I thought of this engine after seeing the Radmax TM ROTARY ENGINE (see link).

This idea is kind of hard to explain verbally, but I’ll try. There’s also a picture thingy I made that shows the combustion cycle.

The basic idea of the engine is two cams facing towards each other with a combustion space and a rotor in between them, and a mechanical output shaft through the center. The rotor can slide along the shaft, but it only rotates with the shaft. The rotor divides the combustion space into four separate sections (two on each side). There are two full combustion cycles of the engine per revolution.

The engine could be made to have multiple combustion chambers and rotors, or the rotor and chamber could be made with a larger diameter to have twice as many combustion cycles (four), which would make it have a slower rotation speed but more power and torque output.

One problem I can think of is vibration of the engine; the vibration can be reduced by making the engine flatter.
-- BJS, Feb 16 2007

Radmax TM ROTARY ENGINE http://www.regtech....otaryprinciple.html
[BJS, Feb 16 2007]

Rotary Engine Concept picture thingy http://www.putfile....pic.php?img=4782119
Imagine this image around a cylinder. [BJS, Feb 16 2007]

So this is just a bigger version of the Radmax engine or what?
-- discontinuuity, Feb 16 2007


No, it's not bigger version of the Radmax engine.
-- BJS, Feb 16 2007


interesting, but is it an improvement?

the rotor bobbing up and down while also rotating seems to add complexity (and vibration as you mention) without benefits.
-- xaviergisz, Feb 16 2007


I don't know if it would be an improvement, it's just an idea.

Sealing it might also be a problem.
-- BJS, Feb 16 2007


I don't see how compression could be formed. Explanation?
-- nomel, Feb 16 2007


"I don't see how compression could be formed. Explanation?" Did you see the picture?
-- BJS, Feb 16 2007


I had no trouble with the link to the picture. It's clever, but yeah, how are you going to seal it.
-- baconbrain, Feb 16 2007


I saw the picture but it appears that when it rotates, the seal will be lost between "chambers"/section. You have "compression" marked, but, from what I can see, if anything moved from where it is, the seal would be lost. What forms the seal? Just contact between the metal? If this is the case, where will lubrication take place?

I'm just having trouble seeing the concept. Maybe you could animate it?
-- nomel, Feb 17 2007


I don't know how to seal it...

I could make an animation of it, but I have other things I'm supposed to be doing right now.
-- BJS, Feb 17 2007


hrmmm...well if you don't have a seal, then it's not going to make any power. fishy for you.
-- nomel, Feb 18 2007


This sounds an awful lot like the Rand Cam
-- Klaatu, Feb 18 2007


Looking at the Rotary Engine Concept picture thingy, I think this engine is brilliant. It's like a rotary version of the Scuderi engine but without any valves.

My feeling is that there might be a way to wrap that image around a circle the other way, turning it into a toothed gear. Eliminate either the top or bottom half of the mechanism, and you end up with a toothed gear rotating within a toothed stator; the stator has intake/exhaust holes as well as the transfer gaps.

By rotating it around a circle, the wobbling motion is turned into natural circular motion, and manufacturing becomes infinitely simpler.
-- IJK, Mar 24 2007



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