Ever heard of a wankel supercharger?

[peepsalot]

I was researching supercharer designs just a minute ago and saw this.
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/tech/0107scc_garage/
At the bottom it talks about how wankels were used at some point for supercharging. I wonder why it didn't catch on. I wonder if an rx-7 engine could be modified to work as a compressor. That would be too cool to have an rx-7 engine fed by an rx-7 engine-supercharger. It's possible, right?

 

[Super Matty P]

probably has a lot to do with sheer weight, cost and size....hell my simple supercharger is almost 1' X 1' and it's hard enough to package properly!

 

[Pretzellogic]

Well, any type of internal combustion engine is by design a compressor. The wankle idea is interesting but overly complex, and As Mr. Matty-Womp said, difficult to package.

 

[Striker187]

actually the wankel engine contains FAR fewer parts than a typical ic 4-stroke engine (Otto engine) so mechanically, it's not complex at all. the reason why the wankel costs as much as a 4-stroke engine is the manufacturing process required to create slightly complex epitrochoidal engine housing and the shape of the rotor itself.

i never knew they were used as a supercharger....interesting

 

[Shane5425]

i am sure you could make a small miniture single rotar superchager with it, but it would take wayy to much time and money to design it, us the the power of womp instead..

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

Actually the retractable seat belts on new VW's are wankel designed. They use mini pyro. devices to fire them.

 

[peepsalot]

supercharged seatbelts? LOL

 

[anarchistchiken]

supercharged seatbelts? LOL

Hahahaha, seriously. I'm interested in hearing how this works.

 

[peepsalot]

What would the thermal efficiencies of a wankel supercharger be like?

What limits the rpm limit of a rotary? Anyone think a wankel supercharger could run at 3x speed of the rest of the engine?

 

[Super Matty P]

i would have to look into this further but any sort of combustion happening within a wankle engine would create extremely high exhaust temps and aren't they using the exhaust pulses to feed the primary engine?? seems very counterproductive.

 

[Striker187]

the efficiency of a wankel engine isn't much greater than a regular 4-stroke.....about 35% efficient. the real advantage of the rotary engine is its high power density. that's why the engines are small but can still make the same power as engines with higher displacement.

 

[Super Matty P]

I can't imagine a wankle supercharger being more efficient or easier to spool than a regular gear-stepped centrifugal supercharger. Mine actually spins at 3.05 for every one revolution of the blower pulley.

 

[Pretzellogic]

actually the wankel engine contains FAR fewer parts than a typical ic 4-stroke engine (Otto engine) so mechanically, it's not complex at all. the reason why the wankel costs as much as a 4-stroke engine is the manufacturing process required to create slightly complex epitrochoidal engine housing and the shape of the rotor itself.

i never knew they were used as a supercharger....interesting

I meant overly complex as a supercharger.

 

[mazda2002]

Ever heard of the quasiturbine, could probably be used as a supercharger as well.

 

[uclap5]

anyone remember the pictures of wankle rotors less than the size of your fingertip? there was some experimentation with them as a sort of fuel driven electrical powersource

 

[peepsalot]

anyone remember the pictures of wankle rotors less than the size of your fingertip? there was some experimentation with them as a sort of fuel driven electrical powersource

You mean this?