Air-Breathing Rocket Engine With Toroidal Combustion Chamber
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current rocket engines require carrying both fuel and oxidizer into space, increasing weight and maintenance costs, while jet engines use ambient air as oxidizer, but both types rely on moving parts that can lead to catastrophic failures.
Innovation Solution
A rocket engine design with no moving parts that uses ambient fluid as reaction mass and oxidizer, if present, for combustion, featuring a single-piece construction with a funnel-shaped intake and toroidal combustion chamber to create a pressure differential for thrust generation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If rocket engines carry both fuel and oxidizer into space, then combustion can be sustained in the vacuum of space, but the weight and maintenance costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the oxidizer from the carried propellants and obtains it from the ambient atmosphere during operation. The engine carries only fuel and takes oxygen from the air it intakes, eliminating the need to carry heavy oxidizer tanks into space while maintaining combustion capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The engine serves itself by using the ambient atmosphere as its oxidizer source. The intake system automatically draws in air, and the combustion chamber uses this ambient oxygen to burn the carried fuel, making the system self-sufficient for oxidizer without external supply.
2Use of energy by moving object
If jet engines use moving parts such as impellers or compressors, then efficient combustion can be achieved, but manufacturing and maintenance costs increase and performance risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical compression system (impellers, compressors, turbines) with a pressure differential system. The combustion chamber creates a pressure difference that drives airflow through the intake and combustion processes without requiring moving mechanical parts, eliminating the associated maintenance and failure risks.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent removes all moving parts from the engine design, extracting the compression and airflow control functions from mechanical components and implementing them through pressure differential-driven fluid dynamics instead.
3Ease of operation
If rocket engines use a closed manifold system for fuel and oxidizer delivery, then precise control can be achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the complex closed manifold system entirely and replaces it with a simplified open system where fuel is delivered directly to the combustion chamber and oxidizer is obtained from the ambient atmosphere through the intake, eliminating the need for complex distribution networks.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Reduces the need for carrying oxidizer, lowers maintenance costs, and eliminates the risk of moving part failures, providing efficient thrust generation without the need for complex moving components.
Implementation Method 1
The combustion chamber is used to combust a mixture of fuel and oxidizer
Implementation Method 2
ejection of combustion products from the combustion chamber into the exhaust causes a pressure differential that causes ambient fluid to be drawn into the engine through the intake
Implementation Method 3
Both types of engines produce thrust through an internal pressure difference, and both eject exhaust gases in a direction that is opposite to that of the path of travel of the engine
Data Source
AI summary
An air-breathing rocket engine in certain embodiments comprises an outer shell and an interior portion situated entirely within the front end of the outer shell. The interior portion includes a funnel-shaped intake and an annular primary combustion chamber between the inner front wall of the shell and the outer surface of the funnel-shaped intake. The intake has a central aperture that is in fluid communication with the throat and exhaust areas within the outer shell. A second circumferential gap is formed between the outer surface of the front inner wall and the inner surface of the front end of the outer shell and is in fluid communication with the throat and exhaust areas within the outer shell. One or more injector ports and one or more ignition ports are situated at the front end of the second circumferential gap.