Whitepapers

Most recent: The Engine of the Future
Also: Calculation of Piston Side Load on Sanderson Pumps and Compressors

Our current whitepaper The Engine of the Future is a practical look at how the S-RAM technology can be applied to many of today's most demanding problems, particularly in reducing the complexity of engine design, manufacture, complexity and fuel efficiency.

Download the whitepaper The Engine of the Future, FREE.

A sample excerpt:

The Engine of the Future

The CEI/SED Variable Compression Ratio, Low Friction, Lean Burn Engine

Albert E. Sanderson, Ph.D., Sanderson Engine Development, LLC
Michael A.V. Ward, Ph.D., Combustion Electromagnetics, Inc.

The ideal, practical, highest efficiency internal combustion engine is one that operates on what is known as the Otto cycle, with highest compression ratio (CR), leanest air-fuel ratio (AFR), fastest burn, and lowest frictional losses, both air-throttling and piston rubbing. Such an engine is also the cleanest engine as long as it can use a homogenous air-fuel mixture, as in a gasoline engine, so that, at light engine loads, it can operate as a lean burn, fast burn, high CR engine with low inherent exhaust emissions, and at high loads, it can operate with a stoichiometric mixture for best power and best use of the 3-way catalyst for lowest tailpipe emissions. With the addition of an integrated hybrid feature, also known as a mild hybrid, not to be confused with the highly complex and expensive conventional hybrids (either gasoline or diesel electric), it can double gas mileage with the lowest possible emissions.

Such a gasoline engine has been considered an idealization, abandoned by the auto industry as too difficult a challenge, which includes abandoning both the lean burn and variable CR low friction aspects of the engine, and the 60 mpg that could be achieved in a vehicle that currently gets 30 mpg. In its place, the gasoline-electric and diesel-electric hybrid and fuel cell technologies are being pushed, which have serious technical flaws and cost problems and will do little, in the near term, to alleviate America's serious energy problems, in terms of its record oil imports and ever increasing vehicle costs.

That can now all change to achieve what was considered only as theoretically possible before, based on major developments made by CEI and SED, who having worked independently of each other, have solved each half of the problem needed to achieve the ideal, but practical, Otto cycle engine mentioned. For CEI, the driving force was Dr. Michael Ward, Ph.D. Harvard University, joined by his thesis advisor, Professor Tai Wu, by Dr. Fred Kern, MIT Ph.D., Engine Lab, and by Robert Lefevre, a leading electronics engineer, who together collaborated to find a practical, low cost solution to lean burn. For SED, it was Bob Sanderson, joined by his brother Dr. Al Sanderson, coincidentally also a Ph.D. graduate of the same Engineering and Applied Physics Division at Harvard as Dr. Ward, who made the breakthroughs to develop the low friction variable CR mechanism that would work ideally with CEI's lean burn developments, to produce the idealized but practical Otto cycle engine.

Download the whitepaper Calculation of Piston Side Load on Sanderson Pumps and Compressors, FREE.

A sample excerpt:

Calculation of Piston Side Load on Sanderson Pumps and Compressors

Albert E. Sanderson, Ph.D., Vice President of R&D Sanderson Engine Development, LLC

The piston side load of the Sanderson Mechanism has been under discussion recently, and some engineer have been questioning whether our piston joint, called the "zero side load" (ZSL) joint, really is literally zero as claimed. This paper is intended to show that to be actually the case, based on the geometry of the ZSL joint.

The motion of the piston within the cylinder is a straight line, guided by two supporting members that may either be two pistons in a double configuration, or a piston and a guide rod in a single piston configuration. The primary force from the piston drive pin in the transition arm through a ZSL joint is directed along this line, so the driving force has no component at right angles to the cylinder axis. It is obvious that side forces cannot be generated in this manner. Other types of side forces are calculated for comparison.

Standard Calculation of Geometric Side Force (ref: Heywood, p 732)

Ft = Fp tan φ = { -ma + (π B2 /4) p ± Ff } tan φ

Where Ft is the side force (thrust) of the piston head on the cylinder,
Fp is the instantaneous force on the piston,
φ is the angle between the connecting rod and the cylinder axis,
m is the mass of the piston, say 0.25 lb,
a is the acceleration of the piston, say 32 g's,
B is the bore diameter of the cylinder, say 2 inches,
p is the pressure on the piston head, say 60 psi, and
Ff is the frictional force on the piston assembly, say 4 lb.