The Rotary (Wankel)

Engine
Dr. Yehia Eldrainy

History

Ideas have existed since the 16th century

German scientist Felix Wankel was the first to put the
idea into a working design

Funded by the German Aviation Ministry during WWII

Germany believed that the rotary engine would propel their
industry into eventual greatness
Invented in 1957

Wankel perfected his design and sold the rights for the
design to several car companies
Mazda produced its first rotary power car in 1961 and
created their Rotary Engine Division in 1963

History

Popularity for the rotary powered vehicles

increased rapidly until the gas crisis in the mid 70s

Rotary engines were not very fuel efficient compared to

piston engines
Strict emissions standards could not be met with current
rotary technology

These two factors severely hurt the sale and

development of rotary engines
Mazda was the only car company that continued to
produce cars with rotary engines through the 90s

Automotive Success with

Rotaries

In 1991, the Mazda

787B won the 24-hour
Le Mans endurance
race

Rotary engines were then

banned from the C2
circuit

The RX-8 is able to

produce 238 hp from its
1.3L engine and with
good gas mileage and
favorable emissions

The Parts of a Rotary Engine

A rotary engine has an ignition system and a fueldelivery system that are similar to the ones on piston
engines.

Rotor

The rotor has three convex faces, each of which acts like a piston.
Each face of the rotor has a pocket in it, which increases the
displacement of the engine, allowing more space for air/fuel mixture.
At the apex of each face is a metal blade that forms a seal to the
outside of the combustion chamber. There are also metal rings on
each side of the rotor that seal to the sides of the combustion
chamber.
The rotor has a set of internal gear teeth cut into the center of one
side. These teeth mate with a gear that is fixed to the housing. This
gear mating determines the path and direction the rotor takes
through the housing.

The Parts of a Rotary Engine

Rotor
.

In the center of each rotor is

a large internal gear that
rides around a smaller gear
that is fixed to the housing
of the engine. This is what
determines the orbit of the
rotor. The rotor also rides
on the large circular lobe on
the output shaft.

The Parts of a Rotary Engine

Housing
The housing is epitrochoid in shape. The shape of
the combustion chamber is designed so that the
three tips of the rotor will always stay in contact with
the wall of the chamber, forming three sealed
volumes of gas.
Each part of the housing is dedicated to one part of
the combustion process.
The intake and exhaust ports are located in the
housing. There are no valves in these ports. The
exhaust port connects directly to the exhaust, and
the intake port connects directly to the throttle.

The Parts of a Rotary Engine

Housing.

The Parts of a Rotary Engine

Output Shaft
The
output shaft has round lobes mounted
eccentrically, meaning that they are offset from the
centerline of the shaft.
Each rotor fits over one of these lobes. The lobe
acts sort of like the crankshaft in a piston engine. As
the rotor follows its path around the housing, it
pushes on the lobes. Since the lobes are mounted
eccentric to the output shaft, the force that the rotor
applies to the lobes creates torque in the shaft,
causing it to spin..

The Parts of a Rotary Engine

The Parts of a Rotary Engine

Stationary Gear
Side Housing

Rotor

Housing
Eccentric Shaft

Operation of the engine

Operation of the engine

Wankels original design had an outer-toothed gear with 20
teeth, while the larger inner-toothed gear had 30 teeth. Due
to this gear ratio, the rate of turning speed between the
rotor and the shaft is defined as 1:3. This means that
while the smaller gear does a single revolution, the larger
inner-toothed gear rotates three times. Because
the eccentric shaft, which is analogous to a crankshaft in a
piston engine, is connected to the smaller toothed-gear it
means that with the engine running at 3,000 rpm, the rotor
will run at only 1,000 rpm. This not only means the rotary
combustion engine runs smoother, but it also allows
achieving a higher redline.

Rotary Engine Ignition

Since the working chambers of each rotor fire in the same geographic
location in the engine, only one set of spark plugs are needed per rotor
housing.

