SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE®

6220 CULEBRA ROAD i POST OFFICE DRAWER 28510 i SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, USA 78228-0510 i (210) 684-5111 i TELEX 244846
ENGINE, EMISSIONS & VEHICLE RESEARCH DIVISION http://engineandvehicle.swri.org
FAX: (210) 522-4581 ISO 9001 Certified
ISO 14001 Certified

January 11, 2007

Mr. Larry Chasin

CEO, Rotodyne Engines, LLC
66 Mount Prospect Avenue
Clifton, NJ 07013

VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS and E-mail to: Larry@rotodyneengines.com

Subject: Southwest Research Institute Project No. 03.12846, “A Preliminary

Assessment of the Rotodyne Engine Concept”

Dear Mr. Chasin:

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is pleased to submit the final report for this project.
If you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at
(210) 522-5876 or by e-mail at treinhart@swri.org.

Prepared by: Reviewed by:

Thomas E. Reinhart Mark A. Tussing

Program Manager Senior Program Manager
Engine Design and Development Engine Design and Development
Department of Engine and Emissions Research Department of Engine and Emissions Research

Approved by:

Jeff J. White
Director of Development
Department of Engine and Emissions Research
Engine, Emissions and Vehicle Research Division

/cmm D:\Bonnie\03 Projects\12846 Rotodyne\12846 Rotodyne Final Report tr.doc

Enclosure

S A N A N T O N I O , T E X A S i HOUSTON, TEXAS

DETROIT, MI i ANN ARBOR, MI i WASHINGTON, DC

A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THE
ROTODYNE ENGINE CONCEPT

FINAL REPORT

SwRI® Project No. 03.12846

Prepared for

Mr. Larry Chasin

Rotodyne Engines, LLC
66 Mt. Prospect Ave.
Clifton, NJ 07013

January 2007

This report must be reproduced in full, unless

®
SwRI approves a summary or abridgement.

S O U T H W E S T R E S E A R C H I N S T I T U T E®
SAN ANTONIO,TX HOUSTON, TX ANN ARBOR, MI WASHINGTON, DC
 A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THE
ROTODYNE ENGINE CONCEPT

FINAL REPORT

SwRI Project No. 03.12846

Prepared for:

Mr. Larry Chasin

Rotodyne Engines, LLC
66 Mt. Prospect Ave.
Clifton, NJ 07013

Prepared by: Reviewed by:

Thomas E. Reinhart Mark A. Tussing

Program Manager Senior Program Manager
Engine Design and Development Engine Design and Development
Department of Engine and Emissions Research Department of Engine and Emissions Research

January 2007

This report must be reproduced in full,

unless SwRI approves a summary
Approved: or abridgement.

________________________________
Jeff J. White
Director of Development
Department of Engine and Emissions Research
Engine, Emissions and Vehicle Research Division D:\Bonnie\03 Projects\12846 Rotodyne\12846 Rotodyne Final Report tr.doc
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
1.0 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................... 1

2.0 OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................... 1

3.0 THERMODYNAMIC EVALUATION .......................................................................... 2

4.0 MECHANICAL EVALUATION .................................................................................... 4

4.1 Mechanical Design Review Limitations .......................................................................... 4
4.2 Range of Piston Motion .................................................................................................... 5
4.3 Rotating Inertia Issues...................................................................................................... 5
4.4 Sealing and Fluid Transport ............................................................................................ 5
4.5 Structural Stiffness ........................................................................................................... 6
4.6 Cooling and Lube System................................................................................................. 6
4.7 Manufacturing and Assembly Issues .............................................................................. 7
4.8 Exhaust System ................................................................................................................. 7
4.9 Packaging........................................................................................................................... 7
4.10 Vibration Due to Modified Piston Motion ...................................................................... 8
5.0 RECOMMENDED DEVELOPMENT PATH ............................................................... 8
5.1 Thermodynamic Evaluation ............................................................................................ 8
5.2 Concept Design and Analysis ........................................................................................... 9
5.3 Prototype Design, Analysis, Build, and Test................................................................. 10
5.4 Evaluation of Production Applications......................................................................... 11
5.5 Production Engine Design and Development ............................................................... 12
6.0 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................. 12

