4rd International Symposium on Innovative Aerial/Space Flyer Systems, January 14-15, 2008,

“Unmanned Air Vehicle Turbo Rotary Engine Preliminary Component Tests”, Ibrahim Sinan Akmandor and Melih Okur

Unmanned Air Vehicle Turbo Rotary Engine

Preliminary Component Tests
Ibrahim Sinan AKMANDOR∗ Melih Okur§
akmandor@metu.edu.tr mokur@gazi.edu.tr
info@parsmakina.com
∗
Pars Makina Ltd, ODTU-OSTIM Teknokent, Uzay Cagi Cad. No.6, 06370 Ostim Ankara, TURKEY
&
*Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, Middle East Technical University, 06531 Ankara, TURKEY

§
Gazi University, Faculty of Technical Education, Dept. Mechanical Education 06500 Ankara,TURKEY

ABSTRACT
A 1.5 kW rotary vane engine is designed to power small unmanned air vehicles. This external combustion heat
engine is operating according to a novel thermodynamic cycle having an efficient compression phase and a
limited temperature combustion phase followed by a long power extraction phase. Preliminary compressor and
turbine performance tests have been performed. The new engine promises high performance figures such as
single stage high compression ratios, competitive power torque and low specific fuel consumptions.

1. INTRODUCTION
Since the start of the industrial revolution, the reciprocating piston engine based on the Otto and Diesel cycles
and the gas turbine engine based on the Brayton cycle, have dominated the power market [1]. Up to a few
megawatts power (around 5 MW), diesel and gasoline engines have largely responded to the transportation
sectors needs. By the same token, the gas engines using natural gas as primary fuel have been widely used for
efficient combined heat and power productions. Leaving aside the renewable power means and for power
exceeding the above-mentioned range, air, land and marine transportation and local power productions mostly
uses gas turbines. Still it is worth noting that despite the widespread use of reciprocating and gas turbine engines
and the disproportional huge size of research done toward the improvement of such engines, the thermal
efficiency have hardly surpassed the %45 threshold. The slow improvement rate of the figures of merits shows
that these engines have reach maturity. Also there is a noticeable wide mass flow gap between reciprocating and
gas turbine engine. The present paper introduces a novel engine that will niche itself among that existing mass
flow gap and also produce efficient high work.

Many different forms of rotary and orbital engines have been proposed but on the overall none was a serious
challenge to the reciprocating internal combustion engine. This may be due to the high wear rate risk that may
occur in most rotary engines. A second reason may be due to the fact that the improvement in thermal efficiency
brought by rotary engines does not justify a radical departure from reciprocating engines. It is worth noting that
the present novel turbo rotary engine addresses both shortfalls. Also it is worth noting that early rotary
compressor designs had low volumetric efficiencies, undesirable high delivery air temperatures due to internal
air leakage and considerable blade and cylinder wear due to lack of adequate lubrication [1]. These
disadvantages have all been addressed in this rotary vane engine. The present engine eliminates contact wear
between rotor and working chamber and compressor volumetric efficiency exceeds 96% near design speeds.
Furthermore, the long expansion power stroke which lasts up to a wide rotation angle (270°), is amply sufficient
to overtake any net shaft power production figure belonging to other engines. Air and oil cooled sliding vane
engine have an additional feature close to gas turbine engines such as being nearly steady in air flow processing.
The rotary vane engine also achieves high compression ratios with less shaft power input as air is processed
through a smooth crescent shape constriction which progressively squeezes out the fluid to the combustion
chamber. As maximum peak temperature is limited, the operational and maintenance costs are also minimised.
All together, the presented design is an efficient, powerful, compact, simple and reliable heat engine.

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4rd International Symposium on Innovative Aerial/Space Flyer Systems, January 14-15, 2008,
“Unmanned Air Vehicle Turbo Rotary Engine Preliminary Component Tests”, Ibrahim Sinan Akmandor and Melih Okur

2. ROLLING PISTON TYPE COMPRESSION AND EXPANSION CHAMBERS

The working principle of the engine is very similar to that of a gas turbine engine with the exception that this
time it is possible to further pressurise the combustion chamber as both end of it is closed intermittently through
rotating valves (Fig 1). Many other rotary engine patents have also suggested separate compression, combustion
and expansion chambers [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Actually, almost all rotary vane type engines produce adequate torque
characteristics as the combusted gas expands right against the eccentrically placed rotor which is the arm length
of the generated torque. Therefore, there is no need for cumbersome crankshaft. One firing cycle occur per rotor
revolution. As one firing takes place, new cycles are preceding the present firing and at least one old cycle is
terminating thereof, a smooth operation is assured. The rotary turbine unit is similar to the compressor unit but
its size differs. As it can be seen from Fig. 1, combustion chamber links the compressor and the turbine and it is
possible to dilute combustion product so as to allow turbine to run at a desired reduced temperature. By choosing
a proper turbine volume and rotor eccentricity, the exhaust gas pressure is lowered to about local ambient
pressure values to allow maximum shaft work extraction and increase in thermal efficiency.

