Book Reviews Rev. 11
WANKEL TYPE ROTARY ENGINES
* The definitive book on the rotary is simply called "ROTARY ENGINE"
by Kenichi Yamamoto published by Toyo Kogyo Co. Ltd. (Mazda) in
1969. This is a highly technical book chronicling the development of
the wankel by Mazda. Kenichi is an engineer and has risen to CEO of
Mazda.
* This book on the rotary is also called "ROTARY ENGINE"
by Kenichi Yamamoto published by Sankaido Co. Ltd.
Second edition published in 1981. This is an updated version of
the first "ROTARY ENGINE" book. Confusing eh what? This book
has a much greater emphasis on emissions.
* Another technical book on the Wankel rotary engine is; "The Wankel
RC Engine Design and Performance" by R.F.Ansdale Published by A.S.
Barnes & Company Lib of Cong 69-18692
* The Wankel engine Design Development Application by Jan P. Norbye.
Chilton Book Company. ISBN 0-8019-5591-2 Published in 1971. A little
history and results of the Wankel engine development by NSU,
Mercedes, Mazda and others and some results of work by
Curtiss-Wright. Also some history on all rotary engines. Not as
technical as I would like but not bad.
These books will be easier to find then the Toyo Kogyo book.
*
Mazda 4-Rotor Rotary Engine for the Le Mans 24-Hour Endurance Race.
(Mazda won the race outright beating all of the famous European race car
builders.) Ritsuharu Shimizu, Tomoo Tadokoro, Toru Nakanishi, and Junici
Funamoto Mazda Motor Corporation. SAE paper 920309. By far the best
technical paper on the Mazda Wankel type rotary engine. Lots of information
on how to make a powerful, normally aspirated, light weight all aluminum,
heavy duty rotary engine.
* Many other SAE papers were published by Mazda engineers.
* Test of Thermal-Barrier and Wear Coats in Rotary Engines. NASA Tech Briefs
LEW-16512 by Paul Moller. Self explanatory title. Work based on the OMC all
aluminum snow-mobile engine.
* Curtiss Wright published quite a few SAE papers back in the 60's
and 70's on their development of the rotary for aircraft use.
* Engine Revolutions: The Autobiography of Max Bentele. Max was intimately
involved in the early development of the Wankel rotary engine both while in
Germany and in the U.S. while working for Curtiss Wright and Lycoming. One
or two chapters on the history of the Wankel type rotary engine development.
COOLING SYSTEMS.
* Aerodynamics of Propulsion. D. Kuchemann & J. Weber McGraw-Hill Book Company
Inc. 1953 Lib. Of Cong. Card # 52-6541 The bible of the aerodynamic design
of scoops and ducts. Also covers ducted propellers.
* Compact Heat Exchangers. W.M. Kays and A. L. London Kreiger Publishing
Company. Malabar Florida. 1998 The bible of heat exchangers.
Some work on ducts (called headers in this book). Very comprehensive.
Every few years the American Society of Mechanical Engineers holds
symposiums on heat transfer. Same for the Instate of Mechanical Engineers
AKA IMechE London and the SAE. Lately the automotive industry is getting
so competitive this kind of info is drying up.
AIRCRAFT and all other types of intermittent ICE's IN GENERAL
* Sky Ranch Engineering Manual. This book presents an excellent
overview of the problems of aircraft engines. It is 500 pages and a
bargain at only $23. There are many details on the materials and
processes used to build a successful aircraft engine. There is a
very good and exhaustive discussion of destructive torsional
vibrations and fatigue. The telephone number to buy this book is
(916) 421 7672. The author is John Schwaner. John is highly thought
of in the experimental aircraft community.
* For those of you with an engineering degree or equivalent Taylor's
series of books is the best there is. The bible of engine design.
The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice.
Volume 1: Thermodynamics, Fluid Flow, Performance. Second Edition
Revised.
Volume 2: Combustion, Fuels, Materials, Design. Revised. Charles
Fayette Taylor. The MIT Press Cambridge Massachusetts, and London
England. AutoBooks in Burbank CA.
*Advanced engine technology by Heinz Heisler. Published by
the SAE in 1995. An up to date treatment of the latest technology
as applied to the piston engine.
* Introduction to the Study of Aircraft Vibration and Flutter by
Robert H. Scanlan & Robert Rosenbaum, Dover Publications touches
on crankshaft design. Lib Cong 68-22341.
* Photo-Elastic Analysis by A. W. Hendry, Pergamon Press investigates
stress concentrations in complex machine parts such as crankshafts
and connecting rods. Lib of Cong # 65-29062. Only recently has
computer finite element analysis developed to the point of
perhaps doing a better job on crankshafts than these techniques
invented in the 30's. The book has a great bibliography on the
subject.