ii
1.0 BACKGROUND

Rotodyne Engines, LLC has contracted with Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) for an
evaluation of a new engine design concept. Conventional reciprocating engines provide a
defined piston motion which is determined by the crankshaft stroke and the length of the
connecting rod. The Rotodyne concept allows a wide range of variation in piston motion, which
offers potential benefits in terms of optimizing the combustion event for improved fuel economy
or emissions.

The Rotodyne concept engine is in the form of a barrel engine. Cylinders are arranged in
a circular pattern in a barrel-shaped block, and the pistons transfer load through connecting rods
into an angled torque plate. This basic layout is widely used in contemporary bent axis hydraulic
pumps and motors, and has been explored by a number of engine designers over the course of the
last century. Rotodyne has added a number of new features to the basic barrel engine layout
which allow a wide range of piston motion as a function of crankshaft (or output shaft) angle.
These features include:

• An offset between the centerline of the cylinder barrel and the center of the torque plate
• A tilt angle in the yaw and/or pitch planes between the centerline of the cylinders and the
centerline of the cylinder barrel
• A lead or lag between the location of the high point on the torque plate and the location
where the piston reaches TDC in a cylinder
• A tilt of the torque plate in both the X and Z planes, as well as a rotation of the torque plate
about the Y axis

A determination regarding feasibility of the Rotodyne concept depends on two main

issues:

1. Will the variable piston motion provide an improvement in fuel consumption and/or
emissions (the thermodynamic question)?
2. Is the mechanism proposed by Rotodyne for achieving the variable piston motion
technically feasible and practical (the mechanical question)?

This report contains the results of a preliminary evaluation of the Rotodyne engine
concept.

2.0 OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this project were outlined in SwRI Proposal No. 03-47551 to Rotodyne
Engines, LLC on October 4, 2006. These include:

• A basic thermodynamic assessment of the potential performance benefits on the concept

• A comparison to conventional engine design databases
• Some engine level design calculations
• A list and ranking of design barriers or issues that will be encountered in carrying the concept
forward into the development phase

1
 It should be noted that it is not within the scope of the project to perform any 1D or 3D
thermodynamic analysis, to perform any finite element stress analysis, or any other
computationally intensive simulation of the engine or any subsystems.

3.0 THERMODYNAMIC EVALUATION

Although the scope of the project did not include any thermodynamic simulation work,
SwRI was able to review work done by a third party, and SwRI has experience in modeling the
thermodynamic implications of variations in piston motion.

Changes in piston motion can be exploited to improve fuel economy or to reduce

emissions, particularly NOx emissions. Combinations of the two approaches are also possible.
If fuel economy is the principle objective, additional dwell can be added at top dead center to
produce an engine which comes close to the ideal of constant volume combustion. This
approach allows for the maximum work to be extracted from the combustion gas during the
expansion stroke. However, there are some potential drawbacks to constant volume combustion:

• High peak cylinder pressure (which requires a more robust structure)

• High peak rate of cylinder pressure rise (high combustion noise)
• High NOx formation
• Tendency to knock (for spark ignited fuels)
• Increased heat rejection to the piston and cylinder head

If low emissions are the principal objective, the ideal combustion mode would limit the
maximum temperature of combustion to a point just below the temperature where NOx
formation becomes rapid. This can also be considered as constant pressure combustion, since
pressure and temperature are closely related. To achieve constant temperature combustion, a
rapid expansion (piston downward motion) is required during the combustion event. This
approach achieves low NOx, low peak cylinder pressure, low rate of cylinder pressure rise, low
knock tendency, and lower heat rejection, all at the expense of higher fuel consumption. In
practice, it is desirable to combine the constant volume and constant temperature approaches,
using constant volume combustion up to the point where emissions become a problem, and then
switching to constant temperature combustion. Variable piston motion can be helpful in
achieving any of these approaches, since the conventional fixed geometry reciprocating engine
does not allow for optimization of piston motion to improve the combustion event.

