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Re:How the Upcoming Mazda RX-9 Will Keep the Spirit of the R... by HPsquared on Tuesday October 03, 2023 @11:24AM (#37753140)
I wonder if they could use multiple rotors in series, like a gas turbine engine does with stages of compression/expansion, to improve efficiency.

A "compression" rotor, a "combustion" rotor and an "expansion rotor" perhaps? That would give more chance to extract useful work and a lower exhaust temperature.

Still have a lot of thermal losses though (lots of surface area in all those combustion chambers, and a long residence time of the hot gases allowing heat transfer to happen... not ideal)

Re:How the Upcoming Mazda RX-9 Will Keep the Spirit of the R... by KMag on Tuesday October 03, 2023 @12:18PM (#37753940)
This has been done in order to make a Diesel Wankel (a Mercedes prototype engine, IIRC), since there's a fundamental upper limit on the compression ratio of a Wankel rotor, which isn't high enough for a reasonably running Diesel. Though, the "compression rotor" and "expansion rotor" were the same rotor. A pair of ports allowed the lower pressure rotor to empty itself at peak compression into the intake of the higher pressure rotor. The higher pressure rotor exhausted itself into that same high-compression space of the low pressure rotor for a second expansion.

Note that the original Wankel rotor invention was a supercharger for a piston engine, so it's use in staged compression was thought of from the beginning.

Re:How the Upcoming Mazda RX-9 Will Keep the Spirit of the R... by KMag on Tuesday October 03, 2023 @05:46PM (#37758013)
Too late to edit, but it was Rolls Royce trying to stage Wankel rotors for a Diesel engine, not Mercedes. The Mercedes (Daimler-Benz) attempt was a modified rotor shape to increase compression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_Diesel_engine