* I can highly recommend a book by Herschel Smith called "A History of
Aircraft Piston Engines" published by Sunflower University Press Inc. 1531
Yuma, Manhattan, Kansas 66502-4228. ISBN 0-07-058472-9. 629.134'352 in a
good library. This is a reprint of a book originally published by McGraw
Hill in 1981. Fourth printing 1993. There are 250, 8.5 by 11 pages. It
chronicles the evolution of the aircraft engine from early days to the
present. There are many tables listing every engine ever put in an airplane
with all important specifications including weight, horsepower, RPM,
configuration and in some cases BSFC. There are many photos and drawings of
all types of aircraft engines. This is as close to a bible of aircraft
engine history that I have found so far. About
$22.
* Vee's For Victory! by Daniel D. Witney. An extensive and comprehensive
book on the history and engineering of the Allison V-1700 liquid
cooled aircraft engine. 8.5 by 11, hard bound, 470 pages. $59.95.
Schiffer Military History. Atglen PA ISBN:0-7643-0561-1
* Schneider Trophy Racers by Robert S. Hirsch. Motorbooks
International Osceola WI. Excellent history of the water cooled V12
leading up to the Merlin. Lots of good drawings done by the author
and photos.
* Thompson Trophy Racers. Roger Huntington. Motorbooks
International. 1989 ISBN 0-87938-365-8. $19.95. 8.5" by 11" 188
pages. Fascinating reading. Lots of good mechanical drawings, photos
and cut-aways on aircraft engines plus a good history of the
development of aircraft engines for air racing.
* The development of Piston Aero Engines by Bill Gunston 1993, 1994,
1995. ISBN 1 85260 385 2. Patrick Stevens Limited/Haynes Publishing
Sparkford Nr Yeovil, Somerset, BA227JJ. Hard bound 213 pages. $39.95
at the Wright Pat Air force Museum.
The first half of the book is on basic principles and engine design.
For the most part this is very well done for the non-physicist
non-engineer reader.
The middle is a history of of the development of aircraft engines.
The author criticizes Fiat compared to Rolls-Royce for not
developing high HP per cubic inch while still acknowledging that the
V24 Fiat powered Macchi MC.72 still holds the world's seaplane
record set in 1934 at 440 MPH! Sounds like a little British Empire
envy to me. HP per cubic inch is irrelevant when it comes to
aircraft engines. What really counts is continuous HP per pound and
continuous HP per square foot of engine frontal area. There is no
replacement for displacement.
The last chapter; "Chapter 8 Piston Engines Today and Tomorrow"
categorizes engines by air cooled, liquid cooled, diesels and
unconventional. All engines are included world wide no matter how
obscure starting with low power engines for ultra-lights through
auto engine conversions. The major fault with this chapter is all
engines are listed from PR information regardless if they have flown
or even run for that matter. Teledyne Continental is given almost
equal weight with TTL (UK). Ever hear of TTL (UK)?
In the case of auto engine conversions he quotes Blanton with his
Ford V6 powered Cessna 175 that supposedly cruised faster than the
GO-300 (geared opposed) model and unrealistically burned 6.8 gallons
an hour (90 HP at 0.45 BSFC) instead of 12 gallons per hour for the
GO-300 (157 HP at 0.45 BSFC) without checking the numbers. Bill
Gunston should know better.
I think Bill Gunston is a little gullible. Other than that the
book seems to be excellent.
* SAE Paper # 871042 0148-7191/87/0428-1042 $2.50 Design and
Development of the Voyager 200/300 Liquid Cooled Aircraft Engine by
R.E. Wilkinson. Twenty pages. Published in 1987. This paper is about
the engine used in the Rutan Voyager around-the-world un-refueled
record holder. If you never read anything else about any kind of
engine you must read this paper. It is by far the most informative
and up to date information on liquid cooled engines there is.
The real critical limitations of the aluminum head engine are
thoroughly explored. That is; the temperature of the metal
immediately adjacent to the combustion chamber. Aluminum loses half
of it's fatigue life when the temperature goes up from 250 degrees
to 500 degrees F. Therefor this temperature limits the amount of
continuous power obtainable from any engine whether air-cooled or
liquid cooled. Just because the coolant temp. is less than 220
degrees F does not mean the metal next to the combustion chamber is
anywhere near that at high power levels. The continuous HP
requirements are far higher for an aircraft engine than they are for
an auto engine or pickup truck engine.
The Automotive manufacturers rarely publish any real information
about engines in the SAE due to the highly competitive nature of the
automobile marketplace. This paper is an outstanding exception for
the SAE. A must read bargain of real information.
* Smithsonian Air & Space magazine article "Power Struggle" by Don
Sherman, January 1997, page 72. Excellent ten page article (with
many pictures) about auto engines in airplanes. A brief history of
all auto engines in airplanes and a more detailed history of the
twenty year, twenty million dollar development of the Chevy V8
based, all aluminum Orenda liquid cooled aircraft engine. At this
time (Jan 1997) and well after the article was written the engine
failed its FAA 150 hour full power certification test due to a
crankshaft problem after 20 years of very expensive development.
It was finally certified in 1998 by Transport Canada.
