The world's first ever all-aluminum internal combustion engine developed at the Russian Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU) has successfully endured longevity tests, which confirmed the engine's performance characteristics, the university said in a statement on Monday
NOVOSIBIRSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2019) The world's first ever all-aluminum internal combustion engine developed at the Russian Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU) has successfully endured longevity tests, which confirmed the engine's performance characteristics, the university said in a statement on Monday.Aluminum has already been used to create both aircraft and automobile engines, but parts that work under heavy load are still made of steel. Engineers at the Novosibirsk university, however, managed to replace steel with aluminum, using the technology of plasma electrolytic oxidation, developed at the Russian academy of Sciences and allowing the scientists to generate a special protective coating on the aluminum parts.
"The experimental model has passed hours-long longevity tests, which confirmed the high performance characteristics of the heavy-duty coating that covers aluminum engine parts. The wear of parts is not measurable ... Basically, there is none of it. This is encouraging for us," Ilya Zverkov, who is heading the team of the NSTU engineers, was quoted as saying by the statement.
According to the statement, the developers have been also working on the design of the engine's production model. The engineers hope to eventually install the engine on different types of Russian light aircraft.
"The production of parts of the new engine, which will be ready by early summer of 2019, is currently underway. All the main parts of the new engine will be cast in aluminum in Novosibirsk. This is another advantage of the new scheme: it will allow [Russian manufacturers] to abandon components imported from abroad that were used in the experimental model. This will eventually give [us] an opportunity to install the engine on Russian Air Force aircraft," the statement added.
The engine will be built using a common V-shaped configuration, meaning that its cylinders and pistons are put into two separate banks that appear to form letter V when looked at from a certain angle.
The all-aluminum aircraft engine was first presented by the NSTU engineers in January 2018. Thanks to aluminum, the developers were able to reduce the engine's weight by 30 to 40 percent compared to traditional steel engines, increase the device's power by 40 horsepower and cut fuel consumption by about 15 percent.
