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 <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
<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


Definitely the KOOL factor, but horribly complex mechanically, and to
operate !

Steve Carlisle



I have found some references to 55% efficiency for the all ceramic Isuzu and an early ford model. Lot of it done in the 80s. This is all Ceramic including the valves so it can be run with no cooling system at all. The problems from various excerpts across projects were extreme cost, sealing problems, lubricants, and last but most inability to mass produce. These Engines were primarily designed in the 80s. A retired Ford worker said they had one in the late 70s in a Pinto. Crazy heats he said bubbled and burnt the paint off the hood. Rubber melted. But 55% efficiency.

The Cummins Tacom ceramic made 450hp 48% thermal efficiency and a BSFC of 0.285lbs/hp This is a tidbit from the SAE paper I found. I'll end up buying a few of these papers.
https://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=189710
I'm dreaming but I did buy my Powerball ticket.

Kurt Emerson



I don't believe it. If that were the case it would be applied to production
engines by now. Currently a diesel is about 35%.  The best gas engine about 30%

Needless to say the efficiency or BSFC of the internal combustion engine is a
major factor in the world wide consumption  of fuel.

The most efficient engines are turboprop engines generating electricity
at you local power plant.  The waste heat from the turboprop  engine is
used to generate steam for a steam turbine driving another generator.
AKA Turbo Compound.

These plants are about 50% efficient.

Paul Lamar


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