Cyclone Power Technologies, Inc. (fka CYPW)

[Tom Swift]

Paul, I looked at patent 8,997,627. Some comments follow, unfortunately not as positive as I would hope.

The use of 12 cylinders seems pretty counterproductive. This makes the engine highly complicated, expensive, and difficult to build. Scaling piston bore and stroke by a factor of 1.73 would give you the same displacement using only 4 cylinders. As a benefit, the crankcase would comprise a much smaller portion of the engine's size.

The engine will not work as shown. Basically, you have copied Harry Schoell's "spider bearing" but without the bumpers. I see twelve articulating connecting rods and no master rod; this means the piston motions are all unconstrained and that the engine can thrash about violently -- and unpredictably -- rather than in a smooth motion. For an example of a correct master rod assembly you can refer to Master Rod

The next problem lies with the rotary valves, this is an old idea and well known in the art of steam engines. Rotary valves tend to suffer from a few problems. The first of these is that thermal expansion leads to temperature differentials inside an engine and this causes the various components to experience thermal expansion at different rates. Since the mating parts are expanded at different rates, they have a tendency to either bind up or become loose -- either causing the engine to stop running or leak steam.

Another problem with many rotary valves is that they are not balanced. By that, I mean that the pressure is not the same on each side and the steam either forces the valve open so that it leaks or presses it down so strongly that it rubs so hard that the parts wear down.

Related to the sentence above, rubbing parts need to be lubricated. This allows oil to flow into the cylinder and out the exhaust to the boiler. At high temperatures, the oil will decompose in the boiler and clog the tubes. Failure to lubricate will cause the valves to wear rapidly. Valve lubrication is not a good idea in highly superheated engines. Poppet valves tend to avoid these issues.

Another problem is that rubbing surfaces tend to leak unless you have a good seal at the port. I am not sure I see a provision for such.

The successful rotary valve steam engines, of which I am aware, operated at modest pressure, temperature, and rpm. This was fine back in the day when efficiency wasn't that important. As it is, I think a piston valve design would be superior to rotary valves and even these tend to leak and wear. It's hard to beat poppet valves, which is why we see them in almost all car engines.

Lubricating valves in engines having using highly superheated steam tends to cause the oil to decompose in the engine, leading to a loss of lubrication and valve failure. Heck, steam cleaners remove oil from concrete, and highly superheated steam is far more aggressive than a steam cleaner, merely keeping an oil film in place is difficult.

Your engine is also a counterflow. This tends to reduce efficiency a bit because the expanded steam (which is cooler than the admission steam) passing through the cylinder head tends to cool the head. The cooler head, in turn, cools off hot incoming steam. The cooler incoming steam produces less work in the cylinder and we experience a bit of an efficiency loss.

I'm sorry that I can't be more positive. I can provide you with references to patent literature to describe more promising designs.

Tom