SwRI has been able to review 1D thermodynamic modeling of the Rotodyne concept that
was performed by a third party. Several different piston motions were studied, but the evaluation
did not include any effect on emissions. The 1D model was used to predict the fuel octane
requirement. In our experience, absolute octane requirement predictions from a 1D model are
prone to significant error, especially in a case where model calibration data from a running
engine is not available.

2
 Several piston motion profiles were evaluated in the third party study. The third party
simulations predict an indicated thermal efficiency of 35 to 37% for a 3600 RPM, full load
operating condition. The third party simulation of a conventional engine operating at the same
condition predicted an indicated thermal efficiency of 29%. This analysis shows the Rotodyne
concept having a potential advantage in indicated thermal efficiency of 6 to 8 points. In terms of
percentage, the indicated thermal efficiency advantage of the Rotodyne concept over a
conventional engine was 20 to 27%. These are substantial benefits, but there is no information
on the emissions impact, and not enough information to fully review the fuel efficiency findings.
The available information on the third party analysis does not include sufficient data on
boundary conditions and assumptions, which would be required to allow comparison to data
available at SwRI.

The third party 1D simulations predict a much shorter combustion duration for the
Rotodyne concept (22 to 23 degrees) than for the conventional engine (35 degrees). This
difference in combustion duration would dramatically improve the thermal efficiency of any
engine, independent of piston motion. The faster burn rate for several alternative Rotodyne
piston motions is attributed to an increase in piston dwell near TDC, which causes the
combustion event to approach a constant volume burn. It must be noted that 1D models provide
reliable predictions of burn rate only when they operate in a range close to one calibrated by
actual engine data. This is because burn rate is largely determined by localized turbulence, and
1D models use empirical models to estimate local turbulence. There is a significant risk that
predictions of burn rate for alternative piston motions from a 1D model will have significant
error, since 1D models depend to a large extent on empirical data from engines close to the
model. Therefore, a clear understanding of and verification of this faster combustion event must
be provided to obtain confidence in the third party’s predicted efficiency improvements.

From a thermodynamic point of view, having flexibility in the selection of piston motion
profiles definitely can provide an advantage over the conventional reciprocating engine. There is
no one ideal piston motion that can be analytically determined. The optimum piston motion
depends on the emissions requirements, combustion system characteristics, and control strategy.
The advantages of piston motion flexibility do not come without trade-offs, as described above,
but in general having design flexibility is better than not having it.

A large number of technologies have been developed over the years to improve the
thermodynamic efficiency of conventional reciprocating engines. Many of these ideas could be
applied to the Rotodyne concept, such as roller valve followers, variable valve timing, accurate
control of air/fuel ratio, combustion chamber designs, the use of a lean burn combustion system,
the use of thermal insulation in the cylinder to reduce heat transfer, etc. Other technologies
developed for conventional engines would require revision or may not be applicable to the
Rotodyne concept, such as lower friction pistons, rings, bearings, and variable tuned intake
systems used to increase volumetric efficiency. In some cases, the application of efficiency
technologies developed for conventional engines to the Rotodyne concept may provide larger
improvements than in a conventional engine. In other cases, the benefit to the Rotodyne concept
may be less than in a conventional engine.

3
 Rotodyne has suggested that thermal insulation of the piston and cylinder head may be
much more effective in the concept engine than it is in conventional engines. Rotodyne has also
suggested that the concept engine would be more tolerant of lean burn operation than a
conventional engine. There is not enough data at this time to evaluate these suggestions, but
thermodynamic simulation will be able to quantify the effects of including these efficiency
features as well as other design features.

