What is a Wankel engine

 
    Wankel engine is a internal combustion engine which uses eccentric rotary design. Instead of piston which we can see in conventional reciprocating engine it use a rotor which has similar shape as Reuleaux triangle. This rotor does not move up and down in a cylinder, but instead rotates in oval shaped housing (epitrochoid), where the sides and edges of rotor seal against the housing, making three combustion chambers. As the rotor spins it makes the volume of these chambers bigger and smaller therefore creating low and high pressure. Engine operates using Otto cycle and because one rotor has three chambers it delivers three power pulses with each revolution of the rotor.

Wankel engine diagram

   The development began in 1951 in NSU Motorenwerke AG in Germany. First prototype was developed by Felix Wankel. On February 1st 1957 he first working prototype DKM 54 was made and it was capable of making 21 horsepower.

DKM 54 Engine

  Rolls Royces Motor car division in the 1960s in Britain engineered the first diesel wankel engine with two stage compression that reached compression ration of 17:1.

R-6 Engine
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