I can't get past this idea. Ceramics are haunting me. I know that a
coating could come off. For much greater combustion heat what if we
do a ceramic housing or better yet a ceramic housing and rotors as
well? Using a high heat alloy for the combustion chamber on the
ceramic rotor.  They have run all ceramic piston v6 motors with no
cooling system. I went to search for the V6 for reference and I
found this! Good things are coming as necessity is the Mother of
invention. http://ceramicrotaryengines.com

Diesel fuel with its 20% higher energy content per equal mass to
Gasoline could go a lot further with a given amount of fuel. I was
thinking E-Charger for starting but stratified charge converting to
compression ignition once the Turbos spooled up would be perfect.
Small ceramic rotary ultralight motor? https://youtu.be/YnfFEf7wyww
Here is the V6 I was thinking about. https://youtu.be/sAk5tc_gpmo

GE is making huge strides in Ceramics https://youtu.be/is1BBilkyUM
I'm more convinced than ever now.

Kurt Emerson

The idea of ceramic rotors has been around for years. As I recall a
British company made and tested a ceramic rotor. I searched my files
but I could not find it. Apparently the results were disappointing.
If it had worked it would have been available by now.


The total cooling losses are only 25% of all the losses. The exhaust
is about 50%. So turbo compound has the best chance of making a big
difference. I think the company that did that ceramic rotors are
gone.

I have no doubt they would be strong enough as silicon nitride apex
seals are wonderful. The F1 guys use all ceramic ball bearings as
does the turbo charger in the TTC.

SAE  860616 paper is on the subject but I am not going to buy it. If
some one has it perhaps they can scan it for us.

Paul Lamar



Kurt, Thank you for your missive on ceramics, I also curse you for
it as I stayed up ALL NIGHT following the links, it fair did my head
in to be sure but what an eye opener ! it is only when one reads
knowledge like this that one realizes what little one actually
knows, I salute you. It reminds me of when Paul stayed here, the man
NEVER SLEPT ! until I joined this news letter I thought that rotaries
just went round and round instead of up and down, how wrong I was !

Chris Hoskins



Chris,
It was my pleasure, I did exactly the same. I was just thinking about it and the info was there. The technology is still in it's infancy but it is sure to change everything. Has been extremely difficult to machine and or work with. I have some friends that work at GE turbine. They machine using dry high speed ceramic cutting tools. Says the metal from the parts like inconel streams off in a red hot ribbon. GE is laying the groundwork, I bet it happens within 5 years. Imagine no cooling system weight and complete combustion.


For now I'm dreaming of a 70% scale carbon fiber CL-84 Dynavert with twin quad rotor turbo compounded 26Bs. The best design to date, better than the difficult to fly and deadly Osprey. In my opinion anyway. http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/canadair_dynavert.php
https://youtu.be/iCd2FqTJKs0
https://youtu.be/tzsAuSyEOl0
https://youtu.be/dKcmjuoPQfs
Really cool vtol/stol mix including CL-84 and vertical take off design like Paul's. https://youtu.be/tzsAuSyEOl0
Best Regards,
Kurt Emerson

I would hardly say the Osprey is difficult to fly or deadly.  It has a fly by wire control
system which is probably universally now used in expensive aircraft. The F16 is inherently
unstable with out it. One must avoid the ring vortex state but all helicopters
have that problem more or less.  Yes they had some fatal crashes in the Osprey development
period when the ring vortex state was not fully understood. Now the Marines love
them.

The idea of making an adiabatic internal combustion engine has been around
for years. Several have been built regardless of the difficulty or ease of fabricating the
parts. No positive BSFC results have been reported so far.
BSFC is so critical to the function of an internal combustion engine if it
had worked the ceramic parts would have now  been common.

Some claims for ceramic coatings on piston tops have been mentioned but
I don't thing that is common on production pistons either. The risk factor
is high because  if it comes off the engine is toast.

AIXRO does not recommend ceramic rotor bearings for that reason.
In addition there is the initial increased cost of the ceramic bearing itself.

Ceramic turbines in turbo charger have also been successfully tried. However
they do not dominate turbo charger turbine material. Inconel is still preferred.

As far as turbines in turbo jets or turbo fans I have no idea if ceramic version
are widely used or not. Cost of course is less of an issue.

Paul Lamar


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