Wankel rotary piston engine

The Wankel rotary-piston engine is one of the varieties of an internal combustion engine. The scheme of his work was developed by a young engineer Felix Wankel in the thirties. Once he confessed to journalists that he saw his engine in a dream.

It should also be added that the very principle of the rotary engine has been known since the time of steam engines and has had some development, but as for the ICE, then Wankel has undoubtedly turned out to be the pioneer of his work.

The patent, received even before the war, was realized only in the mid-sixties. In 1957, the elderly inventor, in cooperation with the leading engineer of the German company NSU, Walter Frode, introduced the world's first rotary DKM 54 engine mounted on a car, bringing it to practical use. Over time, the phrase "Wankel engine" became a household word, since only this German type and the device of the rotary engine have been mass-produced so far. The main difference between RAP and ICE is the working piston. In the rotor, the functional duties of the piston are performed by a trihedral prism (rotor), which converts the combustion energy of the fuel into rotary motion. And if a regular piston performs sequential intake - compression - working stroke - release, the rotor, due to its three faces, performs three of four strokes simultaneously. This determines the most important advantage that the Wankel engine has in front of other ICEs - a large specific power.

A small modern RPD with a capacity of only 1.3 liters is able to easily develop the power of 250, and with the use of a turbo and all 350 hp. Hence the specificity of the application - high-speed technology. With all the bouquet of its shortcomings, and this is the gluttony of both fuel and oil, increased wear on the working surfaces, low inertial reserve, such an engine can find its place only on sports cars or motorcycles.

Since the moment of its appearance, many manufacturers have tried to use the Wankel engine, but history has put everything in its place, and for the moment the only firm that serially installs engines of this type on its cars is Mazda with its RX-8 sports car. Here it is necessary to say that the main role was played not by technical but by technological problems. RAP has no unification with conventional ICE and is very demanding on the quality of manufacturing. To do them, you need to have an absolutely new production cycle and high qualification of the personnel. Only Japanese coped. Although no, not only ...

In the Soviet Union, rotors were also being developed, and, moreover, the VAZ rotary engines became a kind of legend of the domestic auto industry. For a long time, only heard about models with RPD, but did not see. They were supplied exclusively to special services, but with the collapse of the country, the Soviets also fell into private hands. In addition, at the end of 1997, the VAZ-415 engine, a universal rotor, passed the certification, which can be installed on any VAZ car and even on Moskvich and the Volga. Unfortunately, the leadership of AvtoVAZ in 2004 postponed the development of this direction of engines for an indefinite time.