Different Mechanism and Classification of Automobile Engines #3

in #stemng6 years ago (edited)

Hello, I Hope you all are fine and I welcome you to my blog once again and thanks for the constant encouragement.

Introduction

Almost all the engine on the street and roads are the piston engine and few of them are classified as rotary engine. You might not be familiar with it or you might have heard of it but you can differentiate both when you see an automobile, if you are not told that this is a piston engine and that is a rotary engine you would not know unless you see the working principle inside of it, so I would be writing about the principle is the piston and rotary engine and the difference from the exterior and interior, exterior does not mean the shape of the automobile but some few mechanical traits that happens when the rotary engine is working and it is different from the piston engine.

czech-1354173__480.jpgimage source: pixabay link CC0 Licensed

Gif of working principles of both engines (ROTARY AND PISTON ENGINE)


Rotary engine:

The rotary engine works on the 4 stage bases from the intake to the compression to the ignition and exhaust. Here there are no cylinders or piston but there is a big rotor that does the hard work. Talking about a single rotor engine there are 5 components which are

  • Front plate
  • Rotor housing
  • Rotor
  • Rear plate
  • Eccentric shaft

The rotor housing that the rotor fits in has an inlet where the air and fuel mixture enters, 2 spark plugs and the exhaust. As the rotor spins, it creates a vacuum over the intake that sucks air and fuel into the chamber and as it continues round as shown on the Gif above, it covers the intake and then the air and fuel is been compressed and at the equivalent of top dead center and button dead center in a piston engine 2 spark plugs fire forcing the rotor round further for it to reach the exhaust (outlet) and the burnt air and fuel is given off in form of gas through the exhaust.

Piston engine:

Most of us know what the the Principles of the piston but for the sake of those not in the mechanical field or those that does not have the idea generally I would explain it.

Sometimes ago when I talked about engine strokes and how the engine is been fired, that is the principle I want go over but only for the 4stroke engine because am interested in vehicles on this article, the piston engine have four strokes for it to start which are the suction stroke, compression stroke, power stroke and the exhaust stroke.

Suction Stroke:

This suction state is whereby the air and fuel mixture is been sucked into the cylinder and for that to happen the piston has to move from the top dead center to the button dead center for the mixture to come in and then the compression stroke starts.

Compression stroke:

At this stroke the piston moves again from the bottom dead center to the top dead center with help of the momentum from the flywheel and the crankshaft completes a 360o and for the compression to take place the inlet valve and outlet valve stays closed and the firing takes place which happens during the power stroke

Power stroke:

The power stroke is the stroke that generates power, the inlet and outlet valve will close up, the crankshaft rotates another 180o that makes a total rotation is 540o. The expansion of the air and fuel is ignited with the help if the spark plug to produce a spark that produces the mechanical work.

Exhaust stroke:

The exhaust stroke is the stage the waste from the burnt fuel and air mixture during the combustion process is been passed out as waste gas. Here the outlet valve opens and the inlet valve closes and the crankshaft makes another rotation of 180o making a total of 720o then the momentum from the flywheel moves the piston from bottom dead center to top dead center to push the burnt fuel out through the outlet valve which is the exhaust.

Check this post for the detailed explanation of the piston engine where i explained more about it.

The principle applies to both the diesel engine but in case of diesel as a fuel in the 4 Stroke engine there is no spark igniting the mixture (air and fuel) but the diesel compresses and heat the mixture (air and fuel) to a high temp without the need of a spark.

The advantages and disadvantages of the rotary and piston engine.


For the piston engine

Advantages
  • The piston engine are easy to maintain as well as not burning much oil

  • The piston engine can be economical with minimal emission because of smaller displacement and a very efficient combustion cycle

Disadvantages
  • The piston engine has too many moving parts which includes the piston, exhaust, intake and the cam shafts which result in the so many reciprocating mass meaning the engine Rev is limited due to the danger of valve float where the valve can not keep up with the movement of the camshaft

  • Piston engine are very large in size especially inline configuration.

  • The piston engine don't normally work with front wheel drive cars or cars with small engine base and that is where the need of V6 with 6 cylinder are in most cars.

For the rotary engine

Advantages
  • The engine is extremely compact to the extent that it can be put any engine base that has space to spare.

  • The rotary engine has few moving parts and in the aspect of the single rotor unit, there are 2 things that rotates which are the eccentric shaft and the rotor itself which means the rotary engine should be very reliable.

  • The rotary engine does not have reciprocating mass meaning it is smoother than a conventional piston engine and has the potential higher Rev

  • The rotary engine has this very cool sound when rotary engine starts 😎.

Disadvantages
  • The rotary engines is known for burning plenty of oil because oil is injected directly by a throttle control into the rotor housing to keep the seals lubricated and chamber separated.

  • If you are not on top of oil maintenance and you use the wrong grade of oil it can endanger the engine. it is not uncommon to run a rotary engine dry.

  • The risk of blown apex seals which is very bad because of sealing the edges of rotor against the rotor housing and they are prone to cracking meaning the rotary engine will loose compression.

Also compression might lead to misfiring, power reduction, bad idle and engine that is hard to start when it is cold.

  • Poor fuel economy and high emission compared to the piston engines because the combustion chamber of the rotary engine is large, so some portion of air and fuel will not be burnt during the combustion process in the combustion chamber.

  • The rotary engine have the tendency to spit flames from the exhaust pipes.

Conclusion

Now we have seen the difference between the two type of engine and how they work, when I want to get a car would I go for a rotary engine to piston engine, that is a choice you have to make on your own. Knowing the principles does not guarantee you are going put either of them in good use but knowing the advantages and disadvantages of both the rotary and piston engines and finally with proper maintenance you would be able to use either of both very well.

References for more information

How rotary engines works
How does four stroke engine works
Difference and challenges of Rotary engine and piston engine
Research Gate
Internal combustion engine

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Thanks for your time
@osariemen

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Hello @osariemen

This a kill, man! So revealing! I never even knew there's varieties to automobile engines. And the way you presented the whole thing would make someone without knowledge of this to become knowledgeable about engines to some extent. Thanks for this.

Regards

@eurogee of @euronation and @steemstem communities

Thanks @eurogee

Am grateful for your kind and sweet words always.... Engines are interesting if you are close to them

Yes you are damn right

feel free to break some of the big paragraphs into smaller ones to improve readability

Okay I would do that

If there could be other word than awesome i would have like to use it, so there are classifications of engines, if not for this.
I wont know by now. Thanks

Thanks for dropping by boss

Hi @osariemen!

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A lot of people are more familiar with the conventional piston engines. Its good to see someone talking about some other types.
Nicely written

Yea but it still exists

Only #teamautomobile cares about it

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