page_title: Wankel engine
hierarchical_section_title: Wankel engine
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Wankelmotor (vermutlich Mazda 13B) im Deutschen Museum, München English: A Wankel engine in Deutsches Museum (Munich, Germany)
context_page_description: The Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion.
  Compared to the reciprocating piston engine, the Wankel engine has more uniform torque and less vibration and, for a given power, is more compact and weighs less.
  The rotor, which creates the turning motion, is similar in shape to a Reuleaux triangle, except the sides have less curvature. Wankel engines deliver three power pulses per revolution of the rotor using the Otto cycle. However, the output shaft uses toothed gearing to turn three times faster giving one power pulse per revolution. This can be seen in the animation below. In one revolution, the rotor experiences power pulses and exhausts gas simultaneously, while the four stages of the Otto cycle occur at separate times. For comparison, in a two-stroke piston engine there is one power pulse for each crankshaft revolution and, in a four-stroke piston engine, one power pulse for every two revolutions.
context_section_description: The Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion.
  Compared to the reciprocating piston engine, the Wankel engine has more uniform torque and less vibration and, for a given power, is more compact and weighs less.
  The rotor, which creates the turning motion, is similar in shape to a Reuleaux triangle, except the sides have less curvature. Wankel engines deliver three power pulses per revolution of the rotor using the Otto cycle. However, the output shaft uses toothed gearing to turn three times faster giving one power pulse per revolution. This can be seen in the animation below. In one revolution, the rotor experiences power pulses and exhausts gas simultaneously, while the four stages of the Otto cycle occur at separate times. For comparison, in a two-stroke piston engine there is one power pulse for each crankshaft revolution (as with a Wankel engine output shaft) and, in a four-stroke piston engine, one power pulse for every two revolutions.
  The four-stage Otto cycle of intake, compression, ignition, and exhaust occurs each revolution of the rotor at each of the three rotor faces moving inside the oval-like epitrochoidal housing, enabling the three power pulses per rotor revolution.
  The definition of displacement applies to only one face of the rotor as only one face is working for each output shaft revolution.
  The engine is commonly referred to as a rotary engine, although this name is also applied to other completely different designs, including both ones with pistons and pistonless rotary engines.
caption: A Wankel engine with its rotor and geared output shaft.
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