gruntguru wrote:I think that is a potentially good concept - as a replacement for petrol and diesel road car engines. Adapting the technology to a racing engine with 110% VE and 15,000 rpm capability is another matter (a big stretch actually). OTOH TJI adapts easily.
potatohead - beachclub bali wrote:Reading up on the Merritt engine some more - the downside from testing is a 50% reduction in power output because of the pumping losses.
This is no surprise. And very much limits any use of it in racing.
Who suggested that it would be a useful engine for racing! Really! Go and sit on the naughty step
Reading the site and using a bit of imagination, I think there are potential answers to some of the problems being speculated about in the last few weeks posts about Honda's pre-chamber and combustion instability. Quite obviously you would not use the same designs as linked. Couple that with all the research/patents on pre-chambers and I think it gives a direction. People questioned unspent gases left in the chamber, which would be a relatively small amount. Using a vortex/swirl technique you could end up with an inbuilt micro EGR¹. The other issue that received many posts, was the AFR in the pre-chamber, and how it might not be sufficient to ignite. With the vortex/swirl you have separation of fuel and air in an axial pseudo stratification. The fuel will concentrate on the hot side and should easily ignite. A short time looking at Patents for 'tji' and associated, will show that swirl is the preferred design path. The pre pre-chamber or as Merritt calls it - spark plug shroud - suggests an orientation for the igniter in the chamber, and NO, not his design. Then we have the jet stream out, which can easily be envisaged as a way to control an axial stratified charge in the main chamber. To that end you might also stagger the inlet valve opening to introduce swirl - something that Honda have researched and previously implemented.
¹Could this mean that in ordinary operation you might need marginally less fuel at higher engine speeds?