Experimental Analysis of Blowby and Flow Field Interaction in a Motored Rotary Engine

An experimental study of the blowby past the apex seals and its controlling effect on the flow field was conducted in a motored rotary engine. A high speed flow visualization technique and laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) measurements were applied to analyze the blowby past two--piece and three-piece engine apex seals under motored conditions of 2000 rpm crank shaft speed. A light sheet from a 40 watt pulsed copper vapor laser was synchronized with a high speed rotating prism camera to record light scattered off microballoon particles onto motion picture films photographed at 5000 frames per second. A sequence of photographs is selected from the films to demonstrate the blowby characteristics past the apex seals and their effect on the flow field during the intake and compression strokes. Detailed LDA velocity measurements using propylene glycol as seeding particles, 0.6 μm in diameter, are also presented to quantify the blowby past the apex seals. Important aspects of the blowby and its interaction with the fluid motion are described. Experimental results demonstrated the existence of blowby for both two-piece and three-piece apex seals under the conditions selected.