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V engine

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V-twin motorcycle engine (circa 1910)V6 car engine (circa 1990)
V-twin motorcycle engine (circa 1910)
V-twin motorcycle engine (circa 1910)V6 car engine (circa 1990)
V6 car engine (circa 1990)

A V engine, sometimes called a Vee engine, is a common configuration for internal combustion engines. It consists of two cylinder banks—usually with the same number of cylinders in each bank—connected to a common crankshaft. These cylinder banks are arranged at an angle to each other, so that the banks form a "V" shape when viewed from the front of the engine.

V engines typically have a shorter length than equivalent inline engines, however the trade-off is a larger width. V6, V8 and V12 engines are the most common layout for automobile engines with 6, 8 or 12 cylinders respectively.

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Engine configuration

Engine configuration

The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized.

Internal combustion engine

Internal combustion engine

An internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine. The force is typically applied to pistons, turbine blades, a rotor, or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into kinetic energy which is used to propel, move or power whatever the engine is attached to. This replaced the external combustion engine for applications where the weight or size of an engine were more important.

Cylinder bank

Cylinder bank

Piston engines are usually arranged so that the cylinders are in lines parallel to the crankshaft. Where they are in a single line, this is referred to as a straight engine.

Crankshaft

Crankshaft

A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecting rods.

Straight engine

Straight engine

The straight engine is a piston engine where all of the cylinders are aligned in a row along the crankshaft.

V6 engine

V6 engine

A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.

V8 engine

V8 engine

A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.

V12 engine

V12 engine

A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines.

History

The first V engine, a two-cylinder V-twin, was designed by Wilhelm Maybach and used in the 1889 Daimler Stahlradwagen automobile.[1]

The first V8 engine was produced in 1903, in the form of the Antoinette engine designed by Léon Levavasseur for racing boats and airplanes.[2][3] The first V12 engine was produced the following year by Putney Motor Works in London, again for use in racing boats.[4] The first V6 engine to reach production appeared soon after in 1908, by the Deutz Gasmotoren Fabrik in Germany for use as a generator for gasoline-electric railway engines.[5] However, it was not until 1950 that the V6 engine was used in series production automobiles, with the first example being the Lancia V6 engine.[5] This V6 engine used a 60-degree V angle and separate crankpins for each cylinder, to reduce the vibration issues experienced by earlier attempts at production V6 engines.

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Daimler Stahlradwagen

Daimler Stahlradwagen

The Stahlradwagen was Gottlieb Daimler's second motor car.

Antoinette (manufacturer)

Antoinette (manufacturer)

Antoinette was a French manufacturer of light petrol engines. Antoinette also became a pioneer-era builder of aeroplanes before World War I, most notably the record-breaking monoplanes flown by Hubert Latham and René Labouchère. Based in Puteaux, the Antoinette concern was in operation between 1903 and 1912. The company operated a flying school at Chalons for which it built one of the earliest flight simulators.

Léon Levavasseur

Léon Levavasseur

Léon Levavasseur was a French powerplant engineer, aircraft designer and inventor. His innovations included the V8 engine, direct fuel injection, and liquid engine cooling. Primarily associated with the Antoinette company, he continued to experiment with aircraft design after the company went bankrupt.

Boat racing

Boat racing

Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other water-borne craft for as long as such watercraft have existed.

Airplane

Airplane

An airplane, or aeroplane, informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spectrum of uses for airplanes includes recreation, transportation of goods and people, military, and research. Worldwide, commercial aviation transports more than four billion passengers annually on airliners and transports more than 200 billion tonne-kilometers of cargo annually, which is less than 1% of the world's cargo movement. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled such as drones.

V12 engine

V12 engine

A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines.

London

London

London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised Greater London, which is governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority.

V6 engine

V6 engine

A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.

Deutz AG

Deutz AG

Deutz AG is a German internal combustion engine manufacturer, based in Porz, Cologne, Germany.

Germany

Germany

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of over 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

Locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the use of these self-propelled vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains, but rare for freight.

