The Split-Cycle Engine Essay Example for Free

The Split-Cycle Engine Essay The Split-Cycle Engine changes the heart of the conventional engine by dividing (or splitting) the four strokes of the Otto cycle over a paired combination of one compression cylinder and one power cylinder. Gas is compressed in the compression cylinder and transferred to the power cylinder through a gas passage. The gas passage includes a set of uniquely timed valves, which maintain a prechargedpressure through all four strokes of the cycle. Shortly after the piston in the power cylinder reaches its top dead center position, the gas is quickly transferred to the power cylinder and fired (or combusted) to produce the power stroke. Split-cycle internal combustion engine claims have the potential to double fuel efficiency for same size engine, while reducing the manufacturing price by up to 50% which includes a built in dedicated compressor. Rather than using batteries and electric motors/generators to harness braking energy, the engine uses the air compressor. A split cycle engine includes a novel compressor apparatus driven by the combustion engine, a closed-cycle refrigeration system in cooperation with the compressor apparatus, and a pneumatic motor driven by compressed air from the compressor apparatus. Refrigerant in the compressor absorbs thermal energy from compressed air and assists in compressing the air. High-pressure air from the compressor is stored in a storage tank and may be used to drive the pneumatic motor or other auxiliary equipment in addition to providing high-pressure combustion air for the internal combustion engine Introduction An engine includes a crankshaft having a crank throw, the crankshaft rotating about crankshaft axis. A compression piston is slid ably received within a compression cylinder and operatively connected to the crankshaft such that the compression piston reciprocates through an intake stroke and a compression stroke of a four stroke cycle during a single rotation of the crankshaft. An expansion piston is slid ably received within an expansion cylinder. A connecting rod is pivotally connected to the expansion piston. A mechanical linkage rotationally connects the crank throw to the connecting rod about a connecting rod/crank throw axis such that the expansion piston reciprocates through an expansion stroke and an exhaust stroke of the four stroke cycle during the same rotation of the crankshaft. A non-circular path is established by the mechanical linkage which the connecting rod/crank throw axis travels around the crankshaft axis. Moving Engine Technology into the 21st Century The first four-stroke piston engine was developed in 1876. This four-stroke piston arrangement is still the primary design of engines built today. Today’s engines operate at only 33% efficiency. This means that only 1/3 of the energy in each gallon of fuel is used the rest is lost through friction and heat. With over a billion engines currently in use worldwide, even small gains in efficiency will have huge impacts on the economy, dependency on foreign oil, and the environment. Despite immense efforts over the past century, engine efficiency has remained the same. The Heart Of The Engine Needs To Change: The heart of the internal combustion engine is a piston moving up and down in a cylinder connected to a crankshaft. Its simplicity makes improving performance almost impossible. Small improvements have proven difficult and large improvements have been considered impossible. Improving the four-stroke piston design has become the Rubik’s Cube of engineering, a puzzle that nobody has been able to solve until now. While the industry struggles for gains in the 1% range, the design of the Split-Cycle Technology pushes engine efficiency and performance to an entirely new level. Conventional Engine Design The heart of the internal combustion engine is a piston connected to a crankshaft, moving up and down in a cylinder through the four strokes of the Otto Cycle, the intake, compression, power and exhaust strokes. In a typical four-stroke cycle engine, power is recovered from the combustion process in these four separate piston strokes within each single cylinder. This basic design has not changed for more than 100 years. The Various Strokes And Stages Involved A. Intake and Compression: The basic concept of the Split Cycle Engine is to divide the four strokes of a standard engine over a paired combination of one compression cylinder and one power (or expansion) cylinder. These two cylinders perform their respective functions once per crankshaft revolution. The concept is illustrated in Figures 1 through 8. A common misconception is that twice as many cylinders are required. This is simply not accurate. Because this engine fires every revolution instead of every other revolution, the number of power strokes produced is equal to the power strokes produced by two of the conventional piston/cylinder designs. A four cylinder engine would still have four cylinders. There would simply be two sets of paired cylinders instead of four individual cylinders. In the configuration shown, an intake charge is drawn into the compression cylinder through typical poppet-style valves. B .Compression Stroke The compression cylinder then pressurizes (Fig. 2) the charge and drives the charge through the crossover passage, which acts as the intake port for the power cylinder. In this illustration, a check valve (best seen in Figures 6, 7 and 8) is used to prevent reverse flow from the crossover passage to the compression cylinder, and likewise a poppet-style valve (crossover valve) prevents reverse flow from the power cylinder to the crossover passage. The check valve and crossover valve are timed to maintain pressure in the crossover passage at or above firing conditions during an entire four stroke cycle. C. Power and Exhaust: Combustion occurs soon after the intake charge enters the power cylinder from the crossover passage. This means that the start of combustion occurs after the power cylinder passes through its top dead center position. The resulting combustion drives the power cylinder down. Exhaust gases are than pumped out of the power cylinder through a poppet valve to start the cycle over again. D. Previous Split-Cycle Designs There have been other similar split-cycle engine designs in the past, but they have never been able to match the thermal efficiency levels of the standard four-stroke engine. This is due in large part to the fact that, as the gas is transferred from the crossover passage to the power cylinder in the prior engine designs, the gas has always been allowed to over-expand in the power cylinder and then must be recompressed before initiating combustion. The extra work required to recompress the gas greatly reduces efficiency levels.

