Sleeve Valve
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The sleeve valve is a type of
valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
mechanism for piston engines, distinct from the usual
poppet valve A poppet valve (also called mushroom valve) is a valve typically used to control the timing and quantity of gas or vapor flow into an engine. It consists of a hole or open-ended chamber, usually round or oval in cross-section, and a plug, usua ...
. Sleeve valve engines saw use in a number of pre-
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
luxury car A luxury car is a car that provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and associated status compared to moderately priced cars. The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and the ...
s and in the United States in the Willys-Knight car and light truck. They subsequently fell from use due to advances in poppet-valve technology, including sodium cooling, and the Knight system double sleeve engine's tendency to burn a lot of lubricating oil or to seize due to lack of it. The Scottish
Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...
company used its own, much simpler and more efficient, single sleeve system (Burt-McCollum) in its cars, a system which, after extensive development, saw substantial use in British aircraft engines of the 1940s, such as the Napier Sabre, Bristol Hercules,
Centaurus Centaurus is a bright constellation in the southern sky. One of the largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. ...
, and the promising but never mass-produced
Rolls-Royce Crecy The Rolls-Royce Crecy was a British experimental two-stroke, 90-degree, V12, liquid-cooled aero-engine of 1,593.4 cu.in (26.11 L) capacity, featuring sleeve valves and direct petrol injection. Initially intended for a high-speed "sprint" i ...
, only to be supplanted by the jet engines.


Description

A sleeve valve takes the form of one or more machined sleeves. It fits between the piston and the cylinder wall in the cylinder of an internal combustion engine, where it rotates and/or slides. The cylinder wall has inlet and exhaust ports, identical to a
two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of ...
motor. Ports (holes) in the side of the sleeves come into alignment with the cylinder's inlet and exhaust ports at the appropriate stages in the engine's cycle.


Types of sleeve valve

The first successful sleeve valve was patented by
Charles Yale Knight Charles Yale Knight (born 1868-1940 in Indiana) was an entrepreneur and inventor of the sleeve valve technology. His engines would be used in the early cars, British tanks, and British aircraft. The Knight engine technology for automobiles was u ...
, and used twin alternating sliding sleeves. It was used in some luxury automobiles, notably
Willys Willys (pronounced , "Willis" ) was a brand name used by Willys–Overland Motors, an American automobile company, founded by John North Willys. It was best known for its design and production of World War II era and later military jeeps (MBs ...
, Daimler,
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
,
Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...
,
Panhard Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles. It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense, was formed ...
,
Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...
and
Avions Voisin Avions Voisin was a French luxury automobile brand established by Gabriel Voisin in 1919 which traded until 1939. History Gabriel B. Voisin was an aviation pioneer and manufacturer who in 1919 started producing cars using Knight-type sl ...
. Mors adopted double sleeve-valve engines made by Minerva. The higher oil consumption was heavily outweighed by the quietness of running and the very high mileages without servicing. Early poppet-valve systems required decarbonization at very low mileages. The Burt-McCollum sleeve valve was named for the two inventors who applied for similar patents within a few weeks of each other. The Burt system was an open sleeve type, driven from the crankshaft side, while the McCollum design had a sleeve in the head and upper part of the cylinder, and a more complex port arrangement (Source: 'Torque Meter' Magazine, AEHS). The design that entered production was more 'Burt' than 'McCollum.' It was used by the Scottish company
Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...
for its cars, and was later adopted by
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
for its radial aircraft engines. It used a single sleeve driven by an eccentric from a timing axle set at 90 degrees to the cylinder axis. Mechanically simpler and more rugged, the Burt-McCollum valve had the additional advantage of reducing oil consumption (compared to other sleeve valve designs), while retaining the combustion chambers and big, uncluttered, porting area possible in the
Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
system. A small number of designs used a "cuff" sleeve in the cylinder head instead of the cylinder proper, providing a more "classic" layout compared to traditional poppet valve engines. This design also had the advantage of not having the piston within the sleeve, although in practice this appears to have had little practical value. On the downside, this arrangement limited the size of the ports to that of the cylinder head, whereas in-cylinder sleeves could have much larger ports.


Advantages/disadvantages


Advantages

The main advantages of the sleeve-valve engine are: * High
volumetric efficiency Volumetric efficiency (VE) in internal combustion engine engineering is defined as the ratio of the mass density of the air-fuel mixture drawn into the cylinder at atmospheric pressure (during the intake stroke) to the mass density of the same volu ...
due to very large port openings.
Sir Harry Ricardo Sir Harry Ralph Ricardo (26 January 1885 – 18 May 1974) was an English engineer who was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine. Among his many other works, ...
also demonstrated better mechanical and thermal efficiency. * The size of the ports can be readily controlled. This is important when an engine operates over a wide
RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
range, since the speed at which gas can enter and exit the cylinder is defined by the size of the duct leading to the cylinder, and varies according to the cube of the RPM. In other words, at higher RPM the engine typically requires larger ports that remain open for a greater proportion of the cycle; this is fairly easy to achieve with sleeve valves, but difficult in a poppet valve system. *Good exhaust scavenging and controllable swirl of the inlet air/fuel mixture in single-sleeve designs. When the intake ports open, the air/fuel mixture can be made to enter tangentially to the cylinder. This helps scavenging when exhaust/inlet timing overlap is used and a wide speed range required, whereas poor poppet valve exhaust scavenging can dilute the fresh air/fuel mixture intake to a greater degree, being more speed dependent (relying principally on exhaust/inlet system resonant tuning to separate the two streams). Greater freedom of combustion chamber design (few constraints other than the spark plug positioning) means that fuel/air mixture swirl at
top dead centre In a reciprocating engine, the dead centre is the position of a piston in which it is either farthest from, or nearest to, the crankshaft. The former is known as Top Dead Centre (TDC) while the latter is known as Bottom Dead Centre (BDC). ...
(TDC) can also be more controlled, allowing improved ignition and flame travel which, as demonstrated by H. Ricardo, allows at least one extra unit of compression ratio before detonation, compared with the poppet valve engine. *The
combustion chamber A combustion chamber is part of an internal combustion engine in which the fuel/air mix is burned. For steam engines, the term has also been used for an extension of the firebox which is used to allow a more complete combustion process. Interna ...
formed with the sleeve at the top of its stroke is ideal for complete, detonation-free combustion of the charge, as it does not have to contend with compromised chamber shape and hot exhaust (poppet) valves. *No springs are involved in the sleeve valve system, therefore the power needed to operate the valve remains largely constant with the engine's RPM, meaning that the system can be used at very high speeds with no penalty for doing so. A problem with high-speed engines that use poppet valves is that as engine speed increases, the speed at which the valve moves also has to increase. This in turn increases the loads involved due to the inertia of the valve, which has to be opened quickly, brought to a stop, then reversed in direction and closed and brought to a stop again. Large poppet valves that allow good air-flow have considerable mass and require a strong spring to overcome their inertia when closing. At higher engine speeds, the valve spring may be unable to close the valve effectively for the required amount of crankshaft degree rotation before the next opening event, resulting in a failure to completely and/or remain closed. Harmonic frequency vibration produced at certain RPM can also cause a resonance with the poppet valve spring greatly reducing its spring strength and ability to quickly and maintain the valve closed and be correctly in time with the reciprocating mass (this phenomenon can be countered by the use of dual valve springs as the secondary spring can assist the primary through the very narrow rpm range where such harmonic failure can occur allowing the engine to continue building RPM). These effects, called
valve float Valve float is an adverse condition which can occur at high engine speeds when the poppet valves in an internal combustion engine valvetrain do not properly follow the closure phase of the cam lobe profile. This reduces engine efficiency and perform ...
and/or valve bounce could result in the valve being struck by the top of the rising piston. In addition, camshafts, push-rods, and valve rockers can be eliminated in a sleeve valve design, as the sleeve valves are generally driven by a single gear powered from the crankshaft. In an aircraft engine, this provided desirable reductions in weight and complexity. *Longevity, as demonstrated in early automotive applications of the Knight engine. Prior to the advent of
leaded Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...
gasolines, poppet-valve engines typically required grinding of the valves and valve seats after 20,000 to 30,000 miles (32,000 to 48,000 km) of service. Sleeve valves did not suffer from the wear and recession caused by the repetitive impact of the poppet valve against its seat. Sleeve valves were also subjected to less intense heat build-up than poppet valves, owing to their greater area of contact with other metal surfaces. In the Knight engine, carbon build-up actually helped to improve the sealing of the sleeves, the engines being said to "improve with use", in contrast to poppet valve engines, which lose compression and power as valves, valve stems, and guides wear. Due to the continuous motion of the sleeve (Burt-McCollum type), the high wear points linked to poor lubrication in the TDC/BDC (
bottom dead centre In a reciprocating engine, the dead centre is the position of a piston in which it is either farthest from, or nearest to, the crankshaft. The former is known as Top Dead Centre (TDC) while the latter is known as Bottom Dead Centre (BDC). ...
) of piston travel within the cylinder are suppressed, so rings and cylinders lasted much longer. *The cylinder head is not required to host valves, allowing the spark plug to be placed in the best possible location for efficient ignition of the combustion mixture. For very big engines, where flame propagation speed limits both size and speed, the swirl induced by ports, as described by Harry Ricardo can be an additional advantage. In his research with two-stroke single sleeve valve compression ignition engines, Harry Ricardo proved that an open sleeve was feasible, acting as a second annular piston with 10% of the central piston area, that transmitted 3% of the power to the output shaft through the sleeve driving mechanism. This highly simplifies construction, as the ' junk head' is no longer needed. *Lower operating temperatures of all power-connected engine parts, cylinder and pistons. Harry Ricardo showed that as long as the clearance between sleeve and cylinder is adequately settled, and the lubricating oil film is thin enough, sleeves are 'transparent to heat'. *Continental in the United States conducted extensive research in single sleeve valve engines, pointing out that they were eventually of lower production cost and easier to produce. However, their aircraft engines soon equaled the performance of single-sleeve-valve engines by introducing improvements such as sodium-cooled poppet valves, and it seems also that the costs of this research, along with the October 1929 crisis, led to the Continental single-sleeve-valve engines not entering mass production. A book (''Continental! Its Motors and Its People'', W. Wagner, 1983. ) on Continental engines reports that General Motors had conducted tests with single sleeve valve engines, rejecting this kind of arrangement, and, according to M.
Hewland Hewland is a British engineering company, founded in 1957 by Mike Hewland, which specialises in racing-car gearboxes. Hewland currently employ 130 people at their Maidenhead facility and have diversified into a variety of markets being particul ...
(''Car & Driver'', July 1974) also Ford around 1959. Most of these advantages were evaluated and established during the 1920s by
Roy Fedden Sir Alfred Hubert Roy Fedden MBE, FRAeS (6 June 1885 – 21 November 1973) was an engineer who designed most of Bristol Engine Company's successful piston aircraft engine designs. Early life Fedden was born in the Bristol area to fairly weal ...
and Harry Ricardo, possibly the sleeve valve engine's greatest advocate. He conceded that some of these advantages were significantly eroded as fuels improved up to and during World War II and as sodium-cooled exhaust valves were introduced in high-output aircraft engines.


Disadvantages

A number of disadvantages plagued the single sleeve valve: * Perfect, even very good, sealing is difficult to achieve. In a poppet valve engine, the piston possesses
piston ring A piston ring is a metallic split ring that is attached to the outer diameter of a piston in an internal combustion engine or steam engine. The main functions of piston rings in engines are: # Sealing the combustion chamber so that there is min ...
s (at least three and sometimes as many as eight) which form a seal with the cylinder bore. During the "breaking in" period (known as "running-in" in the UK) any imperfections in one are scraped into the other, resulting in a good fit. This type of "breaking in" is not possible on a sleeve-valve engine, however, because the piston and sleeve move in different directions and in some systems even rotate in relation to one another. Unlike a traditional design, the imperfections in the piston do not always line up with the same point on the sleeve. In the 1940s this was not a major concern because the poppet valve stems of the time typically leaked appreciably more than they do today, so that oil consumption was significant in either case. To one of the 1922–1928 Argyll single sleeve valve engines, the 12, a four-cylinder 91 cu. in. (1,491 cc) unit, was attributed an oil consumption of one gallon for 1,945 miles, and 1,000 miles per gallon of oil in the 15/30 four-cylinder 159 cu. in. (2,610 cc). Some proposed an added ring in the base of the sleeve, between sleeve and cylinder wall. Single-sleeve-valve engines had a reputation of being much less smoky than the Daimler with engines of Knight double-sleeve engines counterparts. *The high oil consumption problem associated with the Knight double sleeve valve was fixed with the Burt-McCollum single sleeve valve, as perfected by Bristol. The models that had the complex ' junk head' installed a non-return purging valve on it; as liquids cannot be compressed, the presence of oil in the head space would result in problems. At
top dead centre In a reciprocating engine, the dead centre is the position of a piston in which it is either farthest from, or nearest to, the crankshaft. The former is known as Top Dead Centre (TDC) while the latter is known as Bottom Dead Centre (BDC). ...
(TDC), the single-sleeve valve rotates in relation to the piston. This prevents boundary lubrication problems, as piston ring ridge wear at TDC and bottom dead centre (BDC) does not occur. The Bristol Hercules time between overhauls (TBO) life was rated at 3,000 hours, very good for an aircraft engine, but not so for automotive engines. Sleeve wear was located primarily in the upper part, inside the 'junk head'. *An inherent disadvantage is that the piston in its course partially obscures the ports, thus making it difficult for gases to flow during the crucial overlap between the intake and exhaust valve timing usual in modern engines. The 1954 printing of the book by Harry Ricardo ''The High-Speed Internal Combustion Engine'', and also some patents on sleeve valve production, point out that the available zone for ports in the sleeve depends on the type of sleeve drive and bore/stroke ratio; Ricardo tested successfully the 'open sleeve' concept in some two-stroke, compression ignition engines. It not only eliminated the head rings, but also allowed a reduction in height of the engine and head, thus reducing frontal area in an aircraft engine, the whole circumference of the sleeve being available for exhaust port area, and the sleeve acting in phase with the piston forming an annular piston with an area around 10% of that of the piston, that contributed to some 3% of power output through the sleeve driving mechanism to the crankshaft. The German-born engineer
Max Bentele Max Bentele (January 15, 1909 – May 19, 2006) was a German-born pioneer in the field of jet aircraft turbines and mechanical engineering. His contributions to the development of the Wankel engine earned him the title, "Father of the Wankel Engi ...
, after studying a British sleeve valve aero engine (probably a
Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...
), complained that the arrangement required more than 100 gearwheels for the engine, too many for his taste. * A serious issue with large single-sleeve aero-engines is that their maximum reliable rotational speed is limited to about 3,000 RPM, but the M Hewland car engine was raced above 10,000 rpm without toil. * Improved fuel octanes, above about 87 RON, have assisted poppet-valve engines’ power output more than to the single-sleeve engines’. * The increased difficulty with oil consumption and cylinder-assembly lubrication was reported as never having been solved in series-produced engines. Railroad and other large single sleeve-valve engines emit more smoke when starting; as the engine reaches operating temperature and tolerances enter the adequate range, smoke is greatly reduced. For two-stroke engines, a three-way catalyst with air injection in the middle was proposed as best solution in a SAE Journal article around the year 2000. * Some (Wifredo Ricart, Alfa-Romeo) feared the build-up of heat inside the cylinder, however Ricardo proved that if only a thin oil film is retained and working clearance between the sleeve and the cylinder barrel was kept small, moving sleeves are almost transparent to heat, actually transporting heat from upper to lower parts of the system. *If stored horizontally, sleeves tend to become oval, producing several types of mechanical problems. To avoid this, special cabinets were developed to store sleeves vertically. *Equivalent implementations of modern variable valve timing and variable lift are impossible due to the fixed sizes of the port holes and essentially fixed rotational speed of the sleeves. It may theoretically be possible to alter the rotational speed through gearing that is not linearly related to the engine speed, however it seems this would be impractically complex even compared to the complexities of modern valve control systems.


History


Charles Yale Knight

In 1901 Knight bought an air-cooled, single-cylinder three-wheeler whose noisy valves annoyed him. He believed that he could design a better engine and did so, inventing his double sleeve principle in 1904. Backed by Chicago entrepreneur L.B. Kilbourne, a number of engines were constructed, followed by the "Silent Knight" touring car, which was shown at the 1906 Chicago Auto Show. Knight's design had two cast-iron sleeves per cylinder, one sliding inside the other with the piston inside the inner sleeve. The sleeves were operated by small connected rods actuated by an eccentric shaft. They had ports cut out at their upper ends. The design was remarkably quiet, and the sleeve valves needed little attention. It was, however, more expensive to manufacture due to the precision grinding required on the sleeves' surfaces. It also used more oil at high speeds and was harder to start in cold weather. Although he was initially unable to sell his Knight Engine in the United States, a long sojourn in England, involving extensive further development and refinement by Daimler supervised by their consultant Dr Frederick Lanchester,Lord Montagu and David Burgess-Wise ''Daimler Century'' ; Stephens 1995 eventually secured Daimler and several luxury car firms as customers willing to pay his expensive premiums. He first patented the design in England in 1908. The patent for the US was granted in 1910. As part of the licensing agreement, "Knight" was to be included in the car's name. Six-cylinder Daimler sleeve valve engines were used in the first British tanks in WW1, up to and including the Mark IV. As a result of the tendency of the engines to smoke and hence give away the tank positions,
Harry Ricardo Sir Harry Ralph Ricardo (26 January 1885 – 18 May 1974) was an English engineer who was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine. Among his many other works, ...
was brought in, and devised a new engine which replaced the sleeve valve starting with the
Mark V tank The British Mark V tank was an upgraded version of the Mark IV tank. The tank was improved in several aspects over the Mark IV, chiefly the new steering system, transmission and 150  bhp engine, but it fell short in other areas, particularl ...
. Among the companies using Knight's technology were
Avions Voisin Avions Voisin was a French luxury automobile brand established by Gabriel Voisin in 1919 which traded until 1939. History Gabriel B. Voisin was an aviation pioneer and manufacturer who in 1919 started producing cars using Knight-type sl ...
, Daimler (1909–1930s) including their V12 Double Six,
Panhard Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles. It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense, was formed ...
(1911–39), Mercedes (1909–24),
Willys Willys (pronounced , "Willis" ) was a brand name used by Willys–Overland Motors, an American automobile company, founded by John North Willys. It was best known for its design and production of World War II era and later military jeeps (MBs ...
(as the Willys-Knight, plus the associated Falcon-Knight), Stearns, Mors,
Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...
, and Belgium's Minerva company that was forced to stop their sleeve-valve line of engines as a result of the limitations imposed on them by the winners of WWII, some thirty companies in all.
Itala Itala was a car manufacturer based in Turin, Italy, from 1904 to 1934, started by Matteo Ceirano and five partners in 1903. Ceirano family background The Ceirano brothers, Giovanni Battista Ceirano, Giovanni Battista, Giovanni Ceirano, Giovanni ...
also experimented with rotary and sleeve valves in their 'Avalve' cars. Upon Knight's return to America he was able to get some firms to use his design; here his brand name was "
Silent Knight The Silent Knight (Brian Kent, cy, Marchog Tewi) is a fictional medieval hero appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #1 (August 1955) and was created by Robert Kanigher and I ...
" (1905–1907) — the selling point was that his engines were quieter than those with standard poppet valves. The best known of these were the F.B. Stearns Company of Cleveland, which sold a car named the
Stearns-Knight F. B. Stearns and Company, later known as F.B. Stearns Company was an American manufacturer of luxury cars in Cleveland, Ohio marketed under the brand names Stearns from 1900 to 1911 then Stearns-Knight from 1911 until 1929. History Frank Ballo ...
, and the
Willys Willys (pronounced , "Willis" ) was a brand name used by Willys–Overland Motors, an American automobile company, founded by John North Willys. It was best known for its design and production of World War II era and later military jeeps (MBs ...
firm which offered a car called the Willys-Knight, which was produced in far greater numbers than any other sleeve-valve car.


Burt-McCollum

The Burt-McCollum sleeve valve, having its name from the surnames of the two engineers that patented the same concept with weeks of difference, Peter Burt and James Harry Keighly McCollum, patent applications are of August 6 and June 22, 1909, respectively, both engineers hired by the Scottish car maker Argyll, consisted of a single sleeve, which was given a combination of up-and-down and partial rotary motion. It was developed in about 1909 and was first used in the 1911
Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...
car. The initial 1900 investment in Argyll was £15,000 and building the magnificent Scotland plant cost £500,000 in 1920. It is reported that litigation by the owners of the Knight patents cost Argyll £50,000, perhaps one of the reasons for the temporary shutdown of their plant. Another car maker that used the Argyll SSV patents, and others of their own (patent GB118407), was Piccard-Pictet (Pic-Pic); Louis Chevrolet and others founded Frontenac Motors in 1923 with the aim of producing an 8-L SSV engined luxury car, but this never reached production for reasons connected to the time limits to the Argyll patents in the USA. The greatest success for single sleeve valves (SSV) was in Bristol's large aircraft engines, it was also used in the Napier Sabre and
Rolls-Royce Eagle The Rolls-Royce Eagle was the first aircraft engine to be developed by Rolls-Royce Limited. Introduced in 1915 to meet British military requirements during World War I, it was used to power the Handley Page Type O bombers and a number of oth ...
engines. The SSV system also reduced the high oil consumption associated with the Knight double sleeve valve. Barr and Stroud Ltd of Anniesland, Glasgow, also licensed the SSV design, and made small versions of the engines that they marketed to motorcycle companies. In an advertisement in Motor Cycle magazine in 1922 Barr & Stroud promoted their 350cc sleeve valve engine and listed Beardmore-Precision, Diamond, Edmund, and Royal Scot as motorcycle manufacturers offering it. This engine had been described in the March edition as the 'Burt' engine. Grindlay-Peerless started producing a SSV Barr & Stroud engined 999cc V-twin in 1923

and later added a 499cc single SSV as well as the 350cc. Vard Wallace, known for his aftermarket forks for motorcycles, presented in 1947 drawings of a Single Cylinder, Air-Cooled, 250 cc SSV engine. Some small SSV auxiliary boat engines and electric generators were built in the UK, prepared for burning 'paraffin' from start, or after a bit of heat-up with more complex fuels. (Petter Brotherhood, Wallace. 'The Engineer', Dec 9, 1921, pg 618) A number of sleeve valve aircraft engines were developed following a seminal 1927 research paper from the Royal Aircraft Establishment, RAE by
Harry Ricardo Sir Harry Ralph Ricardo (26 January 1885 – 18 May 1974) was an English engineer who was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine. Among his many other works, ...
. This paper outlined the advantages of the sleeve valve and suggested that poppet valve engines would not be able to offer power outputs much beyond 1500 hp (1,100 kW). Napier and
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
began the development of sleeve-valve engines that would eventually result in limited production of two of the most powerful piston engines in the world: the Napier Sabre and
Bristol Centaurus The Centaurus was the final development of the Bristol Engine Company's series of sleeve valve radial aircraft engines. The Centaurus is an 18-cylinder, two-row design that eventually delivered over . The engine was introduced into service lat ...
. The
Continental Motors Company Continental Motors Company was an American manufacturer of internal combustion engines. The company produced engines as a supplier to many independent manufacturers of automobiles, tractors, trucks, and stationary equipment (such as pumps, gene ...
, around the years of the Great Depression, developed prototypes of single sleeve-valve engines for a range of applications, from cars to trains to airplanes, and thought that production would be easier, and costs would be lower, than its counterpart poppet valve engines. Due to the financial problems of Continental, this line of engines never entered production. ('Continental! Its motors and its people', William Wagner, Armed Forces Journal International and Aero Publishers, 1983, ) Potentially the most powerful of all sleeve-valve engines (though it never reached production) was the
Rolls-Royce Crecy The Rolls-Royce Crecy was a British experimental two-stroke, 90-degree, V12, liquid-cooled aero-engine of 1,593.4 cu.in (26.11 L) capacity, featuring sleeve valves and direct petrol injection. Initially intended for a high-speed "sprint" i ...
V-12 (oddly, using a 90-degree V-angle), two-stroke, direct-injected, turbocharged (force-scavenged) aero-engine of 26.1 litres capacity. It achieved a very high specific output, and surprisingly good specific fuel consumption (SFC). In 1945 the single-cylinder test-engine (Ricardo E65) produced the equivalent of 5,000 HP (192 BHP/Litre) when water injected, although the full V12 would probably have been initially type rated at circa . Sir Harry Ricardo, who specified the layout and design goals, felt that a reliable 4,000 HP military rating would be possible. Ricardo was constantly frustrated during the war with
Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
's (RR) efforts.
Hives Hives, also known as urticaria, is a kind of skin rash with red, raised, itchy bumps. Hives may burn or sting. The patches of rash may appear on different body parts, with variable duration from minutes to days, and does not leave any long-lasti ...
& RR were very much focused on their
Merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...
, Griffon then Eagle and finally
Whittle Whittle may refer to: Crafts *Whittling, the carving of wood with a knife People * Whittle (name), a surname, and a list of people with the name Places * Whittle, Kentucky * Whittle, Derbyshire, a hamlet near Glossop, Derbyshire, United Kingdom ...
's jets, which all had a clearly defined production purpose. Ricardo and Tizard eventually realized that the Crecy would never get the development attention it deserved unless it was specified for installation in a particular aircraft but by 1945, their "
Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...
on steroids" concept of a rapidly climbing interceptor powered by the lightweight Crecy engine had become an aircraft without a purpose. Following World War II, the sleeve valve became utilised less, Roy Fedden, very early involved in the S-V research, built some flat-six single sleeve-valve engines intended for general aviation around 1947; after this, just the French
SNECMA Safran Aircraft Engines, previously Snecma (''Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation'') or Snecma Moteurs, is a French aerospace engine manufacturer headquartered in Courcouronnes and a subsidiary of Safran. It ...
produced some SSV engines under Bristol license that were installed in the Noratlas transport airplane, also another transport aircraft, the
Azor Azor ( he, אָזוֹר, ar, أزور) (also ''Azur'') is a small town ( local council) in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, on the old Jaffa-Jerusalem road southeast of Tel Aviv. Established in 1948 on the site of the depopulated Palestinian vi ...
built by the Spanish CASA installed SSV Bristol engines post-WWII. Bristol sleeve valve engines were used however during the post-war air transport boom, in the
Vickers Viking The Vickers Viking was a British single-engine amphibious aircraft designed for military use shortly after World War I. Later versions of the aircraft were known as the Vickers Vulture and Vickers Vanellus. Design and development Resear ...
and related military Varsity and
Valetta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 was ...
,
Airspeed Ambassador The Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador is a British twin piston-engined airliner that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Airspeed Ltd. It was one of the first postwar airliners to be produced. The Ambassador was developed in ...
, used on BEA's European routes, and
Handley Page Hermes The Handley Page HP.81 Hermes was a civilian airliner designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Handley Page. The Hermes was developed during the 1940s in parallel with the closely related Handley Page Hastings military transp ...
(and related military
Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
), and
Short Solent The Short Solent is a passenger flying boat that was produced by Short Brothers in the late 1940s. It was developed from the Short Seaford, itself a development of the Short Sunderland military flying boat design. The first Solent flew in 194 ...
airliners and the
Bristol Freighter The Bristol Type 170 Freighter is a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner. Its best known use was as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively s ...
and Superfreighter. The Centaurus was also used in the military
Hawker Sea Fury The Hawker Sea Fury is a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, and one of the fastest production single reciprocating engine aircraft e ...
,
Blackburn Firebrand The Blackburn Firebrand was a British single-engine strike fighter for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy designed during World War II by Blackburn Aircraft. Originally intended to serve as a pure fighter, its unimpressive performance and ...
,
Bristol Brigand The Bristol Brigand was a British anti-shipping/ground attack/dive bomber aircraft, developed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as a replacement for the Beaufighter. A total of 147 were built and were used by the Royal Air Force in Malaya duri ...
, Blackburn Beverly and the
Fairey Spearfish The Fairey Spearfish was a British carrier-based, single-engined, torpedo bomber/dive bomber that was ordered from Fairey Aviation for the Fleet Air Arm during World War II. Designed during the war, the prototype did not fly until July 1945. ...
. The poppet valve's previous problems with sealing and wear had been remedied by the use of better materials and the
inertia Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...
problems with the use of large valves were reduced by using several smaller valves instead, giving increased flow area and reduced mass, and the exhaust valve hot spot by Sodium-cooled valves. Up to that point, the single sleeve valve had won every contest against the poppet valve in comparison of power to displacement. The difficulty of Nitride hardening, then finish-grinding the sleeve valve for truing the circularity, may have been a factor in its lack of more commercial applications.


The Knight-Argyll Patent Case

When the Argyll car was launched in 1911, the Knight and Kilbourne Company immediately brought a case against Argyll for infringement of their original 1905 patent. This patent described an engine with a single moving sleeve, whereas the Daimler engines being built at the time were based on the 1908 Knight patent which had engines with two moving sleeves. As part of the litigation an engine was built according to the 1905 specification and developed no more than a fraction of the rated
RAC horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...
. This fact coupled with other legal and technical arguments led the judge to rule, at the end of July 1912, that the holders of the original Knight patent could not be supported in their claim that it gave them master rights encompassing the Argyll design. Costs of litigation against claims by Knight patent holders seem having substantially contributed to bankrupt of Argyll in Scotland.


Modern usage

The sleeve valve has begun to make something of a comeback, thanks to modern materials, dramatically better engineering tolerances and modern construction techniques, which produce a sleeve valve that leaks very little oil. However, most advanced engine research is concentrated on improving other internal combustion engine designs, such as the
Wankel Wankel may refer to: * Wankel engine, a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design instead of reciprocating pistons * Wankel AG, a German company that produces Wankel engines for ultralight aircraft and racing cars People ...
. Mike Hewland with his assistant John Logan, and also independently
Keith Duckworth David Keith Duckworth (10 August 1933 – 18 December 2005) was an English mechanical engineer. He is most famous for designing the Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) engine, an engine that revolutionised the sport of Formula One. Early life a ...
, experimented with a single-cylinder sleeve-valve test engine when looking at
Cosworth DFV The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. The name is an abbreviation of ''Double Four Valve'', the engine being a V8 development of the earlier four-cylinder FVA, which had fo ...
replacements. Hewland claimed to have obtained from a 500 cc single-cylinder engine, with a specific fuel consumption of 177-205 g/HP/hr (0.39 - 0.45 lb/HP/hr), the engine being able to work on
creosote Creosote is a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics. Some creosote types were ...
, and with no specific lubrication supply for the sleeve. An unusual form of four-stroke
model engine A model engine is a small internal combustion engine typically used to power a radio-controlled aircraft, radio-controlled car, radio-controlled boat, free flight, control line aircraft, or ground-running tether car model. Because of the s ...
that uses what is essentially a sleeve-valve format, is the British RCV series of "SP" model engines, which use a rotating cylinder liner driven through a bevel gear at the cylinder liner's "bottom", which is actually at the aft end of the cylinder; and, even more unusually, have the propeller shaft — as an integrally machined part of the rotating cylinder liner — emerging from what would normally be the
cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern ov ...
, which in this design is placed at the extreme front of the engine, achieving a 2:1 gear reduction ratio compared to the vertically oriented crankshaft's rotational speed. The same firm's "CD" series of model engines use a conventional upright single cylinder with the crankshaft used to spin the propeller directly and also use the rotating cylinder valve. As a parallel with the earlier Charles Knight-designed sleeve-valved automotive powerplants, any RCV sleeve-valved model engine that is run on model
glow engine A glow plug engine, or glow engine, is a type of small internal combustion engine typically used in model aircraft, model cars and similar applications. The ignition is accomplished by a combination of heating from compression, heating from a ...
fuel using
castor oil Castor oil is a vegetable oil pressed from castor beans. It is a colourless or pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and odor. Its boiling point is and its density is 0.961 g/cm3. It includes a mixture of triglycerides in which about ...
(about 2% to 4% content) of the maximum 15%-content lubricant in the fuel allows the "varnish" created through engine operation to provide a better pneumatic seal between the rotating cylinder valve and the unitized engine cylinder/head castings, initially formed while the engine is being broken in. Another concept, the Rotating Liner Engine has been developed, where the wear and friction benefit of the sleeve valve is exploited in a conventional engine layout. A friction reduction of the order of 40% has been reported for a Heavy Duty diesel. The same company can also supply somewhat larger engines for use in military drones, portable generators and equipment such as lawn mowers.


Steam engine

Sleeve valves have occasionally, but unsuccessfully, been used on steam engines, for example the SR Leader class.


See also

* :Sleeve valve engines * Slide valve *
Piston valve A "piston valve" is a device used to control the motion of a fluid along a tube or pipe by means of the linear motion of a piston within a chamber or cylinder. Examples of piston valves are: * The valves used in many brass instruments * The va ...
*
Corliss valve Corliss is both a surname and a given name. People Given name * Corliss Lamont (1902–1995), American philosopher, political activist, and philanthropist * C. C. Moseley (1894–1974), American aviator and aviation businessman * Corliss Palmer ( ...


References

* * * Aircraft Engine Historical Society www.enginehistory.org -AEHS- publication: "Torque Meter", Vol 7, issues 2, 3, 4. * Robert J. Raymond: "Comparison of Sleeve and Poppet-Valve Aircraft Piston Engines", AEHS 2005 * Car&Driver, July 1974, pp, 26-29, 112-114 (cover shows a Bricklin car): 'A trick up his sleeve', Charles Fox interviews Mike Hewland. * * * H E Carroll: GB Patent 24.232; 1908 * J B Hull: "Non-Poppet Valve Motors at the 1911 Olympia Show", SAE paper 120011. * 'The Knight-Argyll Patent Case', The Automotor Journal, 3rd August, 1912, pp 919-920 * Ateliers Piccard, Pictet & Cie: GB Patent 118.407; 1917 * Harry Ricardo: "Recent Research Work on the Internal Combustion Engine", SAE Journal, May 1922, pp 305–336 (ends in p. 347) * R Abell: "Single Valve Internal Combustion Engine Design and Operation", SAE Journal, Oct 1923, pp 301–309 (Another type of non-poppet valve, used also by Lotus in a 2-stroke engine -SAE paper 920779) * P M Heldt: "Sleeve-Valve Engines", SAE Journal, March 1926, pp 303–314 * W.A. Frederick: "The Single-Sleeve-Valve Engine", SAE Journal, May 1927, pp 661–678 (Calculations). * G L Ensor: "Some Notes on the Single-Sleeve Valve", The Institution of Automobile Engineers (London) Proceedings, Vol XXII, Session 1927-28, pp 651–719. * A M Niven: "Internal combustion engine", Patent US 1739255, 1929. * Frank Jardine: "Thermal Expansion in Automotive Engine Design", SAE Journal, Sept 1930, pp 311–318, and SAE paper 300010. * A M Niven: "Sleeve valve actuating mechanism", Patent US 1764972, 1930. * A M Niven: "Internal combustion engine", Patent US 1778911, 1930. * A M Niven: "Sleeve valve cylinder head", Patent US 1780763, 1930. * A M Niven: "Sleeve valve driving mechanism", Patent US 1789341, 1931. * R Fedden: Patents GB425060, GB584525, and CA353554 on Sleeve materials, production and hardening. * A M Niven: "Sleeve valve and method of making same", Patent Nº US1814764A; 1931 * A M Niven: "Sleeve valve and method of making same", U.S. Patent N º 1,820,629; 1931 * A. H. R. Fedden: "The Single Sleeve as a Valve Mechanism for the Aircraft Engine", SAE paper 380161. * Ashley C Hewitt: "Small High-Speed Single Sleeve Valve Engine", SAE paper 390049 (Single cylinder, air cooled 4.21 ci., 70 cc. engine). * W P Ricart: "Some European Comments on High-Output Automobile and Aero-Engines", SAE paper 390099. * P V Lamarque, "The design of Cooling Fins for Motor-Cycle Engines", Report of the Automobile Research Committee, Institution of Automobile Engineers Magazine, March 1943 issue, and also in "The Institution of Automobile Engineers Proceedings-London-", Vol. XXXVII, Session 1942-43, pp 99–134 and 309-312. * Robert Insley & Arthur W. Green: "Method for making valve sleeves", U.S. Patent Nº 2,319,546; 1943 * Marcus C Inman Hunter: "Rotary Valve Engines', Hutchinson, 1946 (In Scribd) * G F Hiett and J VB Robson: "A High-Power Two-Cycle Sleeve-Valve Engine for Aircraft", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology (1950), Vol 22, Iss 1, pp. 21–23, same authors, magazine and title, 2nd part, in Vol 22, Iss 2, pp. 32–45 * Harry Ricardo: "The Sleeve-Valve Diesel Engine", '19 Andrew Laing Lecture', North East Coast Instit. of Engineers and Shipbuilders, transact 67 Session, 1950–51, p. 69-88. * Harry Ricardo: ''The High-Speed Internal Combustion Engine'', London, 1953 ed. (Materials, see also in talk) * 'Unorthodox I.C. Engines -Rotary and Sleeve-Valve Types', Model Engineer, Vol 122, nº 3056, 4 February 1960, pgs 136-138 * Peter R. March: 'The Sleeve-Valve Engine', airextra, nº 27, 1977, pgs 11-19 * William Wagner: ''Continental! Its Motors and Its People'', Aero Publishers, CA, 1983. * Strictly I.C. Magazine, Vol 14, Numbers 83 & 84 (Construction of a 1/3 scale model of a Barr&Stroud SSV Motorcycle Engine). * Michael Worthington-Williams: 'Something Up their Sleeve', The Automobile (UK), Vol 21 Nº 3, May 2003, pags 48-51 * Robert J. Raymond: "Comparison of Sleeve and Poppet-Valve Aircraft Piston Engines", AEHS, April 2005

* Kimble D. McCutcheon: "The Liquid-Cooled Engines of Pratt & Whitney", AEHS, 2006

* Muhammad Hafdiz Rahmat et al. (PETRONAS): "Side Opening Intake Strategy Simulation and Validation of a Sleeve-Valve Port Application", SAE paper 2009-32-0130/20097130 * Anish Gokhale et al.: "Optimization of Engine Cooling through Conjugate Heat Transfer Simulation and Analysis of Fins", SAE Paper 2012-32-0054 * YouTube: Videos by ChargerMiles007, Anson Engine Museum and others, search keyword: Sleeve Valve. * Anson Engine Museum: YouTube video on the Petter Brotherhood engine, a railroad single-sleeve-valve engine designed around 1930 in the company participated by J. B. Mirrlees. * Bristol Engines' Manual

* Nahum, Foster-Pegg, and Birch: 'The Rolls-Royce Crecy', The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, 2013. * K McCutcheon: 'American Sleeve-Valve Aircraft Engines', Weak Force Press, Hunstville, AL; 2020. * 'The piston engine revolution'; NEWCOMEN.com, Text of a 2011 Conference. Patrick Hassell, Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust: 'The Bristol Sleeve Valve Aero Engines', pp 112-132. Includes descriptions on materials and machining of sleeves.


External links


Video showing a cutaway Knight Sleeve-Valve Engine


A Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine modified to Single-Sleeve-Valve Distribution type

1931 Edition of Harry Ricardo: 'The High-Speed Internal Combustion Engine'

Douglas Self site: 'Rotary Valves in Internal Combustion Engines' {{Authority control Engine valves Engine valvetrain configurations Sleeve valve engines