Update to Ceramics in Combustion Chamber Usage

"application of ceramic to the piston faces and the chamber of the head"...

Did that increase the compression ratio?

no it didn't, its all about keeping the heat where it can do work

Thanks...how about a pointer to the article?

try thishttp://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_0612_engine_coatings/viewall.html

Thanks!

Hello Fredski; I used several coatings similar to these back around 1990 in a 496 BB Chevy. We were using ceramics on the piston tops as well as the combustion chamber. We also used a moly coating on the skirts of the pistons, it dropped the temps in the oil on the dyno and increased the horsepower around 27-35 HP. It was different on every pull but in this range,also we polished the main and rob bearings. The current tec has a teflon carbon composite that us used on the skirts and other moving componets. Every year there is something new whats next.

Technically, it does increase the compression ratio. But the coatings are very thin so the increase is insignificant.

that's quite a stretch, carbon deposits after running rich would qualify as compression boosters under your "technical" definition

Please don't get riled. Was just pointing out that anything that diminishes the volume space will increase the compression ratio. So yes carbon deposits do it too. But I included that the effect was insignificant because it is. I wanted to point out that the ceramic coating is very thin. In other applications ceramics can be thick so people unfamiliar with this application might assume wrong things.

Some 34 years ago, I was building cars for the 'Shell Mileage Marathon' annual competition in Australia. Distance about 10km to be covered in 25 minutes. Engine was a 4 stroke 14cc Enya model plane powerplant as the car had to run on standard fuel and we did not want to add oil. Total car weight under 8kg and a driver around 38kg. Engine drive was a cone rubbing direct onto the running surface of the 3 lightweight bike tyres.

We tried ceramic rings with no oil lubrication in testing ... excellent operation for about 10 minutes and then the ceramic rings cut up the engine bore and hence loss of compression until the engine completely died soon after.

On race day, we had reverted to standard rings and oil lubrication. Our enthusiastic driver 'gave the engine heaps and engaged the cone with tyre with some enthusiasm' to climb the 'hill' at the start line at Amaroo Park short circuit. Pop! We won the prize for covering the shortest distance that day ... around 25 metres! Back to the design table ... now a tablet!

Perhaps; given the laws of thermodynamics and conservation of energy there would be only two ways of increasing the energy available for work. Increasing the total combustion energy by increasing the total fuel/air combustion mass or increasing the Carnot efficiency by increasing the combustion temperature relative to thermal sink temperature.

I think Fredski's inference that the ceramic coatings decrease the conduction and friction thermal losses through the cylinder sleeves and pistons is probably right on.

Is it possible that in any thermal power production process - increasing end use efficiency (reducing thermal and resistance losses) provides disproportionate returns in overall throughput efficiency?

Perhaps an example of this is in regenerative braking where each unit of regenerated translational, rotational, or gravitational energy saves (Input Energy) / (efficiency fraction) units of initial combustion energy. This meaning that for an extremely efficient automotive process with an efficiency factor of .33 (33 percent), regeneration saves 1/.33 = 3.03 units of combustion energy for each unit of reapplied regenerated energy.

I do not believe this to be over unity.

Simply stated - in the case of a .33 efficiency factor it takes 3.03 units of combustion energy to apply one unit of work. It then follows that for each unit of work regenerated 3.03 units of combustion energy is saved. It is the simple result of increasing end use efficiency of a low thermal efficiency power production process.

In the whole energy saving formula, we hoped that the ceramic coating/ ceramic rings in the engine would reduce the drag. We also looked at thermocouples on the head and exhaust as a way of harvesting ANY energy from the input fuel ... and early hybrid consideration.