The simulation work done so far is not adequate to determine the degree of
thermodynamic advantage available from the Rotodyne concept, but it is clear that having
flexibility in defining piston motion can have thermodynamic advantages. Based on the data
available at this time, there appears to be enough potential to warrant further investigation into
the efficiency and emissions advantages of alternative piston motion concepts.

4.0 MECHANICAL EVALUATION

Rotodyne Engines, LLC has produced a large number of design sketches and drawings
which cover several generations of the concept. SwRI held two concept design reviews with the
latest versions of the concept design. The results of the concept design reviews were
documented in an Excel spreadsheet which has been provided to Rotodyne separately.

The first and most basic question asked in the design reviews was: are there any aspects
of the concept that violate laws of physics or are otherwise not feasible? In situations where
such issues were found, the follow-up question was: how difficult would it be to overcome the
problem? As with any new engine design (even conventional designs), there is a list of design
issues that needs to be addressed in order to achieve success. SwRI used normal design review
practice to evaluate the severity of issues and estimate the difficulty of overcoming the issues.
Details of the design review results can be found in the Excel spreadsheet which has been
provided to Rotodyne.

4.1 Mechanical Design Review Limitations

One serious limitation affected the mechanical design reviews. The Rotodyne concept in
its current form is not an engineered design. The many design sketches and models are strictly
conceptual. There are no dimensions to the drawings, and in many cases critical features are
missing or inadequately described, such as part thickness, bolted joints, passages for lube and
coolant, intake and exhaust ports, etc. Some of these issues have been partially addressed during
the review process, but there is still not a fully engineered design to review. This makes it
impossible to determine whether all the required features can be integrated into the design
without significantly changing the concept. There has been no effort to this point to determine
the forces which will be applied to the structure or to analyze the structure’s ability to withstand
those forces. Therefore, the design review cannot provide results in terms of “this part will fail”
or “this part will perform as intended”. SwRI can only apply engineering experience and
judgment to list parts of the design that appear at risk, and to estimate the difficulty of
overcoming the issues.

4
4.2 Range of Piston Motion

One fundamental question about the mechanical design is whether the Rotodyne concept
is capable of producing a wide range of piston motion options. A related question is whether the
design tools developed by Rotodyne can accurately predict the piston motion for a given set of
design parameters. SwRI did not attempt to independently model the piston motion of the
concept design, but Rotodyne has provided enough information to provide confidence that the
design tools do accurately predict the piston motion. Piston motion has been calculated with the
Rotodyne Excel spreadsheet, a Matlab model, Solidworks, and an Abaqus model. All four
modeling approaches predicted the same piston motion for a given set of design parameters.
Rotodyne has also demonstrated that a wide range of piston motions are possible with the
concept. There will be limitations on the range of available piston motion, imposed by
geometric and stress related constraints, but the available range of piston motions appears to be
substantial.

4.3 Rotating Inertia Issues

The Rotodyne concept includes the idea that the cylinder block and head will rotate at
engine speed with the output shaft, while the torque plate position will be fixed with respect to an
external reference. This introduces a number of issues that may prove difficult to resolve in a
cost-effective manner. One issue is that the large rotating inertia will produce a gyroscopic
effect. This issue was one of the main deficiencies that resulted in the elimination of rotary
(rotating block and head) aircraft engines after 1920, but in a ground vehicle the problem will be
less dramatic. Simulations can be made to determine if the gyroscopic effect would have a
significant effect on vehicle handling or on engine mount loading. A second issue with having
such a large inertia rotating at high speed is that balance of the engine assembly will become
critical to avoid large rotating imbalance forces. Maintaining balance requires not just balancing
of the mechanical components. Liquids such as lubricating oil must also be dispersed through
the engine in a predictable manner to avoid creation of large and unpredictable imbalance forces.
The low frequency vibration associated with rotating imbalance (called 1st order or once per rev
vibration) is very difficult to isolate from a vehicle structure, so severe demands will be placed
on the engine mount designers to arrive at a solution that provides adequate isolation while
controlling the position of the engine in the vehicle.

