Scuderi Group, an engine development company that is re-engineering the conventional four-stroke engine to advance fuel-efficient engine design, has introduced details of a technical discovery that enables maximum levels of power and torque while reducing the rate of fuel consumption and engine size.
Studies have concluded that the new engine design, when boosted with a turbocharger to 3.2 bar, decreases the BSFC (or brake specific fuel consumption) up to 14 percent, as a simultaneous increase occurs in the engine’s power BMEP (or brake mean effective pressure) by 140 percent. At the same time the engine can be reduced in size by roughly 29 percent.
Consistent with conventional four-stroke engine designs, the combustion cycle of the Scuderi Engine has two high-pressure strokes - compression and power, and two low-pressure strokes - intake and exhaust.
The power stroke is positive work, or the energy that is produced by the expanding gases to create mechanical work. The intake, compression and exhaust strokes are all negative work, or the energy that the engine consumes to create mechanical work.
By separating the compression cylinder from the power cylinder and by using a standard turbocharger to convert recovered exhaust-gas energy into compressed air energy, the size of the compression cylinder can be downsized to achieve substantial reductions in negative compression work.
Scuderi Engine
“The Scuderi Engine gains a massive advantage from turbocharging, Miller-like valve control strategies and extended expansion that is simply not possible with conventional engine designs,” said president of Scuderi Group, Sal Scuderi. “The net result is a smaller, higher-performing engine that yields significant gains in volumetric efficiency and power as well as reducing BSFC.”
Key to the Scuderi Engine’s split-cycle design is that it compresses the air before it fires.
By optimizing the split-cycle concept, the engine when fully developed will reduce NOx emissions up to 80 percent and improve fuel efficiency by 50 percent, compared to a conventional gasoline engine.
The engine requires one crankshaft revolution to complete a single combustion cycle and is projected to have higher torque, thermodynamic efficiency, and lower emissions than possible with today’s engines.
For more information on the Scuderi Engine, visit www.ScuderiEngine.com.
