The rotary engine, invented by Felix Wankel, has a rotating triangular component that creates three isolated chambers for intake, compression, ignition, and exhaust. Although it requires fewer moving parts, wear has prevented it from displacing the conventional piston engine. Only Mazda continues to sell cars with rotary engines.
The rotary engine is a type of internal combustion engine with a substantially different design than the much more common piston engine. In a conventional piston engine, a spark plug ignites a mixture of fuel and compressed air in a closed chamber, causing the superheated gas to rapidly expand. The repetition of this cycle causes the characteristic up-and-down motion of the pistons in an engine, which becomes a rotational motion used to drive the wheels of a car or the propeller of a plane or ship.
First conceived by German engineer Felix Wankel in the early 1920s, the rotary motor consists of a rotating triangular component embedded within an ovoid casing. The vertices of the triangle form a seal against the casing, creating three isolated chambers, which collectively perform the four basic functions of any internal combustion engine: intake, compression, ignition, and exhaust. As the triangle rotates, the three isolated chambers also rotate, allowing a given volume to be exposed to an intake valve, spark plug, and exhaust port as they rotate inside the rotary engine.
In the first stage, a mixture of fuel and air is injected into a pocket created between one edge of the triangle and its oval casing. The triangle rotates inside the rotary engine until the seal isolates the fuel volume from the intake valve and exposes the fuel to a spark plug. The spark plug fires, igniting the fuel-air mixture, which rapidly expands and causes the rotating component to rotate, driving a crankshaft. In the final phase of the rotation, the expanding gases escape through an exhaust port, and the volume is now free again, allowing it to receive more fuel from the intake port and repeat the entire process. Each of the three volumes is alternately injected full of fuel, which is then burned and then exposed to an exhaust port.
Although the Wankel rotary engine is theoretically more elegant than a piston engine, and requires fewer moving parts, the wear caused by the rapidly moving vertices of the triangle inside the rotary engine housing has proven unacceptable to most automotive companies. they consider creation. of production models. Today, Mazda is the only company that continues to sell cars that use rotary engines. Fundamentally, the idea of an engine that replaces the jerky up-and-down motion of a reciprocating piston engine with a smooth rotational motion is quite appealing, but practical considerations have so far prevented them from displacing the conventional engine. Perhaps with the introduction of new materials or knowledge, the rotary engine will one day become the most prominent form of internal combustion engine.
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