliable workable non-polluting, domestic energy powered means of transportation? Just what was this Corporate play all about? Why the strong-arm techniques?The secrecy? In ‘Free’ America? Did these cars run for cheaper than gasoline ones? Did they emit less CO2? Did they require no OPEC, parasite nations, foreign oil to run? Why, if they needed destroying so badly, are we now encouraged to buy the new Chev battery/hybrid? The same car, reworked to consume gasoline?
This ‘new’ engine design comes from a a whole series of engine designs, swash plate engines,high reving engines, slow combustion engines, you name it, in the 1930′s they had dozens of promising designs – Straight four cylinder, V-8′s and straight 6 cylinder engines won out in America, not by accident, but by good sound engineering principles.Why the notion that these folks missed something? All gasoline engines require compression and burning, expansion of gasses to operate, and by the laws of Thermodynamics can only attain certain. predictable, efficiencies – same with diesels, only due to higher compression ratios, diesels are a full 40% more efficient than current day gasoline engines.
America, look to thorium fueled nuclear reactor sourced electricity and electric bullet trains and their networks, associated infrastructures, for the future of America. Oil is a commodity that is finite on this planet, and limited in its energy content. Thorium is not! There is enough Thorium in America to power her for centuries to come! Barring Solar, Wind Wave, Hydro Tidal, Geothermal schemes, which are all perpetual, or renewable, if you prefer, sources of electricity, Thorium reactors and their associated potential for radiation leaks are the best, fastest, option for an energy starved America.
Reply

Continuing the Discussion

1. Efficiency Improvements for Internal Combustion Engines - Page 25 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com
7 days ago
2. 燃料を選ばない高効率ディスクエンジン(Wave Disk Engine) : monogocoro ものごころ
7 days ago

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