so in this video, I'm gonna explain how a rotary engine works
now there aren't many cars built nowadays that still use them
but it is a different method of an internal combustion engine
so im gonna go ahead and explain how it works
so we've got this rotor here inside of a casing
and we're gonna be rotating in this direction
all right so what happens is theres a small gap of air right here
and as this rotor rotates, this gap of air expands and as it explands
its gonna pull in air from your intake right here into this chamber
now the rotor is gonna keep rotating and compress this air into a very small amount of air in this wall right here
as you can see here now these right here are your spark plugs
these two right here
and when they ignite the rotor is gonna be in this position
and then its gonna swing this direction continue swinging
and combustion is gonna happen right here
so after that its gonna keep rotating
and then its gonna push those combustion gases out here
through your exhaust
now there are several things to keep in mind as you are looking at this its probably confusing
so there are two rotors total in the engine
one that youll see in front and then there's one thats countering that behind it
along the shaft
heres a side view of what it looks like you've got one rotor here that's going to be rotating
and one rotor here that gonna be rotating
both are connected to the same crank that's this circle right here
and rotate in separate housing so all three steps of the
all four steps I should say combustion are happening simultaneously
in the same chamber at the top you've got the air fuel mixture going in here you've got
the combustion phase will be happening
here you've got combustion occuring after the spark
and then pushing out the exhaust gases
so the reason you're gonna have two of these countering each other in opposite direction is to minimize vibration
if you have the center of gravity on the axis of a rotation you're not gonna have
the vibration so thats what they're attempting to do there
some things to keep in mind for every three revolutions
of the output shaft that's what you get from one revolution from this rotor
so that as this big rotor and it kind of acts like a gear here
as this rotor here rotates one time around this triangle goes completely 360 degrees
this output shaft is gonna spin three times, so you can think of it as a gear ratio
and this one is a three and this ones a one so every time this rotates once
you'll have three revolutions with this one
other thing to keep in mind there are three combustion phases per revolution of the rotor
so that means for every combustion phase you have one revolution of the crank shaft
and one of the main benefits of a rotary engine
over a internal combustion engine that's piston/cylinder based is that there's only really
three moving parts: these two rotors and the crakshaft whereas
a piston/cylinder engine is gonna have: camshafts, valves, springs
you've got cylinders, you've got push rods. It's about 40 or so components
that are going to be moving, so a lot less moving components you can increase reliability
on the down side its harder to get higher compression ratio with a rotary engine.