Slashdot Mirror
Australian Team Working On Engines Without Piston Rings
JabrTheHut writes "An Australian team is seeking funding for bringing an interesting idea to market: cylinder engines without piston rings. The idea is to use small grooves that create a pressure wave that acts as a seal for the piston, eliminating the piston ring and the associated friction. Engines would then run cooler, could be more energy efficient, and might even burn fuel more efficiently, at least according to the article. Mind you, they haven't even built a working prototype yet. If it works I'd love to fit this into an older car."
Wankel apex seals are the equivalent of piston rings - ie a chunk of metal/ceramic that fills the gap between the piston/rotor and the chamber wall.
I believe this is not true. When I lived in New Zealand I noticed that the octane ratings were higher than in the USA, but after researching this, discovered that the difference is mostly accounted for in a difference in the way that octane is measured. In New Zealand (and probably Australia, and probably Europe), the rating uses just the "research octane", i.e. that measured in a lab somewhere; but in the USA, the rating is an average of the "research octane" and the "measured octane", the measured octane producing a lower number, that when averaged with the research octane, means that the same fuel is rated at a lower octane rating than it would be in New Zealand.