Felix Wankel was a genius. It's really sad that his engine never really took off. At least Mazda took interest in the Wankel engine and won at Le Mans overall in 1991 with the Mazda 787B.
@NicksCorvetteMan I agree completely, I think it's an incredible engine. Unfortunately there's no base, and not enough engineers working to make it efficient. No catastrophic failure; sounds like reason enough to use it in the racing scene.
@EngineeringExplained Even more increadible than the petrol wankel is the diesel wankel developed by rolls-royce, which seems to have been workable, but was not even put into production.
In Rolls-Royce design, the rotors were in pairs, each pair being sequential rather than parallel. In each pair, R1 takes in air and compresses it and R2 takes in the compressed air and compresses it further, it is then mixed with fuel and autoignition occurs, the expanding gasses first drive R2 around and then are pushed out of the chamber and drive around R1 before being pushed out again.
@NicksCorvetteMan Haha, I originally wrote "Emissions? Weight?" But thought how could something be banned because it's too light. They should be allowed to place weights where they wish, not ban a design with advantages. Kills innovation.
How can a rx8 produce more hp per liter with a smaller compression ratio than a engine operated by cylinders? don't rotary engines with a smaller compression ratio do less and less efficient work? so how come the rotary engine's power to displacement ratio is so high than?
@ichigokillsyou One of the biggest reasons that comes to mind is the fact that rotary engines fire more frequently. In a piston cylinder engine each cylinder fires once (one power stroke) for every 2 revolutions of the crankshaft. So if you're at 4000 rpms each cylinder fires 2000 times per minute. In a rotary engine, each rotor has 3 power strokes per revolution. So if you're at 4000 rpms you have 12000 power strokes per rotor.
@EngineeringExplained 2 stroke engines have greater hp/liter because they fire twice as often as 4 stroke engines. (See Two-Stroke Engine - Explained) for more info on two-strokes. The more power strokes you have per crankshaft revolution, the more power you will produce!
@EngineeringExplained I should note that although there are 3 power strokes per rotation of the rotor, there is one power stroke per rotation of the crankshaft. My first comment can be a little misleading in this sense.
thank you very much i understand much better now :)
MW2L3G3ND 1 month ago
Felix Wankel was a genius. It's really sad that his engine never really took off. At least Mazda took interest in the Wankel engine and won at Le Mans overall in 1991 with the Mazda 787B.
NicksCorvetteMan 4 months ago
@NicksCorvetteMan I agree completely, I think it's an incredible engine. Unfortunately there's no base, and not enough engineers working to make it efficient. No catastrophic failure; sounds like reason enough to use it in the racing scene.
EngineeringExplained 4 months ago
@EngineeringExplained Even more increadible than the petrol wankel is the diesel wankel developed by rolls-royce, which seems to have been workable, but was not even put into production.
Myrtone 4 months ago
In Rolls-Royce design, the rotors were in pairs, each pair being sequential rather than parallel. In each pair, R1 takes in air and compresses it and R2 takes in the compressed air and compresses it further, it is then mixed with fuel and autoignition occurs, the expanding gasses first drive R2 around and then are pushed out of the chamber and drive around R1 before being pushed out again.
Myrtone 4 months ago
@EngineeringExplained The FIA completely banned Rotor engines at the end of 1991.
NicksCorvetteMan 4 months ago
@NicksCorvetteMan Curious as to the reasoning? Emissions?
EngineeringExplained 4 months ago
@EngineeringExplained Because they said it had unfair weight advantages compared to piston engines.
NicksCorvetteMan 4 months ago
@NicksCorvetteMan Haha, I originally wrote "Emissions? Weight?" But thought how could something be banned because it's too light. They should be allowed to place weights where they wish, not ban a design with advantages. Kills innovation.
EngineeringExplained 4 months ago
How can a rx8 produce more hp per liter with a smaller compression ratio than a engine operated by cylinders? don't rotary engines with a smaller compression ratio do less and less efficient work? so how come the rotary engine's power to displacement ratio is so high than?
ichigokillsyou 6 months ago
@ichigokillsyou One of the biggest reasons that comes to mind is the fact that rotary engines fire more frequently. In a piston cylinder engine each cylinder fires once (one power stroke) for every 2 revolutions of the crankshaft. So if you're at 4000 rpms each cylinder fires 2000 times per minute. In a rotary engine, each rotor has 3 power strokes per revolution. So if you're at 4000 rpms you have 12000 power strokes per rotor.
EngineeringExplained 6 months ago
@EngineeringExplained 2 stroke engines have greater hp/liter because they fire twice as often as 4 stroke engines. (See Two-Stroke Engine - Explained) for more info on two-strokes. The more power strokes you have per crankshaft revolution, the more power you will produce!
EngineeringExplained 6 months ago
@EngineeringExplained I should note that although there are 3 power strokes per rotation of the rotor, there is one power stroke per rotation of the crankshaft. My first comment can be a little misleading in this sense.
EngineeringExplained 6 months ago