A third issue caused by the high rotational inertia of the Rotodyne concept is transient
response. It will take much more time to change engine speed than with an equivalent
displacement (or output) conventional engine. It may be possible to develop applications where
this issue is not a problem, but this issue must be kept in mind when considering applications for
the Rotodyne concept.

4.4 Sealing and Fluid Transport

One result of the concept design where the cylinder block and head rotate is that all gases
and fluids going in and out of the engine need to pass through rotating seals. An exception is
fuel, which goes into a non-rotating intake system. Intake air, exhaust, coolant, and lube oil must
all pass through or surround rotating seals. Development of these seals to achieve good
durability and leak-free performance will be an engineering challenge.

5
 Electric power as well as control and sensor signals will also have to make the transition
between fixed and rotating portions of the concept engine. There are established engineering
solutions for getting electrical power and signals across a rotating joint, but there will be
engineering challenges to achieve the desired reliability and durability.

4.5 Structural Stiffness

The engine structure must be strong enough to deal with the applied forces, such as
cylinder pressure, rotating imbalance, and gyroscopic forces. Some of these forces are different
from those encountered in a conventional design. For example, any deflection of the engine
structure in response to a rotating imbalance force will cause an increased imbalance force,
which in turn would feed back into more deflection, so a very stiff structure is essential. The
structural concept is entirely new and very different from a conventional engine. Since there has
been no engineering design work done to date, it is impossible to determine whether the concept
structure can successfully deal with the forces that will be applied. Significant design and
analysis work is required to determine the forces that will be generated, and to develop a
structure capable of handling the forces, while retaining the piston motion flexibility of the
concept engine. There is no guarantee that a successful structure can be achieved without
significantly altering the current design concept.

4.6 Cooling and Lube System

The original Rotodyne concept included air cooling. SwRI recommends against air
cooling, for a number of reasons. One issue is that air cooling makes it very hard to achieve
adequate cooling of critical components. As a result, air cooled engines offer lower power
potential than liquid cooled engines. A second issue is that air cooling requires a blower, which
absorbs significantly more power than a water pump and radiator cooling fan. The blower
required by an air cooled engine therefore reduces thermal efficiency compared to a liquid
cooled design. A third issue is that many applications involve operation in a wide range of
ambient temperatures under a wide range of loads. With liquid cooling, it is possible to maintain
relatively high engine temperatures at light loads (which increases efficiency) while preventing
excessive temperatures under high load, high ambient temperature conditions (which is essential
for durability). It is very difficult to achieve anywhere near the desired level of temperature
control with air cooling over the expected range of loads and ambient temperatures.

Another aspect of the original Rotodyne concept was convection-driven liquid cooling
(no water pump). SwRI recommends against this approach, because it is very difficult to achieve
the required cooling in specific areas such as the valve bridge without a forced coolant flow. It is
also difficult to obtain adequate heat transfer under high load conditions with convection cooling.
Convection cooling was widely used a century ago, but as the power density of engines
increased, convection cooling has disappeared from all but a few very low power engines made
in the third world.

Fortunately, the Rotodyne concept may be able to work with a conventional pressurized,
forced flow cooling system. There will be design challenges in getting the coolant in and out of
the rotating engine components without leaks.

6
 The initial Rotodyne concept had very little detail about the lubrication system. SwRI
would recommend going with a conventional design to the extent possible. One major design
challenge not faced by conventional engines is ensuring that each time the engine starts, the oil is
distributed in a way that does not generate significant rotating imbalance. In addition, at least
one rotating seal will be under the oil level at all times, providing a potential leak path. Another
lube system issue is scavenging. In a conventional engine, oil drains by gravity to the oil pan,
and only a single pickup tube to the oil pump is required. In the Rotodyne concept, oil will drain
to the bottom of the engine when it is not operating, but oil will disperse around the outside
perimeter of the rotating block and head during operation. The oil system must be able to
scavenge oil from several areas at once, and maintain an even distribution of oil at each location
in order to limit imbalance force generation.

