INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE HAVING AN INTERFERENCE REDUCING EXHAUST MANIFOLD

• US 20120312002A1
• Filed: 05/18/2012
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kuhlbach, Kai Sebastian, Stump, Ludwig
• Granted Patent: US 9,080,510 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 60/323
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 13/10 of exhaust manifolds with cooling jacket F01N3/046
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 13/107 More than one exhaust manifold or exhaust collector
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 13/1805 Fixing exhaust manifolds, exhaust pipes or pipe sections to each other, to engine or to vehicle body pipe joints in general F16L; fixing auxiliaries in motor vehicles in general B60K
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 2075/1816 four
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 27/04 in exhaust systems only, e.g. for sucking-off combustion gases
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 75/20 with cylinders all in one line
• CPC Class Codes: F02F 1/243 Cylinder heads and inlet or exhaust manifolds integrally cast together

Abstract

An engine having a cylinder head including an exhaust manifold at least partially integrated therein, the exhaust manifold including an inner separating wall fluidly dividing two merged exhaust lines, each merged exhaust line in fluidic communication with a different pair of adjacent cylinders, and an outer separating wall fluidly dividing a first exhaust line in direct fluidic communication with a first cylinder and a second exhaust line in direct communication with a second cylinder, a lateral width of the inner separating wall greater than the outer separating wall, the lateral axis perpendicular to a longitudinal axis traversing centerlines of each cylinder.

Claims

1. An internal combustion engine comprising:

a cylinder head including four cylinders arranged in series along a longitudinal axis of the cylinder head and an exterior side-wall; and

an exhaust system including, for each cylinder, an exhaust port in fluidic communication with the cylinder and an exhaust line, each of the exhaust lines merging in stages forming an exhaust manifold, the exhaust lines associated with a first outer cylinder and a first inner cylinder fluidly converging to form a first merged exhaust line and the exhaust lines associated with a second inner cylinder and a second outer cylinder fluidly converging to form a second merged exhaust line, the first and second merged exhaust lines fluidly converge downstream to form an exhaust gas collector, at least a portion of the exhaust manifold is integrated into the cylinder head and extends through the exterior side-wall, the exhaust manifold including an outer separating wall fluidly dividing the exhaust line corresponding to the first inner cylinder from the exhaust line corresponding to the first outer cylinder and an inner separating wall fluidly dividing the exhaust line associated with the first inner cylinder from the exhaust line associated with the second inner cylinder, the inner separating wall having a greater lateral width than the outer separating wall, the lateral axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis.

2. The engine claim 1, where the exterior side-wall is parallel to the longitudinal axis.

3. The engine of claim 2, where the difference between the lateral widths of the inner separating wall and the outer separating wall is ≧

5 millimeters (mm).

4. The engine of claim 1, where the difference between the lateral widths of the inner separating wall and the outer separating wall is ≧

10 millimeters (mm), where an end of the inner separating wall is located at a lateral distance Δ

d from the exterior side-wall, where Δ

d≦

30 millimeters (mm), where Δ

d≦

20 mm, where Δ

d≧

10 mm, where the end is positioned at lateral distance Δ

L from a plane A, plane A parallel to the longitudinal axis and extends through each of the exhaust ports, where Δ

L≧

a diameter of each cylinder (D), and wherein Δ

L≧

1.2D.

5. The engine of claim 1, where the exhaust gas collector is integrated into the cylinder head.

6. The engine of claim 1, where the exhaust gas collector is positioned outside of the cylinder head.

7. The engine of claim 1, where the inner separating wall extends to the exterior side-wall.

8. The engine of claim 1, wherein the inner separating walls extends beyond the exterior side-wall in a lateral direction.

9. The engine of claim 1, further comprising a turbine having an inlet in fluidic communication with the exhaust gas collector, where the inner separating wall extends into the inlet.

10. The engine of claim 1, where the inner separating wall has a modular construction including a first section positioned in an inlet of a turbine in fluidic communication with the exhaust gas collector and a second section positioned in the cylinder head.

11. The engine of claim 1, where the inner separating wall is integrated into the cylinder head.

12. The engine of claim 1, where the inner separating wall has a modular construction including a first section positioned in the cylinder head and a second section positioned outside of the cylinder head.

13. The engine of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to initiate sequential combustion in the first outer cylinder, the first inner cylinder adjacent to the first outer cylinder, the second outer cylinder, and the second inner cylinder.

14. An internal combustion engine comprising:

a cylinder head including a first inner cylinder, a second inner cylinder, a first outer cylinder, a second outer cylinder, and an exterior side-wall, the cylinders arranged in series along a longitudinal axis of the cylinder head; and

an exhaust manifold at least partially integrated into the cylinder head including a plurality of exhaust lines, each of the cylinders in fluidic communication with one of the exhaust lines, the exhaust lines from pairs of adjacent inner and outer cylinders fluidly combining at first stage confluences to form merged exhaust lines, the merged exhaust lines fluidly combining at a second stage confluence to form an exhaust gas collector, the second stage confluence positioned closer to the exterior side-wall than the first stage confluences.

15. The engine of claim 14, where the second stage confluence point is positioned outside of the cylinder head.

16. The engine of claim 14, where the exhaust manifold includes an outlet in the exterior side-wall.