Testing of a Modern Wankel Rotary Engine - Part III: firing condition analysis
2022-01-0709
03/29/2022
- Event
- Content
- This work represents a further contribution to the experimental activities carried out on a modern Wankel rotary engine at the University of Bath and the Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion System (IAAPS) within the ADAPT Intelligent Powertrain project which was in co-operation with Westfield Sports Car, Advanced Innovative Engineering UK (AIE UK), General Engine Management Systems (GEMS) and Saietta. Specifically, in this study, the firing performance of the AIE 225CS engine are analysed. Preliminary presentations of the experimental and measurement setup and the motoring analysis were extensively covered in Part I and II of this suite of papers [1,2] while the current work presents the combustion analysis of the firing indicated pressure cycles collected through the bespoke combustion analyser software developed within the project. With the Wankel rotary engines gaining again popularity due to their potential as range extenders, the aim of this work was mainly to analyse the fuel consumption together with the overall efficiency and the emissions at different rotational speeds and loads as for a classic steady-state engine testing. The classic curves of power and torque promptly derived from the experimental measurements are reported while further considerations on the combustion phenomena are drawn from the analysis of the indicated pressure cycles. Specifically, parameters such as the rate of heat release (ROHR), the net heat release, the Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP)and the indicated instantaneous torque are assessed. Further considerations are drawn on the overall mechanical efficiency relying on the IMEP computed from the indicated pressure cycles and the BMEP inferred from the torqued measured experimentally in steady-state conditions. Furthermore, the effects of the combustion on the internal pressure of the self-pressurizing air-cooled rotor system (SPARCS) are evaluated in addition to parameters such as the IMEP coefficient of variation (COV) for the evaluation of the cycle-to-cycle combustion quality and the engine regularity. Finally, surely all the post-processed data represent an update to the historical literature on Wankel rotary engines. In addition, they can be used for the development and validation of numerical models hence allowing investigating by means of simulations the effects and the performance of the rotary engine employing future innovative fuels such as hydrogen.
- Citation
- Vorraro, G., Turner, J., and Akehurst, S., "Testing of a Modern Wankel Rotary Engine - Part III: firing condition analysis ," SAE Technical Paper 2022-01-0709, 2022, .