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The other day I saw a story on a new engine design which claims to be 125% more efficient: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLFFT08eHg

Here (http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/19/science/putting-a-darwinia...) is an old story about a group who used genetic algorithm to design a more efficient diesel engine.

>using a Silicon Graphics Origin 2000 supercomputer with 32 processors it took more than two weeks of continuous operation to find an optimal set of parameters.

>Dr. Senecal's test engine consumed 15 percent less fuel than a standard engine while producing one-third as much nitric oxide and half the soot.

Unfortunately I have no idea if anything ever came of this or not. I can't find anything. It'd be incredibly sad if this actually worked and then was never implemented.

This was done just with a dumb genetic algorithm on 2000 era computers, a population size of 5, run for 50 generations, and only tweaking a handful of parameters. I believe there is more potential in stuff like this.



It sure has not been from lack of trying new designs: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/unusualICeng/unusua...

(Also: Big News! Douglas Self has been updating the Museum of Retro Tech again)




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