4.7 Manufacturing and Assembly Issues

Considerable engineering effort will be required to manufacture some of the unique parts
required by the Rotodyne concept, as well as to determine how to assemble the parts.
Considerable care must be taken to avoid a situation where the design is impossible to assemble
or service. How will a shop mechanic take the engine apart and reassemble it in a reasonable
time and without introducing problems such as engine imbalance? The extent of these potential
issues cannot be determined at present, due to the lack of detail in the concept at this time.

4.8 Exhaust System

The current Rotodyne concept has long exhaust runners from each exhaust port which
run down the length of the engine to a rotating seal at the base of the engine. The exhaust
runners rotate with the engine barrel. This poses several design issues:

• Heat rejection from the runners will cause excessive heat buildup in the engine compartment,
reducing the durability of hoses, sensors, wiring, and electronic control modules
• Heat loss from the exhaust runners will reduce the catalyst operating temperature, unless
individual close coupled catalysts are used at each cylinder
• Achieving durability and leak-free performance from the rotating exhaust seal will be a
challenge
• Balancing of the exhaust system will be critical, since the exhaust is far from the engine’s
center of rotation

Alternative design approaches should be considered to minimize these exhaust system

thermal issues

4.9 Packaging

The present design concept lacks many details that will need to be included in an
engineering design. Bosses, bolted joints, lube and cooling passages, wall thicknesses, intake
and exhaust port designs, accessories, and other features must be included in a realistic design.
There may be some significant engineering challenges associated with making all of these
features fit successfully into the new Rotodyne concept.

7
4.10 Vibration Due To Modified Piston Motion

Standard reciprocating engines do not have sinusoidal piston motion, and as a result they
suffer from vibration issues. Perhaps the best known vibration issue with conventional engines
is the second order vertical motion of inline 4 cylinder engines, which is caused by the difference
between acceleration of the piston and rod at the top of the stroke, compared to acceleration at
the bottom of the stroke. The difference in acceleration at the top and bottom of the stroke
results in unbalanced forces on the engine. These forces cause the engine to vibrate up and down
twice per revolution, hence the term second order vibration. Balance shafts are widely used in
the industry to deal with this issue.

With the Rotodyne concept, a wide range of piston motion is possible. This wide range
of motion also means that a wide range of unbalanced forces and moments can be created.
Depending on the piston motion selected, some of these forces will be difficult or impossible to
balance with any existing technology. Modeling will be required to determine the vibration
effect of alternative piston motions. As the range of available piston motion is explored, it is
likely that there will be tradeoffs between performance (emissions and fuel consumption) and
vibration.

5.0 RECOMMENDED DEVELOPMENT PATH

Developing a new engine concept to reach the point where it is ready for production is a
long and expensive process. Because there is a high risk of encountering engineering issues that
cannot be satisfactorily resolved without changing the concept, it is a good idea to approach the
development in a planned manner. The plan should be defined in a way to flush out potential
issues early in the process, and to determine if the concept is feasible, or if it needs to be revised.
Only when the preliminary design and analysis work shows that the concept is likely to work
should the investment be made in creating running prototypes. Fortunately, with modern
modeling and analysis tools, a lot can be learned about a design concept before any hardware is
created.

5.1 Thermodynamic Evaluation

The key to the Rotodyne concept is the idea that significant thermodynamic advantages
can be achieved by creating a design that allows a choice of piston motion as a function of output
shaft angle. SwRI recommends that further evaluation of the Rotodyne concept begin by
determining the extent of thermodynamic advantage that can be obtained. This can be
approached in the following way:

• Select basic parameters such as power, BMEP, and speed

• Select a combustion strategy (spark ignited or compression ignited, stoichiometric or lean,
homogeneous or stratified charge, etc.)
• Determine the displacement required
• Determine cylinder pressure profile for the baseline piston motion

