Modified injection spray characteristics for spaced burning loci engines

Claim 1

In a method of effecting combustion in internal combustion engines, which method is characterized by the steps of: generating, within internal combustion engine means, and in energy communicating relation with engine piston means movable in cylinder means of said engine means, a plurality of generally mutually distinct burning loci, with said burning loci defining generally spaced centers of burning; concurrently, and during a working stroke of said engine piston means, transmitting combustion supporting gas, heated by compression and combustion, into said burning loci, and generating and transmitting streams of combustible fuel into said burning loci, each said burning loci substantially receiving at least one of said fuel streams and at least some of said heated gas; limiting the time duration of the generation of said fuel streams so that at least the majority of fuel in said streams passes into said burning loci during a working stroke of said engine piston means; providing a plurality of spaced wall means, with each such wall means peripherally confining and defining a fuel and heated gas agitation zone individually associated with and communicating with a said burning loci; each said peripherally confined agitation zone and a burning loci associated therewith receiving fuel from at least one fuel stream directed thereinto during said working stroke of said engine piston means; maintaining the existence and a generally discrete relation of said burning loci during said working stroke of said engine piston means and utilizing energy generated through operation of said burning loci to induce said working stroke of said engine piston means; the improvement comprising, in combination with said steps, the additional steps of: providing a fuel injection nozzle with a plurality of orifices, all of which orifices are located in a common plane and are each directed toward a respective burning loci, slidably disposing a spring-biased valve tip in said nozzle such that said valve tip is subjected to and is responsive to the pressure of fuel being fed through said nozzle to open said orifices against its spring bias; transmitting fuel through passage means leading from fuel pump means to said fuel injection nozzle means to generate said fuel stReams through said orifices such that said fuel streams are directed into said respective agitation zones and burning loci associated therewith; during a relatively lower engine speed and/or load condition maintaining a portion of said valve tip within said common plane of said orifices and adjacent said orifices to partially obstruct an inlet of each of said orifices to provide a partial obstruction to the entry of fuel into said orifices in a manner restricting said flow of fuel toward said orifices to a relatively thin flow path extending transversely of each of said inlet means of said plurality of orifices to: eliminate relatively quiescent, stagnant flow zones within said orifices, and produce a generally diverging and relatively atomized spray of fuel leading from said orifices to said burning loci; and during a relatively higher engine speed and/or load condition displacing said valve tip means free of said common plane to remove said flow obstruction in a manner permitting said fuel to flow substantially axially toward said orifices and form generally solid configurations of fuel streams leaving said orifices and directed toward said agitation zones and burning loci associated therewith.