1. Heat engine classification

1.1 General definitions

Motors are machines that generate mechanical energy. As such, they belong, along with their indispensable complement the receiving machines (users of mechanical energy), to the group of energy transformers (or converters).

Motors can be classified into distinct families according to the nature of the energy source at the origin of the conversion: thermal, hydraulic, pneumatic, wind, electric, etc.

The vast majority of motors deliver mechanical energy in the classic form of torque to a rotating shaft (rotary motors). There are also linear motors where mechanical energy is delivered in the form of force x displacement (cylinder, electromagnet, linear electric motor, etc.).

Jet engines, which...