Hi Paul and all, I ran across this today. It seems the Boys at MIT are
working on a new rotary engine design. Kind of interesting and here is
the link to the videoâ?¦ http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=683


Enjoy,

Rick in Alaska

  MIT is going down hill by allowing their name to be attached to this
project.

This engine meets almost none of the requirements for a successful
rotary engine.


Paul Lamar

------------------------------------------------------------
By Kenichi Yamamoto from his book "Rotary Engine" 1981

1.3     REQUIREMENTS FOR A PRACTICAL ROTARY ENGINE
         Although various types of rotary engines have been
developed to date, there are few that do not qualify as internal
combustion engines or do not qualify as a practical engine even
if they satisfy the qualifications of an internal combustion
engine.
         The requirements for a rotary engine to be qualified
as a practical internal combustion engine can be summed up in
the following five items. The practicality of various ideas on
rotary engines can be judged by evaluating them by these
criteria:

(1) Every moving part, including the timing mechanism, should
make a rotating motion. A mechanism having a reciprocating
inertia will increase mechanical noise and vibration, and will
work against high speed and high revolution.  [In addition
mechanisms that reciprocate generate reversing loads. Reversing
loads lead to reversing stresses. Reversing stresses lead to
metal fatigue and limited life. The Wankel rotary engine has no
reversing stresses therefor the life of the major parts such as the
eccentric shaft and rotor are unlimited unlike, crankshafts, connecting
rods, pistons and poppet valves. Paul Lamar]  Accordingly, structures
that require intake and exhaust valves and mechanisms using the rotors
oscillatory motion are not desirable.

(2)     Gas seals or the working chamber should be three
dimensionally reliable.  The gas seal mechanism of a rotary
engine should be constituted by connecting the individual seals
three dimensionally. Among the many ideas we come across are
those that don't show such three dimensional thoughts.

(3)     Appropriate gas exchange of intake and exhaust should
take place. Together with having a mechanism that can correctly
open and close the ports, sufficient time for intake and exhaust
should be provided especially for high speed and high
revolution.  Among the ideas on rotary engines, there are some
that ignore this point.

(4)     Every component part should have the strength to endure
high speed and high pressure.  As the component parts are
exposed to high pressure, high sliding velocity and high heat
load, every part should have sufficient allowance in size and in
shape.

(5)     Sufficient cooling and lubrication should be provided.
In order to qualify as an internal combustion engine, although
this is related to above (4), durability against high heat load,
high sliding velocity, etc. are required. Therefore, the
structure should be simple, and the ideas on rotor cooling,
lubrication of seal parts, and oil seal structure should be
those that are given adequate thought.
         Also, it is desirable for a practical rotary engine to
have a simple and compact structure. When we evaluate the
various type's of rotary engines devised to date in view of the
above mentioned requirements, the NSU Wankel type rotary engine
is the engine that best satisfies the above mentioned
requirements.


It's some kids friggin' toy model.  He couldn't even get the model to work correctly!  Sorry, but they raised $5Million in venture capitol, which is amazing in this market.  Often the company has some IP that is neat, so venture capitol will jump in as they realize they can sell the IP later to make some money off it.

From their web site:

The LiquidPiston engine is based on a patent-pending thermodynamic cycle, called the "High-Efficiency Hybrid Cycle" (HEHC), which borrows elements from Otto, Diesel, Atkinson, and Rankine cycles. Several critical design features make the LiquidPiston engine architecture both versatile and capable of outperforming conventional engines on all parameters.

LPIâ??s engine is architected to have the following unique properties:

   * High fuel efficiency of 57% at peak, and 50% at part-load
   * High power density of 1 Hp / Lb
   * Simple design with low part count
   * Multi-fuel capable: diesel, JP8, gasoline, natural gas, bio-fuels
   * Low noise:  the engine has low pressure exhaust and no poppet valves



MIT has zero to do with that, the Tech Review is a "what is interesting in the market place".

For $5Million we could develop a high pressure (1500 bar) injector to make a Mazda just hmmmm..... Irony is that injector would be worth more than a frigging working rotary aircraft engine.  There are just millons on inventions just waiting, and I realized how to change fuel at the atomic level (piezoelectric gates are huge, we need something smaller!)

Wow... just realized 2011 Marks the Bosch 125 year anniversary.   I worked for Bosch (Reutlingen, Germany) when we celebrated 100 years of automotive engineering.

Fun conversation the other night, with a group of friends. What would you do if you won that $200 Million Jackpot. Everyone pretty much said "go live on the beach" or something to that effect.  My wife knows me too well, and commented "I'd never get him to settle down and sit still for a minute".  There is so much research and development out there is is just mind boggling....

Tom W