Rotary Engine

[filmstar]

How does a rotary engine work, not having any pistons and all!??

[funkymoped]

wish i could find a way to answer this one clearly..

the way it works is you have a sort of triangular chamber. inside the chamber is a three sided rotar. the rotar spins inside the triangular chamber.

so what you have is a triange spinning inside a triangle.

each of the the corners on the spinning rotar (i think) is free to move in and out !!

now look at the three sides of the spinning rotar.

induction (petrol in)

compression

exhaust (waste gases out)

a rotar does the same job as a piston, but in a "rotary" movement not an up and down movement..

my guess is my answer dosent make much sence, but i didnt expect it to !! lol.

tough question filmstar....

[Mortartube]

This animation should help. A picture is worth a thousand words.

http://www.keveney.com/Wankel.html

[smudge]

Here's Mortartube's link: Here

[brachiopod]

Can you actually say Wankel Rotary engine on this site?

[brachiopod]

Obviously, you can!

A term I first heard from a "Big Boys' Encyplopaedia of Engines, Machines and Boys' Stuff" type of book back in the 70's - which obviously made me laugh in a sniggering, puerile way. (I was only 10)

So, when I first saw the Mazda (whatever model it was) advert a few years back - "an engine without pistons...", I instantly thought "Hmmm...obviously a Wankel Rotary engine, then." - so I must have learnt something !!

[Toureman]

Good try funkymoped, I would'nt try even though I know how they work!

[WoWo]

That link is fantastic. They used to have a model you could play with in the science museum when I was a kid.

norton used them in bikes during the 70's and early 80's but they were very unreliable which is why I think they never caught one.

But they produce a lot more power and rev a lot higher than a standard 4 stroke piston engine of the same displacement.

[JudgeJ]

The main problem with the early Wankel engines was maintaining a good seal between the tip of the rotor and the cylinder. This gave similar symptons to piston ring failure on a conventional engine - loss of compression, lack of power, etc. It has obviously been cured because rotary engines are in widespread use now.

[KebabMeister]

And the advantage of one is that it isn't reciprocating like a normal 2 or 4 stroke engine. In other words because it's continually rotating (hence rotary engine) it isn't having to effectively stop and start (top of stroke & bottom of stroke). That's why it's able to accelerate and rev higher.

As mentioned the main problem was that they're prone to burning out the rotor seals and also leaking oil.

There's a comprohensive website here

[KebabMeister]

WoWo, the Norton F1 rotary bikes were actually used in the late 80s/early 90s winning lots of races and in 1989 won the 750 cc Supercup Championship and the British F1 title. The guy who ran Norton F1 (Brian Crighton) had a fall out then formed a new company called ROTON which used the rotary engine as well with great success in the early 90s. Many wonder what would have happened had he not have left Norton because many believe that they would have continued to be a dominating racing team.

The main problem with using a rotary engine on a bike was that it was fast as hell in a straight line but as soon as you went around a corner you would experience the gyroscopic effect. Since the engine was rotating, any corner would destabilise the engine and you would lose a tremendous amount of power. If anything this was why it never caught on in motor bikes (although there are rotary bikes still being ridden today).

[BillyBB]

You needed special oil for the Norton too, are they still making aero engines?