Scuderi, who managed to patent the basic concept for his engine just before he died in 2002, effectively split the center of the traditional internal combustion engine -- where the air is mixed with gasoline, compressed and ignited -- ending up with two separate cylinders linked by a single passage. The first cylinder in the Scuderi design compresses the air, and then injects it into the second cylinder where it is mixed with fuel and ignited.
While a far cry from the engines that drive today's cars, Scuderi's split-engine concept was not revolutionary; such an idea has existed for more than a century, but the engines' efficiency always paled in comparison to traditional engines. So, Scuderi decided to go against the generally accepted rules of engine design and pump highly pressurized air into the combustion chamber, and ignite it when the piston head was already moving away from the top of the combustion cylinder -- a condition known as firing after top dead center.
"In a normal engine, firing after top dead center doesn't work, because the piston will outrun the flame, so you can't build up any pressure," said Scuderi's son, who is trying to market the engine alongside the rest of Scuderi's children through their family startup, Scuderi Group.
Computer models -- the only place the Scuderi engine exists so far -- suggest that the Scuderi design is an exception to the firing after top dead center rule, as this phenomena combines with the highly pressurized air in the combustion chamber to create a turbulent environment, which generates an explosion more powerful than that of a traditional engine.
While engineering problems could develop during testing of real-life prototypes, computer models are widely used in automotive design and their data is considered accurate and reliable. The Southwest Research Institute, an engineering laboratory in Texas, is currently constructing both a gasoline and diesel version of the Scuderi engine. The researchers are confident the design will work, and expect to be finished by 2007.
If the design is successful, it could improve gas consumption similarly to gasoline-electric hybrid engines, by recapturing energy that is usually dissipated by braking. Sal Scuderi said the engine would be able to store the energy in the form of compressed air, possibly in a small air-storage tank, which would be considerably less costly than the generators and batteries used by hybrid cars.
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