Rolling piston rotary compressor and turbine includes a cast metal cylinder forming a bore in which an
eccentrically mounted roller rotates. A spring loaded blade or vane located in a slot in the cylinder block contacts
the surface of the roller. The fixed sliding vane does the separation of two chambers in the interior of a cylinder,
a low pressure and a high pressure chamber. For compressor, the low pressure chamber is air intake and the high
pressure chamber is discharge to combustion chamber. For turbine, the pressure chamber is intake and low
pressure chamber is exhaust (Fig.1). This separation is obtained as the vane top end follows the rolling piston
movement under the influence of an eccentric shaft. Thus, as the roller is advanced around the cylinder bore, the
side slotted vane reciprocates. Rolling piston reciprocating vane is not a power arm but merely a chamber
separating seal. This simplified vane function eliminates the disadvantages that true piston engine possess such
as high stresses caused by reciprocating motion, vibration, noise and rotational speeds limitation imposed by
piston seals. The rolling piston type performs its compression cycle or expansion cycle operation upon each
revolution of the piston.

As rotational speed increases, side leakage from high pressure chamber to low pressure chamber decrease as the
flow has no time to escape from respective rotating aerothermodynamics performance chambers. At high speeds
and high compression ratio, noise is generated by a shock wave which is produced in a low pressure chamber,
when the piston is about to pass by the discharge port [8]. The pumping capacity of a rotary pump is mainly a
function of the crescent shape cavity volume that created every cycle as the eccentrically placed rotor is
revolving within a cylinder. It is even possible to regulate the pumping capacity by adjusting the amount of
eccentricity of the roller. [9].

The adequate amount of oil inside the compressor is an important factor as the good lubrication of movable parts
is a prime requirement. [10]. In the turbine, lubrication is limited to shaft bearings. The presence of two working
chambers with great pressure difference within the compressor and the turbine, forces the vane to slide along the
high pressure side of the slot surface. This causes problem of metallic contact and wear between the vane and the
sliding slot. One of the solutions is the improvement in the vane lubrication system. [11]. Conventional rolling
piston type compressors and turbine have adopted the needle bearing as the thrust bearing of the rotary shaft
[12]. Similar bearings have been successfully applied to Wankel engines having high rotational speeds.

The rolling piston rotary compressor and turbine cylinder blocks are cast from metal such as sphero-iron or from
aluminium alloy for aerospace application. After casting, the bore and the vane slot are finished by machining. It
is necessary to obtain a very close tolerance between the reciprocating blade or vane vane and the vane slot in
the cylinder block to prevent loss of efficiency and loss of lubricating oil [13].

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4rd International Symposium on Innovative Aerial/Space Flyer Systems, January 14-15, 2008,
“Unmanned Air Vehicle Turbo Rotary Engine Preliminary Component Tests”, Ibrahim Sinan Akmandor and Melih Okur

Figure 1: working schematic of the novel rotary engine

3. ROTARY ENGINES WITH IMPROVED THERMODYNAMIC CYCLE

For a given compression ratio, the ideal Otto cycle provides the most efficient combustion/expansion process as
high peak temperatures are reached during the constant volume heat addition phase. However, high peak
combustion temperatures causes auto-ignition of a portion of fuel-air mixture, resulting in engine knocks. Diesel
is an improvement of the Otto cycle as it provides higher useful compression ratios and constant pressure heat
addition and do not have knock problem as air alone is present during the compression process. The high
compression ratio makes Diesel engines more fuel-efficient but for this same reason, they also become much
heavier. Compared to the Otto cycle, Diesel cycle also delivers less power for the same displacement. For the
compression and combustion phases of the cycle, the ideal would be to follow a limited combustion pressure
cycle that would first use a constant volume heat addition followed by constant pressure heat additions. Such
hybrid engine process has been developed [14] (Texaco TCCS, Ford PROCO, Ricardo, MAN-FM and KHD-

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4rd International Symposium on Innovative Aerial/Space Flyer Systems, January 14-15, 2008,
“Unmanned Air Vehicle Turbo Rotary Engine Preliminary Component Tests”, Ibrahim Sinan Akmandor and Melih Okur

AD) but they have been proven impractical. In such engine developments, not only the thermodynamics but also
the kinematics and the fluid mechanics involved are equally important. The rotary vane engine described in this
paper [15] follows the new limited peak thermodynamic cycle (Fig.2). This novel cycle has been applied to 50
cc engine [Table 1] and increase in efficiency and power are apparent. The cycle combines the advantages of
Otto and Diesel cycles at intake, compression and combustion phases by limiting the peak combustion
temperature. The present cycle also has an expanded power stroke. With a proper thermodynamic and
geometrical match of the compressor and turbine working chambers volumes, ambient exhaust pressure level is
achieved. The thermodynamic cycle associated with the rotary vane engine contains innovations when compared
to the Otto, Brayton, Diesel or more recent increased expansion cycles proposed [16, 17, 18].

