Twelve-cylinder engine

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
12-cylinder hydrogen engine of the BMW Hydrogen 7
12-cylinder V-engine as a ship engine

The twelve-cylinder is a type of reciprocating engine .

description

Types

It is mostly designed as a V-engine , rarely as a boxer engine (only for racing purposes) and, because of its length, even less often as an in- line engine (only as a marine diesel engine ). It can be designed as a gasoline or diesel engine . These engines are almost always water-cooled in passenger car construction , and in rare cases in trucks they used to be air-cooled .

Smoothness

Twelve-cylinder V-engines have excellent running smoothness, especially as gasoline engines, because in them the free inertia forces - in contrast to the eight-cylinder V- engine or the in-line engine (if fewer than 6-cylinder) - are completely balanced. An in-line six-cylinder is also balanced, but has the disadvantage that it is very long in relation to the displacement. In the case of larger displacements, it is therefore advisable to combine two in-line six-cylinders to form one twelve-cylinder engine. At the cylinder bank angle of 60 °, which is usually used, a uniform ignition interval is achieved, with ignition then also taking place every 60 ° of crankshaft rotation.

Due to the large number of cylinders, they have both a very uniform torque output and an equally uniform running noise. The latter, however, as well as the smoothness of running, can vary somewhat , especially in a series of Ferrari sports cars ( 180 ° V-engine, e.g. in the 365 GT / 4 Berlinetta Boxer ) due to the different crankshaft offset or more uneven ignition intervals in this particular case a little less sophisticated. One advantage of these 180 ° V engines is the possibility of achieving high speeds due to the very stiff crankshaft due to the small number of cranks; furthermore, the center of gravity of the drive unit is lower.

Applications

Land vehicles

Twelve-cylinder engines in passenger cars and SUVs of the upper class as well as in sports cars and super cars built. Only a few manufacturers currently offer automobiles with twelve-cylinder engines:

View of the V12 of a Lamborghini Aventador
MAZ-537 with V12 diesel engine and semi-trailer for transporting tanks

In addition, various trucks were equipped with twelve-cylinder diesel engines. The German manufacturer Magirus-Deutz produced models such as the Magirus-Deutz Uranus and the 340D16 and 340D22 long-haul trucks, which were equipped with air-cooled diesel engines from Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz . Both the Magirus-Deutz Uranus (built 1954 to 1967, V12, 250 hp) and the 340D16 and 340D22 models (built from 1971 to 1976, V12, 340 hp) were the most powerful trucks from German production at the time. Also Faun built 12-cylinder trucks, such as the Faun L 912/45 A , who later among other V12 multi-fuel engines equipped. In the Soviet Union , Minski Awtomobilny Sawod manufactured the MAZ-535 from 1958 and then from the early 1960s the heavy MAZ-537 , each with a derivative of the V12 W-2 tank engine with a capacity of almost 39 liters.

A few tractors have twelve-cylinder engines. For example, the mass-produced Soviet-Russian Kirovets K-701 has a V12 with a displacement of 22.3 liters.

Also V12 engines were isolated in heavy construction equipment is fitted, for example, already in the Soviet Union -made diesel-electric bulldozer DET-250 (also used as a tractor) or Wheeldozer MAZ-538 .

They are also used to drive rail vehicles ( diesel locomotives and, more rarely, diesel multiple units) and they are the most frequently used type of tank engine (e.g. the Soviet-Russian diesel engine W-2 ).

Planes

A Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine

In the past, water-cooled V12 engines were often used as aircraft engines , especially in British and German machines during World War II . Well-known examples are the BMW VI , the Junkers Jumo 213 , the Daimler-Benz DB 601 or the Rolls-Royce Merlin , of which almost 150,000 were built.

Other uses

Twelve-cylinder marine diesel engines can be designed as either an in-line engine or as a V-engine, with the largest models such as the Wärtsilä RT-flex96C being built as in-line engines.

Twelve-cylinder engines are also used as stationary power plant engines or mobile emergency power generators .

Web links

Wiktionary: twelve-cylinder engine  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations