Abstract
Although a rather abundant litterature on the subject of free piston engine installations exists this mainly concerns applications to stationary installations and it may be useful therefore to survey the relative properties of these engines as marine propulsion prime movers.
After a short definition of a free piston engine installation, followed by a brief historical review and a more detailed description of the gasifyer, the paper summarizes various basic differences compared with more conventional machinery in respect of maintenance, running costs, space and weight requirements and future developments.
Various design lay-outs are given.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.