yep, 50 years ago today, Felix Wankel's engine completed it's first bench run at DKM.
Thanks for somethign different :D
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yep, 50 years ago today, Felix Wankel's engine completed it's first bench run at DKM.
Thanks for somethign different :D
Good thing you didnt make a typo on the L :p
Something different indeed. How many other alternatives are there out there to the reciprocating piston engine? The Wankel Rotary must be by far the most successful.
[quote=fpv_gtho]Something different indeed. How many other alternatives are there out there to the reciprocating piston engine? The Wankel Rotary must be by far the most successful.[/quote]
oh God no, you had to say that didn't you.
Predict the thread to be hijacked by hightower99 any minute now :)
Haha, well of course im talking simplistically
Ask any 16 year old kid on the street if they know about something like the Revetec. I'd gurantee theyve never heard of it, but the rotary (probably wouldnt know it as the Wankel Rotary) would be familiar to them thanks to Mazda.
The DKM was the version with the reciprocating block, or the reciprocating rotor? I never could remember which one was the KKM and which one the DKM.
Fanboy ;)
Happy BDay to the chook cooker
[quote=lightweight]The DKM was the version with the reciprocating block, or the reciprocating rotor? I never could remember which one was the KKM and which one the DKM.[/quote]DKM was the first
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/DrehkolbenmotorDKM54.JPG[/IMG]
KKM was a year later
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Wankelmotor-KKM57P.jpg[/IMG]
In the DKM the rotor AND the rotor housing spin :D
Thankfully they simplified that out !!!!!
But lost the natural balance of the pure rotation in the DKM, replaced by limits of hte planetary rotation and higher forces on tips. Wankels original engine had lower tip forces - and hence wear/leakage - AND even in 57 could rev to 17,000 !!!! But too expensive/complex to manufacture.
3 years ago I did an essay about the Wankel rotary engine.
Happy birthday then, I guess... :p
[QUOTE=Matra et Alpine]AND even in 57 could rev to 17,000[/QUOTE]
Yeah, imagine how it would rev with today's materials.
Was this engine heavier than the Wankel we know today?
Complexity-wise I think that the main advantage (and disadvantage) of the DKM, was the positioning of the spark plugs. They were placed on the rotor, hence it was impossible to change them without dis-assembling the engine. But the placement of the spark plugs enabled more efficient combustion of the mixture.
Happy Birthday!! :D
I've heard Wankel engines are used in industrial applications, don't exactly know where. Some more famous Wankels: of course, Mazda RX cars; Mercedes licensed it for their experimental Cx11 series; and the original NSUs. Where else are they used?
EDIT: right after posting, it occured to me:
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine[/url]
there are more apps than I expected...
[quote=lightweight]Yeah, imagine how it would rev with today's materials.
Was this engine heavier than the Wankel we know today?
Complexity-wise I think that the main advantage (and disadvantage) of the DKM, was the positioning of the spark plugs. They were placed on the rotor, hence it was impossible to change them without dis-assembling the engine. But the placement of the spark plugs enabled more efficient combustion of the mixture.[/quote]
Yeah the plugs :) But it didnt' have the problem of the seals having to sweep over the plug holes !!!
I'm not sure but I can imagine the inlet/exhaust porting must have been complex to seal too with two rotating parts.
The development stopped, so hard to say if it would be lighter/heavier :(
Since getting the RX, I've been doing some research.
A brilliant quote attributed to Wankel when the KKM work was undertaken ...... "They have turned a race horse into a cart horse" :D
Happy birthday to a great alternative, i wonder where the Rotary would be if every car company was developing it :)
[QUOTE=Matra et Alpine]"They have turned a race horse into a cart horse" :D[/QUOTE]
I have always wondered why the DKM was never developed for racing applications. Even with 50's technology it can do what modern F1 engines couldn't do in the mid 90's. Of course it's a different type of engine and it might sound fanboy-ish, but if someone came up with an engine that -today- could rev up to 30,000 then it would be worth the investigation from a racing team...
[QUOTE=lightweight]I have always wondered why the DKM was never developed for racing applications. Even with 50's technology it can do what modern F1 engines couldn't do in the mid 90's. Of course it's a different type of engine and it might sound fanboy-ish, but if someone came up with an engine that -today- could rev up to 30,000 then it would be worth the investigation from a racing team...[/QUOTE]
Can it possibly rev to 30,000 RPM and still be able to do such a simple thing as idle? ;)
Just kidding, but that thing has got to be very close to self destructing at that point. On an engineering standpoint that has got to be a nightmare.
On another point, how high do F1 cars today rev up to?
Oh yeah, just about forgot, happy birthday Rotary!