RECENT ADVANCES IN AUTOMOBILE OX2 ENGINE

INTRODUCTION
The unique ox2 engine has been hailed as the first real breakthrough technology in internal combustion engine design since the introduction of the otto four-cycle engine over 139 years ago. One key feature of the OX2 engine is that has only four moving parts, vs 67 moving parts for a typical V-8 Engine ( otto cycle engine ). Because the OX2 engine does not use a crankshaft, it has been able to achieve a leverage advantage over a conventional four-stroke engine with a similar stroke. In October 1993, the U.S government announced on world wide media that it was to heavily subsidize consortium acting under a developmental mandate which would within fifteen years at a budget of up to one trillion dollars, produce a new design configuration and prototypes to replace the existing internal combustion engines. The firm constituted under the consortium was named ADVANCED ENGINE TECHNOLOGIES and the ox2 engine is its product.
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OX2
In the name ox2, the alphabet o symbolizes oxygen of the atmospheric air, x symbolizes the variety of fuels including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, liquid propane and methane which can be used while the number 2 symbolizes the two inlet and exhaust ports, spark plugs in the engine housing and also the two power strokes in each cylinder for one complete revolution.

ENGINE SPECIFICATIONS 1. ENGINE PARTS

The major parts Housing Cylinder Block Top Piston Plate Lower Piston Plate Cam Track Drive shaft

housing. The pistons which are moving inside the cylinders have a base support of a The moving parts

piston plate. There are two piston plates for this purpose which connects the alternate pistons. These two piston plates are called top and lower piston plates. The pistons are part of the piston plates. They house a

Cylinder Block Top Piston Plate Lower Piston Plate

ENGINE DETAILS
Number of Combustion Chambers System Diameter Width Weight Actual Cubic Capacity 4 Stroke 12.8 inches / 325 mm 10 inches / 254mm 125 lbs. / 56.8 kilos 66.25 c.i. / 1086 cc 6.6 times a Leverage Advantage conventional combustion engine Fuel Any combustible gas or liquid 8 Cylinders

constant velocity rolling bearing joint on their outer diameter/inner diameter to enable a frictionless transition from reciprocating motion to rotary motion. There is a cam track at the bottom which facilitates the reciprocatory motion of the piston inside the cylinder due to its unique design. The piston is also independently connected to the outer engine housing with the help of rollers. For this purpose, longitudinal slits are provided on the inner periphery of the engine housing into which the piston rollers are placed. There are also rollers provided at the bottom of each piston so as to guide it through the cam track. The engine is started with the help of a drive shaft which is connected to the cam and it provides a rotary motion for the

WORKING
The ox2 engine consists of 8 cylinders which are placed in a circle. The cylinders are connected to a cylinder head which in turn is connected to the outer cylinder
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starting. A start up motor is provided for this purpose of driving the drive shaft. This rotary motion provided to the cam would rotate the cam track which would result in the reciprocatory motion of the piston inside

the cylinder. As a result, the Otto Four Stroke Cycle proceeds inside all the cylinders and the engine starts. The start-up motor then stops working. As the pistons reciprocate, the piston rollers rotating inside the engine housing also rotates along the longitudinal slits. However, the cam track at the bottom of the pistons, force it to move forward resulting in a circular motion. The piston rollers force the engine housing to rotate along with the pistons. Since the engine housing is connected to the cylinder head, the cylinders also move along with the pistons. As a result, the entire unit of the engine rotates. So the reciprocatory motion of the piston is converted to the rotary motion of the engine housing and this motion can be transmitted to the reduction gears with the help of an axial shaft.

EXPLODED VIEW OF THE ENGINE

PISTONS
The pistons of the engine are such that it has no piston skirts on their outer periphery. The piston skirts provide the support to the piston in a conventional engine. However, in the ox2 engine, the piston support is provided by the piston plates. And the requirement of the piston skirts is thus eliminated. As a result, there is no side loading of the pistons against the cylinder bore. Therefore there is no energy

COMBUSTION CHAMBER
The combustion chambers are only slightly longer than the stroke and the pistons need only to be thick enough to house the rings. Since there are no piston skirts, the side loading of the piston against the cylinder wall is eliminated. Hence there is no danger of damage to the walls due to long running of the engine.

FLY WHEELS
A flywheel is an excellent short-term energy storage device. While a flywheel could be fitted to the OX2 engine as with any engine, the mass of the rotating block

dissipation and also there is no danger of damage to the cylinder walls.

PISTON SPEED
The ox2 piston speed, which is controlled by the fuel burn rate, remains constant throughout the entire power stroke. The inlet and exhaust ports do not open until the exhaust and power strokes have been fully completed. The ports then remain open long enough to ensure maximum operating efficiency. This process enables a more regulated mixture to be introduced prior to firing and also allows the significantly reduced exhaust gasses to be expelled efficiently.

would act as a flywheel and the small fluctuations in the energy is removed. Hence a flywheel is required only when huge amount of energy is generated.

