Rotary Engine or Wankel Engine:
A rotary engine or Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine. In this design, the crankshaft remains stationary while the triangular rotor rotates. Unlike conventional engines, rotary engines have the arrangement of the cylinder moving around a fixed crankshaft.
The rotary engine uses fuel combustion to spin a triangular rotor around the central driveshaft. This engine successfully does away from the piston type and provides the crankshaft. These engines are perfectly balanced and very refined. Felix Wankel invented one of the most popular types of rotary engines. The powerful and famous Mazda sports cars have employed it. It is the most talentedly designed internal combustion engine of modern times.
However, the rotary engine is not as efficient as the piston engines. It has undergone research and development throughout the century all over the world. The main factors that make the rotary engines successful are smooth running, fewer parts, and low weight. The rotary engine delivers very smooth power because of fewer reciprocating parts while delivering a large rotating motion.
It has a low-weight advantage as well. It is a very conventional engine with a heavy flywheel, which stores the energy in pulses and reduces vibrations. The rotary engines gain a substantial power-to-weight ratio for not needing to add the flywheel. This engine rotates the cylinder block and creates its own speed, moving cooling airflow while running.
Wankel Engine:
Dr. Felix Wankel invented the rotary engine. So, it is popularly known as the Wankel engine. This design has eccentric curved housing. However, it has a triangular-shaped rotor moving inside it.
Furthermore, the Wankel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses an eccentric rotary design. It converts the pressure into a rotating motion. Among all the engine designs and classifications, the Wankel engine has maximum advantages. It offers benefits such as compactness, smoothness, and simplicity. In addition, this type of engine offers more revolutions per minute or high speed, which gives more performance. The Wankel engine also has a high power-to-weight ratio.
Furthermore, all the Wankel engine components rotate in a single direction. The main advantage of this engine is that it has a compact design. As a result, these engines have multiple applications. A variety of vehicles and machines use this type of engine. These include racing cars, automobiles, aircraft, motorcycles, go-karts, snowmobiles, jet skis, and auxiliary power units.
Moreover, you can also use it in a personal watercraft or aircraft. It does not suffer from scaling effects, which other engines do due to limiting their size. The Wankel engine is capable of using fuels with a broader octane rating. It is more efficient than a piston engine as it reaches more revolutions (speed) per minute. The motor contains fewer parts. It does not have any reciprocating part in it, which reduces the cost of mass production.
Rotary Engine Advantages:
- Smaller in size, lighter in weight, and more compact than reciprocating engines.
- Cheaper and simple in construction for mass-production
- Absence of many parts such as connecting rods, camshaft, valve mechanism, etc.
- Easier to the balance due to less number of parts
- High volumetric efficiency (usually more than 100%)
- High power-to-weight ratio
- Low running cost
- It does not require the overdrive as the speed of the engine itself is very high
Disadvantages:
- High fuel consumption at low speeds
- Lower torque values
- Higher engine oil consumption
- The braking effect of the engine is significantly less
- Speed reduction in the gearbox is necessary due to high engine speed
- Spark plugs need frequent replacement in older/ordinary ignition systems
- Poor sealing issues in the older designs
Mazda employed the rotary engine in its Mazda RX series cars.
Watch Rotary engine / Wankel engine in action here:
[Youtube vid=6BCgl2uumlI]
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