Chaining Open Source Software: The Case Against Software Patents :: Technology Essays

Chaining Open Source Software: The Case Against Software Patents Software has become an integral part of our society. The economic success of our country depends on the success of the software industry. ``Open source'' software, software which users are allowed to modify and redistribute, is a very important part of the software industry. Unfortunately, the increased use of software patents threatens the future of this type of software. The importance of open source software is evident in the number of people who make use of it. Most users do not realize that they make use of open source software because much of this software lies on servers. Many Internet Service Providers have Linux, FreeBSD, or another open source operating system on their systems to provide reliable dial-up service to customers. Most email goes through at least one sendmail server or some other open source email server. BIND is the most widely used software for DNS services---the services that translate server names such as ``www.gnu.org'' to a numerical IP address. According to a recent survey by E-Soft of almost 1.5 million web servers, over fifty-percent of web servers run Apache, an open source web server (``Web''). Everyone should be concerned about any possible hindrances to open source software. Without this type of software many services would not be widely available today. It is also probable that a decentralized worldwide network such as the Internet would not exist if open source software was not such a force. Software patents have hindered the proliferation of open source software in the past and they could easily damage the future of open source software and the rest of the software industry. Supporters of software patents claim that the involvement of the patent system is needed to provide incentive to innovate new software technology. They believe that the developers of new software technology have a right to a monopoly on the technology as it falls under the category of ``intellectual property.'' Many companies that support software patents have large investments in existing patent portfolios. This includes companies such as IBM, Unisys and Microsoft. They collect royalties from their patents which supporters of software patents feel they are entitled to. Supporters of software patents believe that recent advancements in the strength of software patent protection give ``a powerful new legal tool to software developers'' (``High Court''). Their belief is that the software industry is just suffering ``growing pains'' and should endure while the legal system clarifies law.

