Piston Valve Hybrid

[Jolly Roger]

Hey all,

It's been a while since my last post, but I'm still bent on building my piston valve hybrid so I'm looking for some advice or tips on how I can improve the design.

The picture is pretty basic but it is to scale and should show the basics of how it works.

Firstly the arrows indicate non-return valves or check valves. The idea works basically like a co-axial piston valve pneumatic, except I wanted the two chambers completely separate so as to not let the fuel seep into the rear chamber and igniting, which means there would be little or no pressure drop in the rear chamber and the gun simply wouldn't work. So I introduced check valves to have equal pressure in each chamber, but with the rear just air/oxygen, and the primary the fuel mix.

The ignition points have't been drawn but they are in the primary chamber.

To ready the gun, the air line is opened but with the primary chamber air line valve turned off. This increases the pressure in the rear chamber only so the primary chamber can be pressurised with fuel without the rear opening. Next, the fuel line is opened and the primary chamber is pressurised to a specified pressure before the primary chambers air line is also opened. All lines are then closed.

As the piston valve has a greater surface area than the primary chamber's barrel seal and other side of the piston, it will hold closed until the primary chamber is ignited and the total surface pressure on those seals in the primary chamber go above that of the rear chamber. I've done some maths on the surface area of these seals to make sure it opens at the right pressure to maximise performance.

The black in the rear chamber indicates a rubber stopper to absorb the impact of the piston on ignition.

After ignition, the air lines are opened and closed to vent the chamber and the piston rod is then manually pushed back to form a seal.

I am wondering though if there is anyway I can make it more autonomous or simplify anything. Any advice is welcome.

Cheers,

Jacob

[CS]

I don't see how the "rear chamber"/pilot is exhausted. As it is the valve will open for a short time, and then close again because there is pressure in the rear chamber.

I am wondering though if there is anyway I can make it more autonomous or simplify anything. Any advice is welcome.

Sabotage! You could improve the speed of loading a burst disk and get performance and simplicity.

[Jolly Roger]

Yeah I should have drawn that a bit better. Where the yellow rod comes out the back, along there will be pretty free for any air to exhaust. I can mill some vanes in it if I find it too constricting.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I am wondering though if there is anyway I can make it more autonomous or simplify anything. Any advice is welcome.

[Jolly Roger]

Can they shoot spuds?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Seriosuly though, cartridges are a good way to avoid on-board mixing difficulties if a high rate of fire is what you are looking for.

[Jolly Roger]

Yeah I thought about that as well. Cartridges just don't seem to be as fun to design for some reason. Plus if I'm looking at very high pre-ignition pressures, they will be some seriously bulking cartridges.

I'm having second thoughts about the design now anyway. Not too keen on having the piston in there at high mixes. Will try to look into some other alternatives to burst disks

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Yeah I thought about that as well. Cartridges just don't seem to be as fun to design for some reason. Plus if I'm looking at very high pre-ignition pressures, they will be some seriously bulking cartridges.

Very true, they're not easy to get round and the fact that you have to make lots of them is even more off-putting.

I'm having second thoughts about the design now anyway. Not too keen on having the piston in there at high mixes. Will try to look into some other alternatives to burst disks.

An o-ring detent could be an alternative if you're firing hard consistent projectiles, but long is the way, and hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.

[CS]

Heat will create problems in fast cycling hybrid. An idea I'm working on is a 6 shot launcher, sort of like this, that uses permenant chambers instead of cartridges. You can fuel all 6 chambers as if it was one large volume, instead of indivually. The down time of fueling, and loading burst disks/ammo will allow some heat to dissipate.

There is dynamic and static seals, seals that move and seals that don't. Rubber is the medium to seal, and it responds to heat. So I see the goal of not using dynamic seals. Burst disks are the only valve that allows for a static seal.

edit: Omnipotence fail! The o-ring detent would be another static sealing valve...

[POLAND_SPUD]

what about metal to metal seals ?

as far as heat dissipation is concerned you can always use propane for cooling

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I wouldn't worry too much about heat, it's not like it will cause other rounds to "cook off" - though if you're mixing in a hot chamber, it will screw with your pressure gauges because of the different densities...

[Jolly Roger]

An o-ring detent could be an alternative if you're firing hard consistent projectiles, but long is the way, and hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.

How does that design work? I'm keen to get rid of the piston without having to look at burst disks.

I've emailed a couple of suppliers of rupture disk valves, and pressure release valves to see if they stock or know of any dump valves that can exhaust all the pressure in the line once they go over a certain amount. Will update once they get back to me.

Heat will create problems in fast cycling hybrid. An idea I'm working on is a 6 shot launcher, sort of like this, that uses permenant chambers instead of cartridges. You can fuel all 6 chambers as if it was one large volume, instead of indivually. The down time of fueling, and loading burst disks/ammo will allow some heat to dissipate.

There is dynamic and static seals, seals that move and seals that don't. Rubber is the medium to seal, and it responds to heat. So I see the goal of not using dynamic seals. Burst disks are the only valve that allows for a static seal.

edit: Omnipotence fail! The o-ring detent would be another static sealing valve...

Something like that would be good, it's just a matter of engineering it into a combustion/hybrid.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

How does that design work? I'm keen to get rid of the piston without having to look at burst disks.

The idea is that you have an o-ring at the breech of the cartridge which seals the projectile, with enough friction to keep it from escaping under pre-ignition pressure. When you ignite the mix, the force of the combusting gas is now stronger than the friction and the projectile fires.

That's the theory anyway and sometimes, it works!

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Hard projectiles are a must though.

[Jolly Roger]

Yeah I gotcha. Fairly specialised design. Had much luck with it?

I've been toying with the idea of a pressure release valve to act as my burst disk as you'd call it.

Basically something like this mounted inline before the barrel, only with some sort of latch to catch the shaft of the seal when the spring is compressed fully.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YOjepBEvjc8/R ... lve101.gif

This way you can set it's opening pressure as well by using the screw jack to compress or loosen the spring.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the flow is diverted. If only I could come up with a way to have a clear run from the chamber to the barrel[/url]