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Control - Power Train - Engine Load BalancingOverview:
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Load Balancing:
Posting on February 20, 2000
Engine firing synchronization would not be difficult to achieve electronically, but is that what you really need? After a review of your web site, I'd be more concerned about equal load distribution between the two engines rather than cycle synchronization.
Fact is, if the engines are mechanically coupled, they will eventually achieve synchronous operation even without the aid of electronics. Why will they? What they will not do without outside aid is power equalization. You can assure load equalization though electronic means, but doing so is considerably less trivial than merely synchronizing the firing of the two engines.
In essence, load equalization will require a torque sensor on each engine. The electronic component will function to equalize the torque on each engine.
The design of a system of this type is straight-forward and borrows from the power generation industry -- still you're likely going to need a microprocessor based controller to accomplish it.
Summary of April/7/2000 E-mails with JCF
The benefits of dual engine power being a given, if variable torque indications derived from manifold pressure were deemed unsuitable due to individual engine characteristics and calibration, perhaps a direct mechanical shaft torque sensing approach would be better, leaving the door open for another entirely non-electronic solution.
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With a single cylinder engine, the torque will probably vary depending on the azimuth of the crankshaft. It will probably be low just before ignition and high just after. Is there some way to measure the average torque?
Your idea of manifold pressure sounds feasible, particularly if it was measured in a separate small chamber that had a single small opening so that the pressure does not vary during the engine cycle.
The simplest balancing method I could thing of is that of the pilot looking at the cylinder head temperature gauges and having a fine-tune-throttle-balance-adjustment on the collective stick.
Could the tension on the T-2 side of the belt be a way of reading the engine torque?
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Last Revised: October 12, 2000