Critical Theory and the Middle East Essay

Critical theory is actually tackled by two different intellectual traditions from which the term is derived – critical theory in literary studies and critical social theory. The former is primarily a form of hermeneutics, or knowledge that is gained through the interpretation in the understanding of the meanings presented through human texts and symbolic expressions. On the other hand, the latter is a form of knowledge that is self-reflective which involves both understanding and theoretical explanation which intend reduction of entrapment within systems like domination and dependence, in the advancement of emancipator interest to expand autonomy and reduce domination. Critical theory from a sociological perspective, is best defined as that social theory that is in contrast to some of the principles of the 20th century positivism, and is, in fact, sometimes referred to as negative philosophy. Contrary to the general idea that knowledge comes from people’s sense-experience, critical theory proposes rationalism which posits that the source of knowledge and the source of common humanity is the fact that humans are rational beings. This paper adopts the sociological perspective of critical theory, and relates it with the Middle East scenario, taking Qatar into particular focus, as an example of the Middle East countries. Historical Background The concept of critical theory dates as early as 1937, with Max Horkheimer of Frankfurt School giving meaning to it as a social theory that is oriented toward critiquing and changing the society in general, contrary to the traditional theory that is oriented merely in the understanding or explaining the society. Most accounts of the theory closely link it with the Frankfurt School of Social Research (or Frankfurt School which later became the International Institute for Research at Columbia University, New York in 1933), while some trace its origins to as far back through Hegelianism and Western Marxism. Most of the key contributors to the theory are employed at the Frankfurt Institute, like Theodore W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, along with Hokheimer who was the Institute’s Director at that time. The other contributors who were not employed at the Institute were Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch, both published their materials in the Institute’s journal as well as engaged in other activities of the Institute. Later on, in 1945, a certain Hannah Arendt also helped by extending the concern for liberation as developed in the works of the Institute. After 1945, in Germany, Jurgen Habermas and Axel Honeth continued the advancement of critical social theory. Marx’s Influence on the Critical Theory It has been said by analysts of today that the common thread between and among the German critical theory and the French post-structuralism is that they are both anchored on Karl Marx’s theory of social change, which generally proposes for philosophers and thinkers to not just interpret the world, but rather change it. Such Marxian theory has been revised by critical theorists to posit that the critical theory rests on the concept of intervention which comes from appropriate understanding of the past and present conditions which provides adequate insight towards change, or possibilities of it. Further down the history of critical theory, Marx’s great influence can be traced with the Praxis School, which was a Marxist humanist philosophical movement originating from Zagreb and Belgrade in Yugoslavia in the 1960s. This Praxis School was closely linked with the Frankfurt School and the Critical Theory. In fact, the term critical theory is derived from Marx’s concept about his work Capital as a form of critique of political economy. Middle East in Context The Middle East or the Muslim world in particular, has been perceived by the rest of the world as an oppressive society where only men have the freedom to live the way they want to live, while women are repressed and stay in the shadows of their men. It is anchored basically on the Islamic teachings which have shaped the Muslim people’s beliefs, culture and traditions. In a traditional Muslim society, the women are raised and trained to obey and serve men without questions or opinions. Muslim women are not allowed to decide on anything, even for their own personal concerns, since it is the men who have the right to decide – this comes from the practice of betrothing the women, and the men paying dowry for the women they marry. This technically makes the women possessions of men. Through the years, the plight of Muslim women who also want to pursue careers, who also want to live freely and have more options than to be betrothed and raise a family, have been slowly heard by the world. Through the years, things have changed dramatically and drastically in the Muslim World. Contemporary Muslim societies have successful Muslim women on boob tube talking about pleasurable sex, albeit maintaining that it be in the context of marriage, but still, such freedom to speak about sex in public was a big taboo in years past. Qatar’s Shiekah Muzah Bint Nasser Al Misned, is another example of an emancipated lot of Muslim women now successfully treading career paths that were never trodden before. How did it all happen? What brought about such changes in the society that was once repressive but now tolerate and allow women to have choices? Critical Theory in the Middle East (Qatar) The Middle East, particularly Qatar, has gone through a lot of upheavals, significantly changing the social, political and cultural landscape of the nation. Applying the critical social theory, which seeks to critically study the interrelated facets of society – political, economic and social – with interventions appropriately based on understanding, Qatari society has been led by its leaders into a more tolerant society in the interest of further development and advancement. Looking back to the socio-political and economic landscape that gave birth to the Marxian theory and the critical theory, it was a repressive society and constrictive governmental policies that were sought to change by the proponents. Mere analysis and understanding of such society and government were not enough, and thus interventions based on appropriate understanding was proposed. The Qatari situation is no different. Awakening to the real situation, deep understanding of them, led the people and the leaders to create changes which now manifest in its media, which is rich in stories of women achievers. One of the leading women figures in Qatar is none other Her Highness Shiekah Muzah Bint Nasser Al Misned, who heads the nation’s Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. Summary The sociological definition of critical theory generally posits that it is necessary that matters be tackled in a multi-dimensional perspective, and that rationalism is as a key to understanding situations need to be coupled with interventions. In societies where societal norms tend to repress some sectors’ freedom, it is a necessity to pursue a critical outlook of the situation and provide measures to address the issues. In Qatar, for instance, the nation underwent various upheavals which significantly changed its social, political, cultural and economic scenarios, giving freedom to women as they have never experienced before. Personal Opinion Oppression or repression of any kind is always an unpleasant situation, much less to a more vulnerable group in the society, the women. History is replete with situations of oppression and repression, and almost all those situations ended up wrecking nations, which means that ultimately, the people are wrecked as the ultimate victims. The proponents of critical social theory emphasizes the rational nature of people which, if given deeper interpretation, only emphasizes that as rational beings, people must be treated as such, rational. Further, the argument of Marx that it is not enough for people or philosophers to merely interpret society, but rather must change it, rings a bell of truth in the contemporary times. For instance, in the Middle East, much have been written about the societal repression, but only recently have changes been felt and manifest. Only when some things have been done to change the situation. References Ahmed, L. , 1993, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate Edition: reissue, illustrated, Published by Yale University Press, 1993. Calhoun, C. J. , 1995, Critical social theory: culture, history, and the challenge of difference, Edition: reprint, Published by Wiley-Blackwell, 1995. Held, D. , 1980, Introduction to critical theory: Horkheimer to Habermas,Published by University of California Press, 1980. Swank, A. ,2007, Sexual healing: How big is kalaam kibeer? , Arab Media and Society. Issue 2, Summer 2007, Published by The American University in Cairo. UNDP-POGAR, 2007, Women in public life, gender and women, Gender and Citizenship Initiative, 2007.

Chicago Is A Diverse City - 1669 Words

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