8
• Build a 1D thermodynamic model of the engine and a 3D CFD model of the combustion
chamber
• Use the 3D CFD model interactively with the 1D model to predict the fuel burn rate profile,
NOx formation, knock tendencies and heat rejection of alternative piston motions. The 1D
model will be used to determine breathing and flow effects, as well as to verify heat rejection
• Explore countermeasures to any issues that are found (for example, the use of ceramic
coatings to control heat rejection to the piston and head)
• Determine the extent of possible fuel consumption and emissions advantages that can be
achieved with different piston motion

It may be desirable to explore more than one basic combustion strategy. For example,
Rotodyne may want to explore both a standard stoichiometric combustion system and a lean burn
system, in order to better understand the potential of the new concept compared to conventional
engines. In order to control cost and avoid dilution of engineering effort, we suggest evaluating
one basic combustion strategy first, and then determining if any alternatives need to be
evaluated. At the end of the thermodynamic evaluation, a decision would be made on whether
the advantages of the Rotodyne concept are sufficient to justify additional design and analysis
work.

5.2 Concept Design and Analysis

If the thermodynamic evaluation is sufficiently encouraging, the next step is to develop

and analyze a concept design. This will be an iterative process that will take significant time and
resources. Early in the process, assumptions must be made to get a starting point for modeling
the forces applied to the system. As the design evolves to meet the requirements, the forces will
change, requiring a reevaluation of the forces each time there is a revision to the design. Once
new forces are determined, the design may need to be revised to accommodate the new forces. It
is impossible to predict the number of design iterations that will be required, because the concept
is so different from a conventional engine design.

It is possible that at some point in the concept design and analysis process, a fundamental
problem will be encountered that cannot be overcome without making a significant revision to
the existing Rotodyne concept. It is not possible with existing information to quantify the
probability of encountering such a problem. If this situation is encountered, a review should be
held to consider design alternatives and determine whether one or more alternatives are attractive
enough to evaluate further.

SwRI recommends that whenever possible, Rotodyne adhere to standard engine design
practices. The key potential advantage for Rotodyne is the ability to vary piston motion. It is
important to focus on this key, and not get distracted by other design features that may be
interesting to explore, but which are not the key to the success or failure of the concept. Adding
more unique features to the concept will exponentially decrease the probability that the overall
concept can be developed successfully. Conventional engines have a long development history,
with a lot of effort to optimize features for performance, reliability, and cost. The use of as many
conventional features as possible will allow Rotodyne to take advantage of the huge investment
already made in conventional engine technology.

9
 The recommended concept design and analysis process is:

• Perform a full system kinematic and force analysis on the current concept to determine the
loads each component will experience. This will require making estimates of component size
and weight before conducting the analysis. The analysis will include cylinder pressure
forces, dynamic forces, load paths, and resulting mechanical loads
• Design and analyze the center shaft structure. Determine the size and configuration required
to support the expected loads
• Design and analyze the torque plate, gears, shafts and bearings. Determine the size and
configuration required to support the expected loads
• Design and analyze the cylinder barrel, cylinders, and bolted joints
• Design and analyze the pistons & rings, connecting rods, joints and bearings
• Design and analyze the cylinder head, intake and exhaust ports and systems, and valve train
• Include cooling and lube system design in the above tasks. Consider approaches for
minimizing rotating imbalance due to coolant and lube oil distribution in the engine
• Design and analyze the engine support structure and mounting system

At the end of the concept design and analysis process, a review should be held to
determine whether the concept is feasible and ready for further development. It may be
necessary to explore a number of ideas to resolve issues found during the design and analysis, so
the cost and time frame for this process is open ended. At some point, it could become clear that
there are no practical ways to implement the concept, and the project would be closed. If the
concept design and analysis is successful in identifying a feasible design, the next step would be
to design and build a working prototype engine.

5.3 Prototype Design, Analysis, Build, and Test

The concept design would be revised to include all details required to make a functioning
engine. This may require some additional design and analysis iterations based on the concept
design outlined above. After approval at a final design review, prototype parts would be
acquired and a prototype engine built. SwRI recommends that more than one prototype be built,
and that spare parts be acquired. This allows more than one type of testing to run in parallel, and
provides backups in case of premature failures.

