http://auto.howstuffworks.com/quasiturbine.htm

I'm bored, so I surfed the net to find out if anything interesting has happened in the last couple years regarding novel engine concepts. (It'll be ages before I can afford a Tesla Roadster)
So I looked up the Quasi-turbine engine, that I've first heard about 2+ years ago. (For people unfamiliar with it, above are pictures + more info. It's essentially a rotary engine that's more efficient and has low end torque.) The sad part is I can't find any new research, or any recent info whatsoever on it. Did anybody on Pff get lucky and find any recent info what ever happened to that concept?

-M

[This message has been edited by Austrian Import (edited 04-08-2007).]

Looks like they took a simply elegant concept like the Wankel Rotary and turned it into a nightmare of parts that aren't going to produce the desired result. Wheels inside the engine that have to support combustion ratios far exceeding classic Diesel engines. Supposedly cleaner but look at where the air and fuel go and have to escape from... what a torturous looking chamber, sharp edges and hiding places all over the place for quench... HC's will be ridiculous, modern engine design is all about eliminating anyplace the fuel can hide... right down to exposed threads of the spark plug. This concept with the carriages looks like a step back 50 years... and they are talking about using a carb! Doesn't look like it could be any cleaner than a L head.

Agreed. That thing looks like a nightmare to engineer and keep running. How do you seal and lubricate all those pivot points?

Also, I seriously doubt that the wheels on the carriers will be able to effectively seal the combustion chamber during compression and combustion. I forsee a lot of blow-by during the cycle (if it would even start).

Interesting. Never thought of it that way. Well if the carriages are ceramic or something like that, lubrication wouldn't be a problem. I always thought the combustion chamber looked a bit convoluted. But the carriage free system looks like a more unnecessarily complicated system that has one extra chamber over the Wankel that isn't utilized.

Maybe that's the reason I couldn't find anything about it like a prototype that wasn't gas powered. Another page is www.quasiturbine.com . It's the page of the manufacturer.

-M

I had a professor who was working on this: http://www.starrotor.com

quote August 16, 2006 StarRotor is featured in the magazine Popular Science.

I'm sold.

quote Originally posted by FraX: I had a professor who was working on this: http://www.starrotor.com

im noticing on the explanation of the engine there is a lot of "it should" and "it is projected to be"

Since they don't have a working model, I'm quite dubious about the claim that it has more complete combustion of the fuel. More complete combustion is usually done by better mixing (like the CVCC Honda engine) or higher compression ratios. They state that they have lower compression ratios than conventional engines and don't say anything about better mixing other than preheating the mixture. That has been tried before, but (IMS) the claimed results were not duplicatable.

Edit: From their DARPA paper:

quote Dr. Mark Holtzapple, President of StarRotor Corporation and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, heads the StarRotor development team. He has a long history of working with engines. From 1982 to 1985, while serving as a captain in the US Army at Natick R, D, and E Center, he helped develop a miniature Stirling engine for cooling soldiers encapsulated in chemical protective clothing.[italics mine]

This is the entire paragraph on Dr Holtzapple; nothing has been removed.

[This message has been edited by Steve Normington (edited 04-10-2007).]