Has anyone done work on turbo-compunding these rotary engines? Should have similar effect as turbocharging without the
problem of high exhaust back pressures.


Wesley Butterfield

Not yet but we are getting closer.

http://www.rotaryeng.net/sum-turbo-comp.html

http://www.rotaryeng.net/Oxford-640-4802.wmv

http://www.rotaryeng.net/turbo-compound.html

We are getting closer to installing a DD15 truck engine turbo compound system
on a 3 rotor engine.

"At the rated engine speed of the DD15, the turbine reaches a rotation speed of more than 40,000 rpm. Power is transferred to the gear drive, and therefore to the crankshaft, via a shaft and a hydrodynamic coupling. This arrangement produces a uniform and smooth crankshaft rotation despite the higher torque, according to the company; additionally, fuel consumption is reduced by up to 5 percent compared with a similarly spec’d Series 60."


I found a local Detroit Diesel repair shop and actually saw
the real thing. The shop is called "Big T's" 805 983 2408

<http://www.bigtsftln.com/default.htm>

They kindly gave me some part numbers with prices.
These engines are lasting up
to a million miles so used
parts are in short supply. If you are lucky you
might be able to find one out of a truck wreck if the engine itself
was damaged. If the engine was OK I am sure somebody would pay big bucks
for it. Word is out. These engines are in high demand.

We just need the waste power turbine and gear box.
Any Mazda 20B turbo charger will work. Maybe even the stock 3 rotor sequential
turbo version which I have in the hangar will work.

All we need do is demonstrate a 5% or 10% improvement in BSFC
and the world will beat a path to the Wankel rotary door.

I'll kidnap the Mazda engineers here in SoCal and force them
to look :)

30% better BSFC is theoretically possible due to the lack of exhaust
valves  in the rotary and that would be a revolution in internal combustion
engines.


This thing would easily replace a 600 HP turbo prop and have half
the fuel
burn.

Paul Lamar


Paul,
What you could add the turbo-compounding without the extra turbine weight and reduction gearbox.  What if it also acted like a muffler?  Got your attention yet?

Another new fuel saving and power enhancing scheme for diesels and the new generation gas engines is the use of cooled-EGR.  With an existing turbo you cool a portion of  the exhaust gases via the wastegate/boost controller and reinjest the mixture into the engine.  The throttle must be opened more to acquire the necessary oxygen (dropping pumping losses) and boost can go up but heat produced goes down.

The rotor has become the the mechanism for the compounding power. You would run 20psi boost on 10psi fuel maps.  Ideally we could run throttle-less.

Here is an interesting GM study.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_jE2-IDoVTfb1RiWEs0ZmJCaDQ/edit?usp=sharing

Barry Bordes


Yep turbo chargers and turbo compound make good mufflers.

Paul Lamar

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