There are some aspects of engine design that cannot be fully addressed by simulation and
modeling. One of these aspects is sealing. Since sealing is critical to the success of the
Rotodyne concept, SwRI expects that a significant amount of testing and development effort will
be required to achieve adequate seal performance and durability.

10
 At the end of the prototype test program, a review would be held to determine if the
results justify development of a production prototype. It is likely that the testing will identify
issues that will require some additional design, analysis, and testing effort to resolve. There may
be an issue that cannot be resolved at this stage of the project, given a reasonable investment in
engineering resources. If the prototype testing shows sufficient potential, the project would
move on to the next stage.

In many projects of this nature, by this stage the development company would try to find
a large customer to share in the development or license the technology. Potential customers will
be interested the advantages and disadvantages of the new concept, and will take a hard look at
cost and complexity when considering whether the technology is ready for production
applications.

5.4 Evaluation of Production Applications

There should be some idea about potential applications from the early concept phase,
because different applications will drive different priorities in the design. Rotodyne has in mind
an application in gasoline/electric hybrid vehicles. The application must allow for the engine to
operate at a relatively constant speed, due to the large rotating inertia. One option for a hybrid
vehicle application would be to use the engine only to charge the system batteries, and use
electric motors to handle all the vehicle drive requirements. This hybrid approach would suite
the Rotodyne engine very well, allowing the engine to run at constant speed at the operating
point providing best efficiency. Another option is to use a CVT to allow the Rotodyne engine to
assist in or take over the vehicle drive function as required. This is the approach used by the
Toyota Prius, for example. The Prius engine operates at varying speeds to match the vehicle
drive cycle requirement, however. With the Rotodyne, at low vehicle speeds the transient
response issue is likely to require an all-electric drive arrangement, unless a very wide
transmission ratio range is made available. Fortunately, electric motors are very good at
providing high torque at low speed.

Because the Rotodyne concept has some characteristics which are significantly different
from conventional engines, careful study would be required to determine the application
configurations most likely to be successful. Fortunately, there is a wide range of modeling and
analysis tools available to help evaluate the performance of a new engine concept in a wide range
of applications. It is possible to look at packaging, cooling issues, vibration, performance, and
fuel consumption before the decision is made to build a production prototype.

If applications can be found where the Rotodyne concept offers significant advantages
over conventional engines, and where the disadvantages can be successfully mitigated, the next
step would be to develop a production engine. A design review at this stage is likely to include
participation by development partners, licensees and/or potential customers for the new engine.

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5.5 Production Engine Design and Development

By this stage of development, a production application would be identified. A significant

amount of simulation work would be done to optimize the application to work well with the
characteristics of the new engine, and to determine the specifications of the new engine. The
prototype engine design would be modified to accommodate the requirements of the application,
and improvements would be incorporated based on experience with the prototype engines.
Given the novelty of the Rotodyne concept, it is expected that more than one round of production
prototype engines will be required to arrive at a satisfactory production solution.

6.0 CONCLUSIONS

The Rotodyne engine concept offers the potential of significant efficiency and/or
emissions advantages over conventional engines, because of the flexibility in defining piston
motion as a function of output shaft angle. SwRI recommends further study of the
thermodynamic potential of the Rotodyne concept to determine the extent of the potential
performance advantages.

As would be expected of any complex new mechanical concept, the Rotodyne engine has
a number of mechanical issues that need to be addressed before a running engine could be built.
SwRI’s evaluation of the existing concept did not reveal any problems with no known solutions,
but the lack of detail in the current level concept design may mean that there are problems with
the concept that do not have practical engineering solutions. Only further design and analysis
work can determine whether the concept is mechanically feasible, and whether the design could
be produced at an acceptable cost. SwRI has outlined in this report a process for doing the
design and analysis work required to determine the feasibility of the mechanical concept.

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