HORSE POWER AND OUTPUT SHAFT SPEED

The RPMs of the engine are dependent upon size and application. As for acceptable output shaft RPM, outboard engines

typically max at 6000 RPM, run a 2 to 1 reduction to the propeller equaling 3000 RPM. Therefore in this application an

acceptable output shaft speed could be 3000 RPM. Likewise a rear or front wheel of an automobile spins at a little over 1000 RPM at 100 km p/h. Therefore a higher output shaft speed is not necessary. The reason for a high RPM being achieved from a crankshaft engine is to give a better horsepower number, whereas the torque an engine can develop at a particular RPM does the actual work. Thus the OX2 engine develops very high torque at reasonably low RPM thus reducing wear and enabling better control of the combustion process thereby resulting in better economy and emissions

resistance against the crankshaft, which causes a loss of energy.

TORQUE
A unique feature of the ox2 engine is that it achieves considerable torque at all stages through its operating range. Consequently in most of the engine applications there would be no need for the engine to work at revolutions higher than 2500rpm. This would eliminate the need of a gear box and would reduce the engine wear.

EXHAUST
The ox2 engine is designed to have a minute quantity of exhaust gas fed back in to

TIMING
The ox2 engine design enables the timing to be adjusted sufficiently to produce the most effective burn of the combustion fuel being used irrespective of the engine RPM. This highly efficient procedure is possible as the opening and closing of the ports is controlled by electronic chips. Also since there is no ports present in the combustion chamber during the compression stroke, there is no fear of preignition. Compare this to a conventional engine in which preignition occurs if the timing is advanced too far causing combustion prior to the top of the stroke. The result of preignition is

the combusting chamber, ensuring that the engine pressure is only slightly below the atmospheric pressure thus eliminating the majority of the vacuum created. The design ensures that there is no wastage of energy fighting vacuum and also allows for optimum compression regardless of the air/fuel delivery. Thus more fuel is used driving the piston and less is wasted pressurizing the combustion chamber.

Because of the minute pressure differential, the air/fuel mixture induced into the cylinder does not drop in temperature. When the heat of recirculated exhaust gas is added, the fuel

remains in a gaseous form, thus ensuring an efficient burn from the ox2 engine.

Advanced Engine Technologies Firm has shown that the ox2 engine produces more torque and horse power from a smaller displacement than a 5.7 liter V8 engine.

WORK COMPARISON

DEVELOPMENTS
The OX2 engine has been developed till the prototype level. Three prototypes of the engine have been developed by the Advanced Engine Technologies firm. The firm has announced that it has completed the first phase of OX2 engine port re-engineering. This re-designing was done after the testing of Design Level 1, OX2 test engine #1. AET engineers have successfully advanced the OX2 engine port shape and location from its earlier design. Through engine modeling, Flow bench analysis, and eventual real-time engine lab testing, engineers have been able to reengineer the intake and exhaust port shape and location on Design Level 2, OX2 engine #2. This re-engineering has resulted in a 15% improvement in the OX2 engine's airflow or also known as Volumetric Efficiency. The efficiency is now in the range of 92-95%. This improvement has also yielded a 16% improvement in torque and a 23% increase in horsepower. Also
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during testing, OX2 test engine #2 created a high torque, resulting in 16.8 horsepower at 650 rpm which is one-third the typical operating speed of traditional internal combustion engines. In addition, this new porting configuration has increased the exhaust velocity by 200%. This will prove to be very valuable asset for the engine in future turbo applications. The early phase testing also allowed AET to identify airflow issues with the OX2 block. Design modifications to the engine's inner block have been made to improve airflow and increase compression. The re-cast blocks will be retro-fitted to the current OX2 engine prototypes and they are expected to result in increased overall power. Validation testing of the Design Level 3, OX2 Engine #3 is also being carried out in the University of California. Utilizing an increased bore and shorten stroke, this design is expected to yield a marked improvement in overall engine performance.

APPLICATIONS
The following are the examples of future applications of the OX2 engine.

ADVANTAGES
Fuel efficient Low emissions Smaller Higher power to weight ratio Light weight Multi-fuelled Inexpensive

DISADVANTAGES
Existing engine compartment design of the vehicles is to be modified The cooling system design is complex

CONCLUSION
The OX2 engine will soon prove to be a revolution in the IC engine field with its eco friendly and versatile nature allowing it to be flexible with any type of fuel along with enhanced operation, maintenance costs and a longer useful life.

REFERENCE

www.ox2engine.com

Detroit News Article - New engine excites many 21st of April 2003, pg-5, column-2

Advanced Engine Technologies of Albuquerque Magazine ox2 engine revealed 19th of Dec 2002,pg 8, column-3