Toroidal Engine Ready for Production

FarceMajeur writes "Business 2.0 has a column on a recently prototyped "round engine," properly named a toroidal engine, by VGT Technologies, Inc. Nice Flash animations of the concept are here. I've always admired the Wankel engine, but it seemed more like a time bomb than a going concern. This engine is billed as the 'world's first practical Concentric Positive Displacement Engine,' meaning no eccentric rotation to generate vibration, meaning fewer catostophic failures, one would hope."

Comments

Yet another revolutionary internal combustion eng

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

My understanding is that there is something like 500 different designs for internal combustion engines. Needless to say, nearly all of them are useless for one reason or another.

Reciprocating pistons and poppet valves still live because they work well, can be manufactured with simple operations and have seals (piston rings and valve seats) that will last for years.

I thought about a design like this many years ago and concluded that there would be major difficulties sealing in the combustion gases. I guess time will tell whether the problem has been solved.

Timing

[lirkbald]

Well, I looked at the animations. Neat idea, I think. But what happens if that timing belt goes? It looks to me like the thing would smash itself to pieces.

What would happen if a timing belt gave out on a 'normal' cylinder-based engine? I'm not too knowledgable about engines, but it doesn't seem like it would be quite as catastrophic.

I'm taking the don'ts

[Paradise Pete]

Mr. Pekau is an experienced mechanical engineer....In addition to Mr. Pekau's work, which is well documented

IANAE, but this is likely to be a crackpot/scam venture.

The phrasing I've quoted above, which come from the web site, are big red flags. They're trying to pitch Pekau instead of the engine. Along the lines of "he's really smart and knows what he's doing, so of course his engine works." This is how scam after scam after scam gets pitched. "Ignore all the nay-sayers, because they just don't understand what our guy has done."

The phrase "which is well-documented" is also a tip off. Nobody says that unless it's not quite true.

The main problem...

[Muerte23]

Is the precise timing required by the whole system. You see the vertical wheel with the notch? That notch has to pass the little wings on the rotor exactly on two sliding surfaces.

Those tight fit parts that absolutely fly by each other have to meet, slide, and keep a pretty good seal. Each time the timing chain is a little off, say to increase or decrease in power, they will miss a little, bonk, and get worn. Hot exhaust gasses slipping through will probably cause preignition in the little transfer tube. Nasty.

Also notice how much physical distance the compression arms of the rotor have to move each cycle. Can you imagine the heat from friction and the lubrication required? And the kinds of seals that you would need? I guess you could get decent lubrication by using the rotor as some sort of centrifugal oil pump, but still the wear would be nasty.

Consider as well that it's basically a 2 cylinder 4-stroke engine. It's gotta be a pretty good size and run at a pretty high RPM to get enough power to be really useful.

Don't count on this one.