Due to the complexities of combusting a long chamber, two spark plugs are
used in each housing.

The lower one is called the "leading" spark plug, while the top one is called
the "trailing" spark plug.

As the working chamber approaches Top Dead Center (TDC), the leading
plug fires first, starting the ignition of the air-fuel mixture and contributing
most to the generation of power.

The trailing plug typically fires 10 to 15 degrees

later and effectively completes the combustion of the
remaining air-fuel mixture.

Engine Seals

Lubrication System

Cooling System

Engine displacement

P-V diagram

Intake

Begins when apex

passes intake port
Increase in chamber
volume
Creates low pressure
zone
Pulls in Fuel/Air
mixture
Completes when next
apex passes intake
port

Compression

Begins after intake

Volume of chamber
decreases
Fuel/Air mixture
compressed
Chamber compresses to its
minimum size

Combustion

Spark plugs ignite mixture

Two spark plugs to
maximize amount of fuel
ignited
Causes rapid chamber
expansion
Turns rotor which produces
work output on shaft
Power stroke continues
until apex passes exhaust
port.

Exhaust

Chamber decreases in
size
Forces combustion biproducts out the
exhaust port
Continues until next
apex passes exhaust
port.
Entire cycle repeats

The Cycle

Rotor mounted
eccentrically on shaft
One rotation of rotor
provides three rotations
of shaft
Spark plugs fire 3 times
per rotor revolution
One rotation of shaft for
each firing of spark plugs

Wankel or Rotary engine

No Piston.
Rotor that spins in an oval
chamber (shaped like a flat
during burning fuel).
Rotor has three lobes.
Rotor rotates in an eccentric
pattern.
The lobes remain in contact with
the oval housing, creating a tight
seal.

Advantages

Vibration

Power/Weight

No unbalanced reciprocating masses

For similar displacements, rotaries are generally 30%
lighter and produce twice as much power

Simplicity

Contain half as many moving parts

Have no connecting rods, crankshaft, or valve trains

No Seizure at high temperature.

Smooth power flow and high RPM.

Disadvantages

Fuel Efficiency and Emission

The shape of the combustion chamber, which is long instead of small

and concentrated, makes the combustion travel longer than a piston
engine
Due to the longer combustion chamber, the amount of unburned fuel
(HC) is higher which is released into the environment
Sealing, leaks from the apex seals greatly reduces efficiency of the
engine

Cost

The lack of infrastructure and development for the rotary engine has
caused their production and maintenance costs generally to be more

Unsuitability for use as a diesel engine.

high local temperatures and unequal thermal expansion.

Applications
Mazda's first Wankel engined car was the
1967 Mazda Cosmo
Mazda used the Wankel in their RX-7
sports car until August of 2002
In 2003, Mazda introduced the RENESIS
engine with the new RX-8
The Soviet aircraft engine design bureau,
is known to have produced Wankel engines
for aircraft and helicopters
The People's Republic of China is also
known to have experimented with Wankel
engines

Rotor Vs Piston
Mazda Rx-7 (1989-1992)

Nissan 240sx (1991-1994)

13B 1.3 Liters (146 hp @ 6500 rpm and

138 ftlbf )

KA24DE 2.4 Liters (155 hp @ 5600 rpm

and 160 ftlbf)

Mazda Rx

Mazda has been a pioneer in developing production cars

that use rotary engines. The RX-7, which went on sale in
1978, was probably the most successful rotary-enginepowered car. But it was preceded by a series of rotaryengine cars, trucks and even buses, starting with the
1967 Cosmo Sport. The last year the RX-7 was sold in
the United States was 1995, but the rotary engine is set
to make a comeback in the near future.
The Mazda RX-8 , a new car from Mazda, has a new,
award winning rotary engine called the RENESIS. Named
International Engine of the Year 2003, this naturally
aspirated two-rotor engine will produce about 250
horsepower.

Mazda Rx-8 (2011)