Lancia V6 engine

Lancia V6 engine

In 1950, Lancia introduced one of the world's first production V6 engines in the Lancia Aurelia. The engine was the work of Francesco De Virgilio and was developed to solve the vibration problems Lancia had experienced with its V4 engines. This was achieved by setting the vee angle to 60 degrees. It remained in production through 1970. Lancia used V6 engines in road and sports cars, the D20 had a 60 degree quad cam V6 2962 cc 217 bhp engine and the D24 3300 cc V6 engine.

Characteristics

Compared with an equivalent inline engine (the most common configuration for engines with less than six cylinders), a V engine has a shorter length but is wider. This effect increases with the number of cylinders in the engine; the length difference between a V-twin and straight-twin engines might be insignificant, however V8 engines have a significantly smaller length than straight engines.[6] Compared with the less common flat engine, a V engine is narrower, taller and has a higher center of mass.

V-angle illustrated by the yellow lines
V-angle illustrated by the yellow lines

The "V-angle" (or "included angle") between the cylinder banks varies significantly between engines. Some engines have used a V-angle of 180 degrees (the same angle as a flat engine), such as several Ferrari V12 engines.[7][8] At the other end of the scale, the 1922-1976 Lancia V4 engine and the 1991–present Volkswagen VR6 engine use V-angles as small as 10 degrees, along with a single cylinder head used by both banks of cylinders.

The engine balance of a V12 engines is that of perfect primary and secondary balance. For V engines with fewer cylinders, the engine balance will depend on factors such as the firing interval, crankshaft counterweights and whether balancer shafts are present.

The crankpins on a V engine are usually shared by two cylinders from opposing banks, with an offset between the two cylinders. Alternative configurations are separate crankpins per cylinder (such as several V-twin engines) or articulated connecting rods (for example, the such as the Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine).

Inverted engines

Argus As 10 inverted engine
Argus As 10 inverted engine

Some airplanes of the 1920s and 1930s used inverted engines, whereby the crankshaft is located at the top of the engine and the cylinder heads are at the bottom. Advantages include better visibility in a single-engined airplane, a higher thrust line, and resultant increased ground clearance for the propeller. Examples include the 1928 Argus As 10 V8 engine and the 1935 Daimler-Benz DB 601 V12 engines.

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Straight engine

Straight engine

The straight engine is a piston engine where all of the cylinders are aligned in a row along the crankshaft.

Flat engine

Flat engine

A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, whereby each cylinder has two pistons sharing a central combustion chamber.

Center of mass

Center of mass

In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may be applied to cause a linear acceleration without an angular acceleration. Calculations in mechanics are often simplified when formulated with respect to the center of mass. It is a hypothetical point where the entire mass of an object may be assumed to be concentrated to visualise its motion. In other words, the center of mass is the particle equivalent of a given object for application of Newton's laws of motion.

Cylinder bank

Cylinder bank

Piston engines are usually arranged so that the cylinders are in lines parallel to the crankshaft. Where they are in a single line, this is referred to as a straight engine.

Lancia V4 engine

Lancia V4 engine

Italian automobile company Lancia was the first to manufacture cars with V4 and V6 engines in series-production. This started with a number of V4-engine families, that were produced from the 1920s through 1970s.

VR6 engine

VR6 engine

The VR6 engines, commonly referred to as the “staggered six” is a 6-cylinder engine configuration developed by VW. The name VR6 comes from the combination of German words “Verkürzt” and “Reihenmotor” meaning “shortened inline engine”. It was developed specifically for transverse engine installations and FWD vehicles. The VR6 is a highly compact engine, thanks to the narrower angle of 10.5 to 15-degrees between cylinder banks, as opposed to the traditional V6 angles ranging from 45 to 90-degrees. The compact design is cheaper to manufacture, since only one cylinder head is required for all 6 cylinders, much like a traditional inline-6 engine.

Engine balance

Engine balance

Engine balance refers to how the forces are balanced within an internal combustion engine or steam engine. The most commonly used terms are primary balance and secondary balance. First-order balance and second-order balance are also used. Unbalanced forces within the engine can lead to vibrations.

Crankpin

Crankpin

A crankpin or crank pin, also known as a rod bearing journal, is a mechanical device in an engine which connects the crankshaft to the connecting rod for each cylinder. It has a cylindrical surface, to allow the crankpin to rotate relative to the "big end" of the connecting rod.