Fig. 2 Novel Thermodynamic Cycle for Rotary Vane Engine

Table 1: Non-ideal turbo-rotary engine thermodynamic cycle

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4rd International Symposium on Innovative Aerial/Space Flyer Systems, January 14-15, 2008,
“Unmanned Air Vehicle Turbo Rotary Engine Preliminary Component Tests”, Ibrahim Sinan Akmandor and Melih Okur

4. THERMAL EFFICIENCY

The main form of the waste energy is heat, which is partially consumed by engine parts such as compressor and
turbine cylinders, cylinder covers, rotors and eccentric shafts, and partially emitted in the form of a high-
temperature and high-pressure exhaust. Such engine thermal efficiency is will be increased if compressor take up
a bigger proportion of the input energy and if the input energy is converted into proper kinetic energy before
entering turbine. Under such optimal running condition, it is expected that the 50cc small turbo rotary engine
will reach 40% thermal efficiency. In future work, to further increase this figure, the energy exhaust from the
engine can be reused to preheat fuel and allow premixing of fuel and air before combustion. The new cycle ideal
thermal efficiency by writing the proper temperature, pressure and specific volume relations within the thermal
efficiency definition given below.

Qin − Qout Qout

η th = = 1− (Eqn.1)
Qin Qin
γ  
1
rc rp 
γ −1
η th = 1 − (Eqn.2)
r1  (rp − 1) + (rp γ )(rc − 1) 
γ −1
 
where;
1 1 1 1

V4 P3 V V 1  P5  P  P P  1 1
γ γ γ  γ
rc = ; rp = ; r1 = 1 ; 4 = =   =  1  =  1 2  =   (Eqns.3)
V3 P2 V2 V5 r2  P4   P4   P2 P3  r1  r p 

Equations 3 have been used in the derivation of equation 2. Comparing with the Otto cycle thermal efficiency
given below (Eqn.4), it is seen that the new thermodynamic cycle thermal efficiency has a much higher degree of
freedom as Eqn.2 is defined in terms of 3 variables (namely r1, rp , rc ) all defined above, compared to only one
V1
variable r= for the Otto cycle. As temperature upper limit restricts the increase of Otto cycle volume ratio
V2
r , the Otto thermal efficiency reaches a modest peak value. As for the diesel cycle thermal efficiency given
below (Eqn.11), it is even lower because the term A in Eqn. 5 is bigger than 1.
1
η th Otto = 1 − γ −1
(Eqn. 4)
r
1
η th Diesel = 1 − γ −1
A (Eqn. 5)
r
As the bracketed term in Eqn. 2 is always less than 1, the new thermodynamic cycle thermal efficiency is
guaranteed to be always bigger than those pertaining to Otto and Diesel cycles.

5. TURBO-ROTARY ENGINE COMPONENT PERFORMANCE TEST

5 a: Turbo Rotary Compressor Experimental Preliminary Performance
The rotary vane engine compressor volumetric efficiency was measured without any inlet attachment for a
pressure ratio range up to 10 Bars (Fig.3). From the experimental tests, it can be clearly seen that the compressor
is more efficient at relatively higher rotational speeds above 1600 RPM. This is probably due to the shorter time
that prevents flow to escape around rotor clearance gaps. The experimental compressor performance figures
(Fig.4) such as input power and suction mass flow rate has been divided by their maximum values so as to
render the performance trend a more general appearance. The performance map shows how the compressor
responds to an increase in rotational speed.

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4rd International Symposium on Innovative Aerial/Space Flyer Systems, January 14-15, 2008,
“Unmanned Air Vehicle Turbo Rotary Engine Preliminary Component Tests”, Ibrahim Sinan Akmandor and Melih Okur

Compressor volumetric efficiency Vs. Pressure ratio

1
Compressor volumetric efficiency

0,9

0,8

0,7

0,6 750 RPM

1000 RPM
0,5
1600 RPM
0,4 2000 RPM

0,3

0,2

0,1

0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Single stage compressor pressure ratio

Figure 3: Rolling piston compressor volumetric efficency

C ompres s or non-dimens ional power vs . Non-dimens ional mas s flow rate

0,9

0,8
Non-dimens ional power

0,7

0,6 700R P M
1000R P M
0,5
1300R P M
0,4 1600R P M

0,3

0,2

0,1

0
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9

Non-dimens ional mas s flow rate

Figure 4: Rolling piston compressor performance map

The actual output air volume of the rolling piston type air-compressor depends on the design, the pressure ratio,
leakage amount, eccentricity, geometry data, and rotational speed.

