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0 pointsdesdiv11y ago0 comments

The pistons rotate. Not just the pistons, but the cylinders and the connecting rods as well. It's basically the entire engine block rotating against a stationary cylinder head.

The large rotating mass problem is basically what killed off the pre-WWII-style rotary engines, and the Duke engine suffer from the exact same problem.

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JoeAltmaier11y ago

So why not connect the disk to the shaft, and have it rotate instead? Not a mechanical engineer, but that would have way less mass, way less clever mechanical linkages for valving, spark.

bradleyland11y ago

The disc contains systems that are not easily reciprocated: the intake and exhaust ports, as well as the ignition system. You can be sure that if it were possible to simply swap the rotation, Duke would have done it. The issue of reciprocating mass is well known by engineers who work with axial engines.

JoeAltmaier11y ago

I guess I still don't understand. Lots of engines don't put the valves and ignition on a disk - so don't. The idea of valve-less cylinders via rotating ports can be done either way - rotating cylinders or rotating shaft - so reverse them.

I know, that's not a Duke engine. Just wondering who got it wrong the first day and went down this path. Like the old 'drum memory' systems that rotated the heads and left the magnetic memory stationary. Didn't take but 2 years to turn that around and invent disk drives.

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0 pointsdesdiv11y ago0 comments

The pistons rotate. Not just the pistons, but the cylinders and the connecting rods as well. It's basically the entire engine block rotating against a stationary cylinder head.

The large rotating mass problem is basically what killed off the pre-WWII-style rotary engines, and the Duke engine suffer from the exact same problem.

0 comments

JoeAltmaier11y ago

So why not connect the disk to the shaft, and have it rotate instead? Not a mechanical engineer, but that would have way less mass, way less clever mechanical linkages for valving, spark.

bradleyland11y ago

JoeAltmaier11y ago

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse