IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v17y2024i9p2112-d1385075.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancing the Efficiency of Rotary Thermal Propulsion Systems

Author

Listed:
  • Xuankun Shen

    (Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK)

  • Aaron W. Costall

    (Advanced Vehicle Engineering Centre, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL, UK)

Abstract

Transport electrification is essential for reducing CO 2 emissions, and technologies such as hybrid and range-extended electric vehicles will play a crucial transitional role. Such vehicles employ an internal combustion engine for on-board chemical energy conversion. The Wankel rotary engine should be an excellent candidate for this purpose, offering a high power-to-weight ratio, simplicity, compactness, perfect balance, and low cost. Until recently, however, it has not been in production in the automotive market, due, in part, to relatively low combustion efficiency and high fuel consumption and unburnt hydrocarbon emissions, which can be traced to constraints on flame speed, an elongated combustion chamber, and relatively low compression ratios. This work used large eddy simulations to study the in-chamber flow in a peripherally ported 225cc Wankel rotary engine, providing insight into these limitations. Flow structures created during the intake phase play a key role in turbulence production but the presence of the pinch point inherent to Wankel engine combustion chambers inhibits flame propagation. Two efficiency-enhancement technologies are introduced as disruptive solutions: (i) pre-chamber jet ignition and (ii) a two-stage rotary engine. These concepts overcome the traditional efficiency limitations and show that the Wankel rotary engine design can be further enhanced for its role as a range extender in electrified vehicles.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuankun Shen & Aaron W. Costall, 2024. "Enhancing the Efficiency of Rotary Thermal Propulsion Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-26, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:9:p:2112-:d:1385075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/9/2112/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/9/2112/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yan Zhang & Jinxiang Liu & Zhengxing Zuo, 2018. "The Study of Turbulent Fluctuation Characteristics in a Small Rotary Engine with a Peripheral Port Based on the Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation Shear-Stress Transport (IDDES-SST) Method," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Wei & Pan, Jianfeng & Liu, Yangxian & Fan, Baowei & Liu, Hongjun & Otchere, Peter, 2019. "Numerical investigation of direct injection stratified charge combustion in a natural gas-diesel rotary engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 453-467.
    2. Osman Akin Kutlar & Fatih Malkaz, 2019. "Two-Stroke Wankel Type Rotary Engine: A New Approach for Higher Power Density," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-22, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:9:p:2112-:d:1385075. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.