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4rd International Symposium on Innovative Aerial/Space Flyer Systems, January 14-15, 2008,
“Unmanned Air Vehicle Turbo Rotary Engine Preliminary Component Tests”, Ibrahim Sinan Akmandor and Melih Okur

5b: Rotary Turbine Experimental Mass Flow Performance

Preliminary cold test of a rolling piston type turbine has been undertaken. By changing the amount of the air
supply, the turbine speed can also be changed (Fig.5). The turbine load is also another parameter that affects
turbine speed. The following figure shows the non-dimensional mass flow rate vs. rotor tangential speed (RPM).

Turbine non-dimensional mass flow vs. RPM

1
Non-dimensional Mass flow rate

0,9

0,8 3.5 Bar

5 Bar
5.5 Bar
0,7 6 Bar

0,6

0,5
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
RPM

Figure 5: Rolling piston turbine mass flow performance curves

7 Combustor Design
Two other important aspects of combustor design have been primary-zone recirculation and flame stabilization.
The design of the unsteady small low rate combustor is rather a new problem that has been largely been
processed by trial and error. It is important to determine combustor geometric size with respect to the available
volume for reasonably good combustion characteristics on kerosene fuel.

For these small combustors, a correct balance of several cooling techniques is also very important. Impingement
cooling of the hot gases and the combustion-chamber inner walls by air jets has been a predominant technique in
the primary and secondary zone of the combustor. Film-cooling techniques have been used extensively in the
tertiary zone and around the transition piece before turbine inlet nozzle assembly.

Figure 6: Combustor inner sleeve

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4rd International Symposium on Innovative Aerial/Space Flyer Systems, January 14-15, 2008,
“Unmanned Air Vehicle Turbo Rotary Engine Preliminary Component Tests”, Ibrahim Sinan Akmandor and Melih Okur

6. CONCLUSIONS
A rotary vane engine of 1.5 kW based on a novel thermodynamic cycle has been designed for small unmanned
air vehicles. Preliminary experimental results show that the new engine can achieve high performance figures in
power, specific fuel consumption and torque. There are still many steps ahead before solving engineering
problems related to rotating component matching, inlet, exhaust, high pressure fuel injection and ignition,
lubrication, cooling and noise.

References
1. Smith D.G. and Rudge, P.G., “Pressure-Volume Diagrams for Sliding Vane Rotary Compressors”,
Proc. Instn. Mech. Engineers, Vol.184 Pt3R, Paper 17, (1970), 159-166.
2. Chou, Y., “Rotary Vane Engine”, USPTO 5,352,295, (October 4th 1994).
3. Vading, K., “Rotary-Piston Machine”, PCT WO 02/31318, (April 18th 2002).
4. LAI, J.H., “Stage Combustion Rotary Engine”, USPTO 5,596,963, (January 28th 1997).
5. O’Brien, T.J., and O’Brien, K.J.,”A Vane Type Rotary Engine”, PCT WO 99/041141,
(January 28th 1999).
6. Macomber, B.D., “Rotary Stirling Cycle Engine”, USPTO 5,335,497, (August 9th 1994).
7. Testea, G., “Rotary Engine System”, USPTO 5,235,945, (August 17th 1993).
8. Kawaguchi, S., “Rolling piston type compressor”, USPTO 4,537,567, (Aug. 27, 1985)
9. Haggerty, D., M., “Rolling piston rotary compressor”, USPTO 4,219,314, (August 26, 1980)
10. Hirahara, T., Ishijima, K., Fumiaki, S., Wada, F., Asami, K., Sugihara, M., “Differential pressure
lubrication system for rolling piston compressor”, USPTO 4,624,630, (Nov. 25, 1986)
11. Da Costa, C.N.F.N., “Rotary rolling piston compressor with fixed vane having a relieved incline
section”, USPTO 5,007,813, (Apr. 16, 1991)
12. Yoshida, K ., “Rolling piston type compressor”, USPTO 4,472,122, (Sept. 18, 1984,)
13. Wood, M.W., “Method for manufacturing a rolling piston rotary compressor”, USPTO 4,782,569,
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14. Kruse, D.C., “Internal Combustion Engine with Limited Temperature Cycle”, USPTO, 5,566,650,
(October 22nd 1996).
15. Akmandor, I. S., Erzöz, N., “Turbo-Rotary Compound Propulsion Engine”, TR 2006 03859B, Turkish
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16. Duncan, R.J., “Rotary Machine and Thermal Cycle”, PCT WO 02/090738, (November 14th 2002).
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