Dobrynin VD-4K

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Dobrynin VD-4K
Triebwerksinstallation der Tu-85 Dobrynin WD-4K .jpg
TypeSix-bank turbo-compound, inline engine
National origin Soviet Union
ManufacturerDobrynin OKB-36 in Rybinsk
First runJune 1950
Major applications Tupolev Tu-85
Number built23

The Dobrynin VD-4K was a Soviet six-bank, 24-cylinder, turbo-compound, inline engine developed after the end of World War II. It was superseded by turboprop engines before it could be widely used.

Soviet Union 1922–1991 country in Europe and Asia

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Tashkent, Alma-Ata, and Novosibirsk. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains.

Turbo-compound engine Reciprocating engine combined with a blowdown turbine

A turbo-compound engine is a reciprocating engine that employs a turbine to recover energy from the exhaust gases. Instead of using that energy to drive a turbocharger as found in many high-power aircraft engines, the energy is instead sent to the output shaft to increase the total power delivered by the engine. The turbine is usually mechanically connected to the crankshaft, as on the Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone, but electric and hydraulic power recovery systems have been investigated as well.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Contents

Development

The VD-4K, originally designated as the M-253K, was a development of the post-war VD-3TK (M-251K) engine. Like Nazi Germany's experimental Junkers Jumo 222 multibank wartime engine, the VD-4K had six monobloc banks, each with four liquid-cooled cylinders. However, the VD-4K had a larger displacement figure — at nearly 59.5 litres — than any planned or tested development of the German powerplant; itself only planned to have a top displacement figure of 55.5 litres, with a 145 x 140 mm bore-stroke figure for each cylinder in its planned 222C/D version. The VD-4K utilized a trio of blow-down exhaust, also known as power-recovery, turbines were fitted between the cylinder banks, and a geared centrifugal supercharger and a turbocharger were fitted to the engine itself, which made the VD-4K a turbo-compound engine.

Junkers Jumo 222

The Jumo 222 was a German high-power multiple-bank in-line piston aircraft engine from Junkers, designed under the management of Ferdinand Brandner of the Junkers Motorenwerke.

Supercharger air compressor for an internal combustion engine

A supercharger is an air compressor that increases the pressure or density of air supplied to an internal combustion engine. This gives each intake cycle of the engine more oxygen, letting it burn more fuel and do more work, thus increasing power.

Turbocharger forced induction device for internal combustion engines

A turbocharger, colloquially known as a turbo, is a turbine-driven forced induction device that increases an internal combustion engine's efficiency and power output by forcing extra compressed air into the combustion chamber. This improvement over a naturally aspirated engine's power output is due to the fact that the compressor can force more air—and proportionately more fuel—into the combustion chamber than atmospheric pressure alone.

Development began in January 1949 and construction of the prototype began in September of that year. The first engine was completed in January 1950 and it underwent its 100-hour tests in June. It successfully passed its State acceptance tests in January–February 1951. It was evaluated aboard a Tupolev Tu-4 bomber in 1950, itself powered with a quartet of the Shvetsov OKB's 1946-origin, ASh-73 radial engines, each of a displacement figure of 58.1 litres, somewhat close to that of the Dobrynin multibank powerplant design. The Dobrynin engines were most notably fitted to the two prototypes of the Tupolev Tu-85 bomber, but the aircraft, and its engines, was not placed into production because of the promise offered by turboprop engines of immensely more power, like the Kuznetsov NK-12 — itself developed and in test by 1951 [1] — and used on the Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bomber [2]

The Shvetsov ASh-73 was an 18-cylinder, air-cooled, radial aircraft engine produced between 1947 and 1957 in the Soviet Union. It was primarily used as the powerplant for the Tupolev Tu-4 heavy bomber, a copy of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

Tupolev Tu-85 Prototype strategic bomber aircraft based on Tu-4

The Tupolev Tu-85 was a Soviet prototype strategic bomber based on the Tu-4, an unlicensed reverse engineered copy of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. It was the ultimate development of the B-29 family, being over 50% heavier than its ancestor and had nearly double the range. Only two prototypes were built before the program was cancelled in favor of the Tupolev Tu-95 bomber which was much faster and had the same range.

Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop aircraft engine

The Kuznetsov NK-12 is a Soviet turboprop engine of the 1950s, designed by the Kuznetsov design bureau, the NK-12 drives two large four-bladed contra-rotating propellers, 5.6 m (18 ft) diameter (NK-12MA), and 6.2 m (20 ft) diameter (NK-12MV). It is the most powerful turboprop engine to enter service.