Extensive changes have been made to the basic Chevy big block engine
including a parallel cooling system with dual coolant pumps as
opposed to the serial cooling system with single pump as typically
found in automotive engines. Parallel cooling systems were
considered to be essential in the 1920's on liquid cooled aircraft
engines.
Engine length is almost everything to a car designer. Engine cooling
compromises are made by simezing the cylinder walls in automotive
engines. Crankshaft life at high continuous power is compromised by
shortening the length, leaving too little room for adequate size
journal fillet radii. In my opinion this engine will not be
successful until it is re-designed from a clean sheet of paper to be
a real aircraft engine. If that happens they might as well go to a
horizontal opposed configuration for lighter weight.
Orenda is now in the process of moving the project to Nova Scotia
and injecting another 32 million dollars of mostly Canadian
government money. They are also attempting to market the engine to
the homebuilt market. I don't expect many takers at over $100K per engine.
Recently Lancair gave up after spending a lot of money installing
the engine in a special airplane called the Lancair Tigress.
The engine and the Tigress were donated to the EAA museum as
a tax write off.
The Orenda company is now bankrupt.
"Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
* SAE Paper 690302. Designing Cast Components for V8 Engines. J.L.
Fitz et. al. Central Foundry Division of GM. Written before GM
clamped a lid on all real information published by their engineers
in the form of SAE papers. This paper is about the trials and
tribulations of making an engine work as designed by the stylist
and using chewing gum materials as specified by the bean counters.
* SAE paper 841221 Development of Powder-Forged Connecting Rods
by K. Imaahashi, C. Tsumuki, & I. Nagare. Toyota Motor Corp.
The conversion of Kg/mm^2 to P.S.I is by multiplying Kg/mm^2 by 1.45.
The Toyoto rods, according to this paper, are about as good as forged
SAE 10L55. Aircraft engine rods are made from forged 4340 which has
at least a 25% better fatigue life than forged SAE 10L55.
* V-6 BUICK FORD & CHEVY 90 deg./60 deg. Performance. by Pat Ganahl
CARTECH 1988 ISBN 0-931472-13-X $18.95 I normally don't recommend
books of this genre as they do not have the detailed and factual
engineering information such as BSFC, stress and heat rejection
information necessary to successfully adapt and auto engine to
aircraft use. What this book does, in it's introduction and
crankshaft chapters, is discuss the myriad compromises that led to
the 90 degree V6 auto engine.
The real reason such a fundamentally mechanically unbalanced and
problematical design is used in cars is revealed. I.E. the properly
designed, high displacement, 60 degree V6 is too tall for modern car
styling and the 90 deg. V6 can be made on the same production line
as the V8. Consider this book one that should be read on why you
should not put a 90 degree V6 in your airplane. Besides, all V and
in-line engines are trying to jam their crankshafts out the bottom
of their blocks anyway. This is one of the reasons they are
inevitably heavier than opposed engines.
* Hotrod Magazine. GEN III. The first look at the all new GM
small-block V8 LS1. By Jeff Smith. Page 50, September 1996. Normally
auto magazines do not publish the material specifications for auto
engine parts. This article on the AL alloy block Chevy V8 LS1 engine
is an exception. Crank, rods and main bearing caps are specified as
either cast iron or powdered metal. Chevy actually went down on the
valve stem diameter to reduce the valve weight. This is not what is
needed for good heat rejection in high duty cycle engines. Lots of
other engine details are included.
* Metallurgy Fundamentals Daniel A. Brandt The Goodhart Willcox
Comp. Inc 1992 ISBN 0-87006-922-5 Lib of Congress 91-22280 Lots of
data on heat treating, hardness, properties of steel, crystal
structure, failure & deformation, microscopic structure, surface
hardening, etc. and stress.
* GM Performance Parts 1997 Parts Catalog. $6.95 at your friendly GM
dealer. GM may put chewing gum cast iron and powdered metal parts
in their light duty engines installed in their passenger cars and
trucks but they will be glad to sell you the 4340 chrome molly good
stuff in the parts catalog. Of course all other manufactures are
putting chewing gum parts in their passenger car engines as well. I
am not singling out GM.
* Allied Aircraft Piston Engines of World War II by Grame White
published by the Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. 400 Copyright
1995. Commonwealth Drive Warrendale PA 15096-0001 (412) 7765 4841
Fax (412) 776 5760 8.5" by 11" hard bound 400 pages. ISBN 1-56091-
655-9. Lots of good drawings, excellent cutaways and illustrations
as well as photographs. Surprisingly not technical despite the
publisher. This is a well researched book with extensive references
but rather disappointing to me as I would like to see a lot more
technical information about power curves verses BSFC, engine
weights, TBO's and such. I expected a lot more from the SAE.
Therefor this expensive book is NOT recommended.
* Scientific Design of Exhaust and Intake Systems. Philip H. Smith
and John C. Morrison Published by Robert Bentley. ISBN 0-8376-0309-9
http://www.rb.com
I have nothing to do financially with any of these publishers.
Feel free to send this list of books and papers to anyone who may be
interested in engines.
Paul Lamar