Diesel Rotary??

[rotary emotions]

The original Drehkolbenmotor (DKM) had the "rotor" in the middle, and the housing moving around this. It comes down to this:
http://www.der-wankelmotor.de/Wankelmotor/wankelmotor.html
Both rotor and housing moved, in a casing. Thbig advantage is the perfect round movement, causing NO "chippingmarks" on the housings, and long lasting tipseals. There\'s no vibration at all in such an engine. In many ways, it is the most perfect engine one can build. But it\'s a little useless: to change the spark plugs, it engine has to be rebuild! Also, it\'s not suitable for automotive use as the power is not transfered to a central shaft (E-shaft, ...) but to the "housing". It did do over 20.000rpm in the fifties though!
Later Felix Wankel deloped more ideas. Some of his engines did 50.000rpm, and got more power from 500cc then our turbo\'d 13B\'s do now!
As for diesels: the higher compression needed cannot be achieved since the "K" factor is not unlimited. The tip-seals cannot seal very well anymore if the angle between them and the housing becomes to flat.
RR used a chamber as a compressor to solve this.
And these guys apparantly build a new diesel/multifuel engine:
http://www.wankelsupertec.de/index.htm

[Dominic]

But it\'s a little useless: to change the spark plugs, it engine has to be rebuild! Also, it\'s not suitable for automotive use as the power is not transfered to a central shaft (E-shaft, ...) but to the "housing". It did do over 20.000rpm in the fifties though!
Later Felix Wankel deloped more ideas. Some of his engines did 50.000rpm, and got more power from 500cc then our turbo\'d 13B\'s do now!
As for diesels: the higher compression needed cannot be achieved since the "K" factor is not unlimited. The tip-seals cannot seal very well anymore if the angle between them and the housing becomes to flat.
RR used a chamber as a compressor to solve this.
And these guys apparantly build a new diesel/multifuel engine:
http://www.wankelsupertec.de/index.htm

Cant see why you couldn\'t have an access plate in the outer housing to get at the spark plugs :xconfused I\'m sure they would\'ve thought of that though.
I wonder if any of his early motors have been kept in working order, cant even imagine what a 50000 rpm rotor sounds like.

[rotary emotions]

I guess if it was that simple Felix Wankel would have thought about it?
Several of these early engines are in museums, but I doubt there are any in "working order".
It\'s a shame actually, the early ones were superior to any other engine. Hardly any wear, high rpm, no vibration... Somehow I wonder if it wouldn\'t be possible with modern technology to make these DKM engines useable.

[Ricco_04]

I\'m sure we are getting to the age where people are trying with them again, what with them being better at using gas fuel.

I read on another thread that Honda had been expirementing with the Rotary mmmmmm.

[MikeLMR]

How quickly does diesel burn ?  I seem to think rotaries run best on slow burning fuels due to the long combustion chamber so a long push is much better than a sharp explosion. If that thinking works out, rotaries should be quite well suited to methanol as thats a "slow" burn fuel. I seem to think this is the same case with hyrogen.

Can you imagine the apex seals required for a diesel rotary ? surely a compression ignition (basically the same as preigntion in a petrol engine)  based cycle is going to make for a hard life for them ?

[rotary emotions]

The multifuel diesel engine I mentioned before was not a self-igniter: it used a sparkplug to start the ignition. Rotaries are actually good with any fuel type, but gas (hydrogen or LPG for example) is what they are superior with, because the lack of valves. These tend to pre-ignite mixtures because they stay hot. Which is why we can run unleaded in our oldies without problems too.