Doyle Rotary Video With Audio!

Hi. Lot of hard work there! Two points if I may. I see a gear on the outer drum. I hope you don't expect to get torque from there or give torque for starting. It would just 'twist' the mesh, the connecting rods get less "concentric" and depending on design detail will propubly interfere with outer drum or/and the cylinder end line. This 'twisting' also at best will lower compression ratio. I hope you understand what I'm saying, it would be just like trying to get torque from the common -loose- crankshaft to rods bearing of an asteroid multi-cylinder engine and not from it's crankshaft. (or is that gear just for demonstration moving reason?) Sorry haven't followed your project from start. Other than that and also the possible cooling problem on a revolving cylinder block think you have something there. Best of lack.

The outer housing and cylinder block rotate 1:1. They are connected together with six synchronizing rods. We have a video that talks about them here.

The cylinder block and outer housing are constrained to the crankshaft so that they can only spin. The sync rods add constraints between the housing and block so that they can not spin separately. My dad thought of the sync rods just a couple of years ago. I think they are a very elegant solution especially when compared to having sets of gears, belts or chains between the two components.

Our previous prototype used these sync rods and had no issues turning over when power was applied to the outer housing.

Smart guy your dad to come up with this, but from first view each sync road passes 2 points of 'uncertainty' every rev, (at the times it's parallel to the cylinder) and this could cause overstressing on it. But since you tested it OK fine by me. Round shape is not the best concerning rigidity to moment of inertia ratio but at this stage is also OK. Fin cutting plus oil spraying on cylinder block tops can help on cooling also, but then you must come up with a way to get back the oil that will stick (because of centrifugal) on the housing inner face (have some ideas). Or the whole thing will be contained inside another shell? Not a bad idea. But issues like that could be worked out on simpler prototypes (2 or 3 cylinders) for lower cost, so not let some briliant idea to crash on dull details like that. Will be watching this. Best of luck!

P.S centrifugal will also possibly give you an oil starvation issue that must be addresed.

Very nice job on the video!!

I can't tell you how awesome it would be to one day open the hood of a car and find one of those in the engine compartment.

Keep up the good work!!

I am very sceptical, I don't know what the actual weight is of the rotating mass, but all I see is a giant gyroscope, with all its inherent problems when in a moving vehicle.

It could cause a vehicle to not turn at a corner, many people under estimate the "strength & power" of a large gyroscope.....

This engine "may" be ok for a fixed usage in a building, but never in a million years for a vehicle....

I have completely ignored the problems of power take off that someone else here has already mentioned adequately......

This engine still needs some development work.....

We get this concern a lot. The original rotary engines (Gnome and Le Rhone) had huge gyroscopic forces that caused the airplanes they were on to not bank so well in one direction and to turn very well in the opposite direction. But the forces won't be an issue for the DRE.

The DRE has significantly less spinning mass than conventional engines. Utilizing aluminum for the outer housing, cylinder block and rods keeps the weight very low. How many conventional engines use aluminum for the crankshaft? Toss in the fact that they have to add large counterweights to the crank and the weight begins to skyrocket.

Another considerable mass added to the spinning components of conventional engines is the harmonic balancer. This makes up for the flexing of the crank. Our outer housing will be more structurally sound than a crank because of its shape. This means we can save weight by not needing the mass of a harmonic balancer.

The weight of our cylinder block and outer housing are pretty light but if the engine made it to production they would be even lighter. Weight would be saved on the cylinder block because the cylinder sleeves could be cast into the block and cylinder retainers and screws would not have to be added. Also, a casting can save much more material than we can with our CNC machines. The outer housing could also be cast as one piece. This would save the weight of the fasteners and allow more complex shapes to be made in order to retain strength while also saving weight.

Also, if we do get the efficiency gains that we show in the advantages section, a 4.2 liter engine would be a monster sized engine. This would mean that cars that normally use a large V6 with ~90 pounds of spinning mass could instead use a smaller DRE with just over half the spinning mass.

The proof will only come from prototypes and all we can do here is theorize. We are hoping that our exhibit at the SAE world congress will peak the interest of someone and lead to us receiving some prototyping money. This will get us closer to answers much quicker.

I agree that you have done some excellent work on this project. Very impressive. I'm also curious about the cooling system.

Very interesting concept. I'd love to see the test data an engine like this actually produces. I have to imagine the combustion chamber and all the heat concentrated in one spot will be challenging. I only watched it once but I didn't see how the ports get sealed? Nice video work.

Because the DRE only has one combustion chamber it becomes cost effective to add ceramic coat to its walls. In conventional engines, ceramic coatings add up cost when there are multiple combustion chambers. This will help to minimize the temperature of the combustion chamber.

Also, unlike in a conventional engine, huge amounts of heat are not lost because of the exhaust valve opening before the power stroke has finished. Utilizing more of the heat means that the initial amount of fuel being burned can be lower. This leads to the same amount of work from a smaller heat source.

The apex, side and corner seals seal against sealing sleeves and plates that are pressed into the cylinder block. These surfaces will be hardened and chrome plated to the specs used by Mazda in their rotary engine. The cylinders are exposed to various ports as they cross the seals. These seals separate the strokes of the engine.