Connecting rod

Connecting rod

A connecting rod, also called a 'con rod', is the part of a piston engine which connects the piston to the crankshaft. Together with the crank, the connecting rod converts the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotation of the crankshaft. The connecting rod is required to transmit the compressive and tensile forces from the piston. In its most common form, in an internal combustion engine, it allows pivoting on the piston end and rotation on the shaft end.

Argus As 10

Argus As 10

The Argus As 10 was a German-designed and built, air-cooled 90° cylinder bank-angle inverted V8 "low power" aircraft engine, used mainly in training aircraft such as the Arado Ar 66 and Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stösser and other small short-range reconnaissance and communications aircraft like the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch during, and shortly after World War II. It was first built in 1928.

Daimler-Benz DB 601

Daimler-Benz DB 601

The Daimler-Benz DB 601 was a German aircraft engine built during World War II. It was a liquid-cooled inverted V12, and powered the Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Bf 110, and many others. Approximately 19,000 601's were produced before it was replaced by the improved Daimler-Benz DB 605 in 1942.

Specific configurations

V8 truck engineV12 Formula One engine from 1991
V8 truck engine
V8 truck engineV12 Formula One engine from 1991
V12 Formula One engine from 1991

It is common practice for V engines to be described with "V#" notation, where # represents the number of cylinders. Configurations of V engines which have reached production are as follows:

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V-twin engine

V-twin engine

A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a twocylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.

V3 engine

V3 engine

The V3 engine is a V engine with two cylinders in one bank and one cylinder in the other bank. It is a rare configuration, which has been mostly used in two-stroke engines for motorcycles competing in Grand Prix motorcycle racing.

V4 engine

V4 engine

A V4 engine is a four-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.

V5 engine

V5 engine

A V5 engine is a five-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.

V6 engine

V6 engine

A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.

V10 engine

V10 engine

A V10 engine is a ten-cylinder piston engine where two banks of five cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V10 engines are much less common than V8 and V12 engines. Several V10 diesel engines have been produced since 1965, and V10 petrol engines for road cars were first produced in 1991 with the release of the Dodge Viper.

V12 engine

V12 engine

A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines.

V14 engine

V14 engine

A V14 engine is a V engine with 14 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of seven cylinders. It is a very rare layout, used almost exclusively on large medium-speed diesel engines used for power generation and marine propulsion.

V16 engine

V16 engine

A V16 engine is a sixteen-cylinder piston engine where two banks of eight cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V16 engines are less common than engines with fewer cylinders, such as V8 and V12 engines.

V18 engine

V18 engine

A V18 engine is an eighteen-cylinder piston engine where two banks of nine cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft.

V20 engine

V20 engine

A V20 engine is a twenty-cylinder piston engine where two banks of ten cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. Large diesel V20 engines have been used in diesel locomotives, haul trucks, electric generators and marine applications.

V24 engine

V24 engine

A V24 engine is a 24-cylinder piston engine where two banks of twelve cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. The majority of V24 engines, however, have been "dual V12" engines where two separate V12 engines are placed in line with each other.

Source: "V engine", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, September 26th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_engine.

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References
  1. ^ Larson, Len (2008). Dreams to Automobiles. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-4691-0104-0. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  2. ^ "Who Invented the V8 Engine?". www.itstillruns.com. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  3. ^ "The V8 Engine". www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  4. ^ Ludvigsen, Karl (2005). The V12 Engine. Sparkford, Yeovil: Haynes. pp. 14–19. ISBN 978-1-84425-004-2.
  5. ^ a b Matschoss, Conrad (1921). Geschichte der Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz. Berlin.
  6. ^ Erjavec, Jack (2010). Automotive Technology: A Systems Approach. Clifton Park, NY USA: Delmar, Cengage Learning. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-1428311497. LCCN 2008934340. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  7. ^ "Here's Why Ferrari's Old 'Flat-12' Isn't Exactly A Flat-12 At All". www.carthrottle.com. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  8. ^ "There's a Big Difference Between a Boxer and a Flat Engine". www.autoevolution.com. 15 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2020.

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