Are ceramic engines the future?

Question

hot = efficient

Answer 1

While they would be advantageous because they are do not require a cooling system, can run at higher temperatures and are lighter weight, therefore more fuel efficient, the technology to make them precise and stable under real-world circumstances would need to be perfected as they have only been successful under laboratory circumstances.

There are companies such as Kyocera of Japan and DeFazio Rotary, Inc. that are using ceramic parts in their engines.

Answer 2

You would have to solve a couple of problems with the ceramics for this application....

1) Ceramics are brittle and would be prone to cracking in a cyclic load

2) Ceramics expand and contract quite a bit with heat and cold

3) Your engine would have to be able to "float" as it heated and cooled; you couldn't just bolt the parts together. Stresses caused by varying directions and rates of thermal expansion would cause a lot of problem 1) to come into play.

4) Ceramics have to be formed "near net shape"; you are not going to be able to do a lot of post-forming machining on them.

My guess is - no. If it were not a problem, we would be running turbine engines in our vehicles (like on a jet plane or in some helicopters). These run very hot and are pretty efficient, as well as clean burning.

Answer 3

I don't think the internal combustion engine has much of a future regardless whether it is ceramic or metallic.

My main reason for this hypothesis is that this type of engine has too many losses and its efficiency is poor. Around 23% is normal.

A far better engine is the external combustion engine. Its fuel can be any fuel including solar heat, it has no emissions, it is quiet, and its efficiency can be as high as 40%, far better results than the internal type.

An example of this external combustion engine is the Stirling Engine invented by clergyman in 1816, Rev Robert Stirling as an alternative to the high pressure and low efficiency stema engines of the day. These engines are now being employed in power generation systems using solar heat as the heat source.

Visit the following sites to examine this type of engine and see for yourself....

The following site will give you some idea of the stirling cycle and some available systems on the market. Take a look at the bottom of the page for an indication of the commercial solar heat power application using a large parabolic lens....take a mental note of it in your mind and imagine the cost of this monster, because in the second site I have a surprise....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine

Now that I peaked your interest...imagine that large parabolic monster scaled down and the power output employed for domestic use in a house generating 3 to 5 Kw

Go here for a look at the future....

http://www.infiniacorp.com/applications/clean_energy.htm

Now I have an idea of my own....build a fresnel lens...adapt the design to fit a 5kW Stirling and hey presto....

Have a look..my future fresnel lens will provide 20,000 BTU's....

http://www.ida.net/users/tetons/solar/solarhom.htm

Much better than a diesel gen set without the pollution...excellent for a backup system switching to mains when required, how much do you think I could save if my sunlight was available for most of the year except for 3 months of the rainy season??

What do you think of my idea to replace a diesel internal engine to a solar stirling? I need a linear generator and a solar stirling from Infinia....

/Big Smile/

Answer 4

Ceramics are brittle and would fail by cracking due to the cyclical loading that engines experience.

Metals engines will still be the engines of the future, unless they come up with a new type of engine.

Answer 5

I would say exactly the opposite. Heat is lost energy as far as vehicle engines are concerned.