Aug 21, 2020 21:00:00

A movie that makes a rotary engine that rotates like a real thing with Lego

Akiyuki, who creates a huge ball rolling and robot arm using Lego blocks, has released a movie of a model of a rotary engine made with Lego. You can not only reproduce the shape, but also see how the 'triangular rotor' unique to the rotary engine rotates.

Lego Rotary Engine (Wankel Engine)-YouTube


The rotor is made by combining three blocks with yellow blocks.

The rotor of a rotary engine has the shape of a '

reuleaux triangle ' that looks like an equilateral triangle slightly inflated.

This rotor is mounted on an

eccentric shaft that rotates with a motor. The red rod part where the rotor is attached is designed to shift the center of the rotor from the rotating shaft of the motor.

Attach the gear to the rotor.

The rotor gear has 36 teeth, the stationary gear has 24 teeth, and the tooth ratio is 3:2.

As the eccentric rotor rotates, the shape drawn by the vertices becomes as shown below.

The side housing looks like this. There is a proper intake (exhaust port) and exhaust (exhaust port).

Install the corner seal on the rotor by combining the rotor and side housing.

Then, install the rotor housing assembled so that it has the same shape as the shape of the apex. This rotor housing is the part that corresponds to the

cylinder in a general reciprocating engine.

This completes the engine assembly. According to Akiyuki,

' I modeled the Mazda 13B-MSP 'RENESIS' engine '.

The mechanism of the rotary engine is like this. First, a mixed gas of gasoline and air is burned by a spark plug.

The expansion energy at the time of combustion causes the rotor to rotate, but at the same time, the combusted gas is exhausted from the exhaust.

Then, air is sucked from the intake port...

It is mixed with gasoline and compressed. The rotary engine operates by repeating this 'expansion' 'exhaust' 'intake' 'compression' cycle.

In addition, LED parts that glow red when pressed are available.

Attach it to the side housing, and also attach a mechanism that periodically pushes the LED parts according to the rotation of the shaft.

Then, it started to glow red in the area where it burned and expanded.

When the rotor housing was actually installed and rotated, it was produced as if the mixed gas was really burning.