Rotary piston engine

Claim 1

An engine system comprising: a source of fuel; burner means receiving fuel from said source for combusting said fuel to provide combustion by-product gas at elevated pressure; and rotary engine means, including: housing means having inlet opening means, outlet opening means, and a plurality of generally cylindrical rotary piston chambers with each chamber having a wall; a rotary piston mounted for rotation about an axis within each of said chambers having a cylindrical body and a projection therefrom effecting a substantial gaseous seal with the respective chamber wall, said body forming a substantially annular chamber with said respective chamber wall, said annular chamber being interrupted by said projection, the axis of each of said rotary pistons being in parallel relation each with the other and equidistantly radially disposed from a predetermined central axis; a rotary seal means engaging each of said cylindrical piston bodies and including a recess for accepting each of said projections, said rotary seal means being adapted for rotation about said central axis in accordance with the rotation of said rotary pistons to provide sequential acceptance of each of said projections on eAch rotation of said rotary seal means, said rotary seal means and each of said projections defining an expanding annular chamber portion and a contracting annular chamber portion in each of said rotary piston chambers; inlet port means located in each of said rotary piston chamber walls, each communicating with a respective one of said expanding annular chamber portions; outlet port means located in each of said chamber walls, each communicating with a respective one of said contracting annular chamber portions with said housing outlet opening means at least at certain times, each said outlet port means being separated from the respective one of said inlet port means by a predetermined rotational interval; and a rotary valve plate mounted for rotation about said central axis with said rotary seal means having a single opening communicating said housing inlet opening means with each of said inlet port means for at least a portion of each rotational period between adjacent location of respective ones of said projection with the respective ones of said inlet port means and adjacent location of said respective one projection with the respective one of said outlet port means said housing inlet opening means receiving said combustion by-product gas for rotating said pistons to provide a mechanical power output in substantial accordance with the pressure energy of said gas.