Applications

Specifications (VD-4K)

Data fromKotelnikov [3]

General characteristics

Inline engine (aeronautics) Reciprocating engine arranged with cylinders in banks aligned with the crankshaft

In aviation, an inline engine is a reciprocating engine with banks of cylinders, one behind another, rather than rows of cylinders, with each bank having any number of cylinders, but rarely more than six.

Components

Performance

Compression ratio the ratio of the volume of a combustion chamber from its largest capacity to its smallest capacity

The static compression ratio,, of an internal combustion engine or external combustion engine is a value that represents the ratio of the volume of its combustion chamber from its largest capacity to its smallest capacity. It is a fundamental specification for many common combustion engines.

See also

Comparable engines

The Armstrong Siddeley Hyena was a British aero engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. Designed in the 1930s, it was an unusual experimental radial engine with inline cylinder banks. It was flown using an Armstrong Whitworth A.W.16 fighter aircraft as a test bed. Unresolved problems with cooling of the rear cylinders prevented the engine from going into production. Few details of this engine survive as company records were lost.

Armstrong Siddeley Deerhound

The Armstrong Siddeley Deerhound was a large aero engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley between 1935 and 1941. An increased capacity variant known as the Boarhound was never flown, and a related, much larger, design known as the Wolfhound existed on paper only. Development of these engines was interrupted in April 1941, when the company's factory was bombed, and on 3 October 1941 the project was cancelled by the Air Ministry.

The Daimler-Benz DB 604 was an experimental German 24-cylinder aircraft engine, which did not progress beyond the initial engine testing phase and was ultimately abandoned in 1942.

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Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone R-18 piston aircraft engine family

The Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone is a twin-row, supercharged, air-cooled, radial aircraft engine with 18 cylinders displacing nearly 55 L. Power ranged from 2,200 to over 3,700 hp, depending on the model. Developed before World War II, the R-3350's design required a long time to mature before finally being used to power the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. After the war, the engine had matured sufficiently to become a major civilian airliner design, notably in its turbo-compound forms, and was used in the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation airliners into the 1990s. The engine is now commonly used on Hawker Sea Fury and Grumman F8F Bearcat Unlimited Class Racers at the Reno Air Races. Its main rival was the Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major.

Tupolev Tu-4 Strategic bomber aircraft reverse engineered from Boeing B-29

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Tupolev Tu-80 Prototype for a longer-ranged version of the Tu-4 bomber

The Tupolev Tu-80 was a Soviet prototype for a longer-ranged version of the Tupolev Tu-4 bomber, built after World War II. It was cancelled in 1949 in favor of the Tupolev Tu-85 program which offered even more range. The sole prototype was used in various test programs before finally being used as a target.

BMW 803

The BMW 803 was a German aircraft engine, an attempt by BMW to build a high-output aircraft engine by coupling two BMW 801 engines back-to-back, driving contra-rotating propellers. The result was a 28-cylinder, four-row radial engine, each comprising a multiple-bank in-line engine with two cylinders in each bank, which, due to cooling concerns, were liquid cooled.

The Kuznetsov Design Bureau is a Russian design bureau for aircraft engines, administrated in Soviet times by Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov. It was also known as GNPO "Trud" and Kuybyshev Engine Design Bureau (KKBM).

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Mikulin AM-42 V-12 piston aircraft engine

The Mikulin AM-42 was a 1940s Soviet aircraft piston engine designed by Alexander Mikulin. Representing a high-output version of the AM-38F, the AM-42 was used in the Ilyushin Il-1 fighter, and the Il-8 and Il-10 ground attack aircraft.

Wright R-2160 Tornado

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Shvetsov M-25 R-9 piston aircraft engine

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JSC Kuznetsov is one of the leading Russian producers of aircraft engines, liquid-propellant rocket engines as well as aeroderivative gas turbines and modular stations.

Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov was a Chief Designer of the Soviet Design Bureau OKB-276 which deals with the development, manufacture and distribution of equipment, especially aircraft engines, turbines and gearboxes.

The Shvetsov ASh-2 was a 28-cylinder, air-cooled, radial aircraft engine designed in the Soviet Union in the late 1940s. It was inferior to the Dobrynin VD-4K engine and did not enter production. One of the problems was air-cooling which ate up to 50% of the total engine power at 15000 meters. In contrast, the liquid-cooled VD-4K required only 5% of power for cooling at the same altitude.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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