Wankel Engine

  I 'll try on one simplely way to  present this interesting engine, which is now commercially used only in the Mazda car`s (RX-8).Let`s START!!!!!!

  The WANKEL ENGINE is a type of internal combustion engine  which uses a rotary design to convert pressure into a rotating motion instead of using pistons.Its four-stroke cycle takes place in  oval shaped housing.

The engine was invented by Geraman engineer Felix Wankel. He received his first patent for the engine in 1929, began development in the early 1950s at NSU, and completed a working prototype in 1957.An early problem of buildup of cracks in the oval surface was solved by installing the spark plugs in a separate metal piece instead of screwing them directly into the block.Among the manufacturers signing licensing agreements to develop Wankel engines were Alfa Romeo,Citroen,Ford,GM, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Rolls-Roys,Suzuki, and Toyota.In the United States, in 1959 under license from NSU,Curttis-Wright pioneered minor improvements in the basic engine design.The design also was proposed as the power source for United States Army combat vehicles and other equipment in the late 1980s.

In the Wankel engine, the four strokes occur in the space between a three-sided symmetric rotor and the inside of a housing, although the Wankel cycle differs from Otto cycle in the duration of the expansion part of cycle, that is much longer. The rotors both rotate around the eccentrics and make orbital revolutions around the eccentric shaft.Seals at the corners of the rotor seal against the periphery of the housing, dividing it into three moving chombustion chambers.A fixed gear mounted on one side of the rotor housing engages a ring gear attached to the rotor and ensures the rotor moves exactly 1/3 turn for each turn of the eccentric shaft.As the rotor rotates and orbitally revolves, each side of the rotor gets closer and farther from the wall of the housing, compressing and expanding the combustion chamber similarly to the strokes of a piston in a OTTO engine. Mazda Wankel engines in auto racing are operated above 10,000 rpm.The hole cysle you can see on picture below.

Wankel engines are considerably simpler, lighter, and contain far less moving parts than piston engines of equivalent power output.A further advantage of the Wankel engine for use in aircraft industry is the fact that a Wankel engine generally has a smaller frontal area than a piston engine of equivalent power.Wankel engines that operate within their original design parameters are almost immune to catastrophic failure.For this reason, Wankel engines are very well suited to snowmobiles and aircraft, which often take users into remote places where a failure could result in  death.