Advanced Marine Engine for Combatant Craft Increased Payload

Speed, acceleration, and maneuverability of today’s combatant patrol and assault crafts are critical capabilities to the riverine’s survivability and mission success. The demand for constant increase in payloads jeopardized these capabilities due to increase in craft weight. The current diesel fuel propulsion systems are typically large and heavy with weight-to-power ratios in the 3 to 5 range because they are mostly designed for heavy truck and land-based power generation. In addition, the reliability and life span of these propulsion systems suffer because the duty cycle of a marine combatant craft is different than that of the land-based applications. As a result, a new innovative multi-fuel power plant has been proposed to achieve a weight-to-power ratio of 1 reliably. This engine was designed based on (1) over 30 years of successful racing engines design and development experience, (2) extensive use of race-proven high specific strength materials, (3) rotary valve variable valve timing concept, (4) parasitic losses reduction through minimizing friction and pumping losses, (5) modular engine architecture for different displacement to suit a variety of applications, (6) advanced engine calibration to optimize engine performance depending on the combustion characteristics of each fuel, and (7) Optional-innovative dynamic compression ratio variation.