Sealing has been the thorn in the side of ANY/ALL internal combustion engine designers/builders.
Reason: the violent temperature and pressure in concert with the notorious corrosive properties of the various fuels at the elevated temperatures make it VERY difficult for sealing to occur and to remain viable.
Piston rings use residual tension to force the ring against the wall. They also use gas pressure in concert with uneven cross sectional areas to affect side sealing of the ring within the grooves.
A combination of precision fittting and machining along with controlled slippage allows the rings to maintain a seal with the wall as well as the ring grooves in the pistons
A vane seal relies on two things to make it seal. The most obvious is centrifugal force. This shoves the vane out against the wall/bore to affect a seat at the vane face.
However there is also a pressure differential between the high and low pressure side of the vane. This comes into play so as to force the SIDES Of the vane against one side of the wall. When this occurs, however, a space exists on the high pressure side of the vane. Gas pressure (or fluid pressure in a hydraulic system) is then free to become applied to the BACK face/side of the vane so as to force the vane outward against the wall thus generating a pressure enhanced seal of the vane against the face and sides.
You need either centrifugal force or gas/fluid pressure to hold the ring out against the bore and against the ring land/groove to affect a good seal. Otherwise, compression loss WILL occur and the engine can't/won't run.
The lack of a natural spring in a lip seal in a rotary engine has been a real problem over the years. This is why they have come up with various mechanical spring designs so as to force the seals outward to affect a seal - the natural "spring" (aka outward tension) in a piston ring does this.
Air turbines and power steering pumps use this vane type of pump system to create pressure or extract work out of compressed or expanding fluids. However, in these cases, the operating environment is nothing like that in an IC engine. Stick a vane and these vane pumps won't work which, likewise, will occur if the concept were used in an IC engine.
Over the years, all sorts of neat IC engine ideas have been developed that SHOULD do all kinds of neat things to increase power and efficiency.
However, the simple addition of spark and fuel to the concept quite often brings doses of reality that have prevented the engines from reaching anywhere's near what their creators had envisioned.
Yes, the vane pump concept works in theory but sealing during cranking and under the duress of the combustion process will be your major challenges.
I would NOT count on vanes a pictured in post #8 as being sufficient for the proposed concept. They're probably going to need supplemental springs to affect a seal during the induction cycles to say the least.  |