You May Not Like It But this Is What Peak Combustion Technology Looks Like - Rotary Vane Engine

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When you think of a rotary engine you probably think of a wankel engine, the kind of engine Mazda used to put in its coolest cars back in the day. They also recently put it in the MX30 REV, but this is some sort of plug-in-hybrid thing where the rotary engine performs the most humiliating task imaginable, it's a range extender.

Now the important thing about the Wankel is that it was a success in terms of power-to-weight ratio and smoothness in terms of everything else it was a failure. Fuel economy, emissions, low rpm torque, longevity, it really didn’t do any of these things well. It was and still is a very fun and very exciting engine so we’re going to call it a beautiful failure

A rotary engine is inherently superior in this regard because we need the output from the engine to be rotation. So that we can connect the engine to the transmission and the wheels, both of which are rotation. So if the internals of the engine are already based on rotation like the rest of the vehicle then we completely eliminate many problems, many parts and a lot of volume and mass.

This is why, according to both physics and common sense the ultimate internal combustion engine should be a rotary engine. But it should not be a wankel. It should be a rotary vane engine.

We essentially have a circle rotating inside an ellipse and we have four vanes extending in and out of the housing. As the vanes rotate they change the volume of the spaces they create.

We have air coming in through the intake ports. As the vane rotates it pushes the air into an ever smaller space which of course compresses the air.

When the air is fully compressed we add the fuel. And then we use a spark to ignite the air and fuel mixture. As the combusting mixture expands it pushes on the vane which rotates the internal circular rotor assembly creating rotational torque output. As the vane rotates further it pushes the exhaust out throught the exhaust port.

We have four combustion events for one full 360 degree rotation of the circular rotor.

In a wankel, we have one combustion event for one full rotation of the rotor and three rotations of the eccentric shaft.

In a traditional four-stroke piston engine we need 2 full rotation or 720 degrees of crankshaft rotation for just 1 combustion event.

This means that the rotary vane engine significantly outpowers both the Wankel and the traditional. But high power is just one of the features. It’s just one item on the list of benefits.

Just like a Wankel engine the vane engine doesn’t need a cylinder head, crankshaft or rod and there’s no reciprocation. So we have a very powerful, very lightweight, very smooth and very compact engine compared to a piston engine. But the vane is even more simple and it’s even smoother than a wankel.

Another benefit is that the vane engine isn’t just a powerhouse it is a torque monster and far better suited to creating massive low rpm torque than a piston or a rotary engine. In this regard too it’s very similar to an electric motor.

We have two things that both the Wankel and the piston engine can only dream off. A giant and a constant lever arm. And our combustion force acting right at the end of that lever arm for maximum torque. The large distance from the vane which receives the combustion pressure and the center of the rotor where the torque output is means that even a small engine with a small rotor will have a very large lever arm and massive torque output. And this lever arm is constantly there, it does not move or change it’s position in relation to the combustion pressure force. And it is constantly present in the same position throughout the entire progression of the combustion event. This leads to a long-lasting and very broad torque spike throughout the entirety of the combustion event. And remember we don’t have to wait for 450 degrees of rotation for another combustion event. In a vane engine, the end of one combustion stroke is immediately followed by the beginning of another. We need a four-cylinder piston engine to achieve the effect of a single-vane rotor.

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