EP0527993B1 - Externally heated, regenerative hot and cold machine - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention concerns an externally heated, regenerative hot and cold machine which operates on the Vuilleumier circuit process and in which the chambers of variable volume and the elements (K) separating the chambers are designed as a rotary piston machine. According to the invention, the rotary piston of the rotary piston machine is a driveless rotating piston (2) arranged in a pressure vessel (1) containing the chambers (6-9) and rotatably mounted about its horizontal longitudinal axis (1''). The pressure vessel is made of material of high density or is filled with a material of high density. Loads (21) are arranged in separate chambers (20) of the pressure vessel (1) coaxially with the axis of the rolling piston on the side flanks (2') of the rotating piston (2). The heat exchangers (10-13) and the regenerators (14, 15) are arranged on the rotary pressure vessel (1) and the stationary heat source (3) is arranged in the region in which the heat exchanger (10) is incorporated between the chamber (6) and the regenerator (14). In another embodiment, the pressure vessel is stationary and the movement of the rotary piston is controlled by electromagnets.

Description

7. The invention relates to an externally heated, regenerative heating and cooling machine according to the preamble of claims 1 and 7 respectively.

Such heating and cooling machines have been developed based on the Vuilleumier cycle, which has been known since 1918, and have u. a. the advantage that they can be operated with helium or hydrogen gas instead of environmentally harmful CFCs.

According to the DKV conference report, 14th year, 1987, pages 473 to 487, such machines were previously designed as double-acting reciprocating piston machines with a V-angle of 90 °. Since the entire system has to be kept under very high pressure, this construction is very complex, both with regard to the movement drive of the pistons and with regard to the sealing requirements. See also DE-A-36 02 634, which u. a. also provides for the formation of such machines as rotary piston machines. Here too, the piston is driven from the outside.

The invention is based on the task of redesigning and improving a machine of the type mentioned in such a way that the effort for the movement drive and for the sealing is eliminated and the whole machine can be made more compact than a self-contained, cylindrical pressure vessel.

This object is achieved with a heating and cooling machine of the generic type according to the invention by the features stated in the characterizing part of patent claim 1. Advantageous further developments result from subclaims 2 to 6. A further independent solution results from the features stated in the characterizing part of patent claim 7, the advantageous further developments of which result from subclaims 8 to 15.

Since the machine according to the well-known Vuilleumier cycle also works in these designs according to the invention, the thermodynamic processes do not require any further explanation, especially since they are discussed in detail in the aforementioned publications.

Due to the first embodiment of the invention, the entire machine advantageously consists of only two moving parts, namely the pressure vessel, in the appropriately designed and limited by the "outer" envelope with respect to the rolling envelope of the non-driven and only held in position by gravity rolls relatively on the envelope curve, whereby only the pressure vessel requires storage on the enclosure and, as is known, a small additional external drive (electric motor) only for loss compensation in the system (friction and pressure differences due to flow resistance) and for speed control.

For the rotary piston machine according to the invention, those of the type "KA 4" or "KA 3" are preferably used, where K stands for the so-called meshing engagement and A for the outer envelope curve, that is to say, with the KA 4, the three-membered rolling piston rolls relative to the four-fold outer envelope curve off, and with the "KA 3" a double-sectioned rolling piston rolls relative to the triple-sectioned envelope. In this regard, it should be pointed out that the indication of four reference symbols with regard to the rooms in the main claim is only to be understood in an analogous manner and is not binding insofar as the reference symbols with regard to the rooms are based on the "KA 4" type.

Both structurally and functionally, it is even more favorable if the heat exchangers arranged laterally on the pressure vessel at the same time form the radial boundary walls of the rooms which are not in direct connection with the heat exchanger which is exposed to heat from the outside. The regenerators are then arranged inside the pressure vessel on the outside along the heat exchangers.

In order to allow the rolling piston to function properly in relation to the rotating pressure container after the first solution, it is necessary to make it from material with a high spec. To form weight or the interior of the rolling piston with a material of high spec. Fill in the weight and provide load bodies firmly attached to the roller piston in the side chambers. Also this can be significantly simplified by designing the pressure vessel as a stator after the second solution and arranging at least three electromagnets controlled in the sense of the piston movement in the latter at least on one side adjacent to the piston driven as a rotary piston. This not only simplifies the manufacture and assembly of the machine, but also the connection arrangement and design for the heat transfer medium to be supplied from the outside and to be discharged again to the outside.

The radial arrangement and design of the heat exchangers as boundary walls of the rooms, by means of which, as will be explained in more detail, the entire "innards" of the machine can be put together in a disk-like manner between two shells forming the pressure vessel, also offers an ideal prerequisite for further training in sharper use Separation of the "warm and cold side", ie to reduce the internal heat flow from the warm to the cold side.

The machine according to the invention and its advantageous and practical embodiments are explained in more detail below with the aid of exemplary embodiments.

Fig. 1

einen Längsschnitt durch die Maschine;

Fig. 2

einen Querschnitt durch den drehbaren Druckbehälter mit darin angeordneten Rollkolben;

Fig. 3

einen Schnitt durch den Druckbehälter mit den diesem zugeordneten Wärmetauschern und thermischen Regeneratoren in stark schematisierter Darstellung;

Fig. 4

die Stellungen des Rollkolbens relativ zum Druckbehälter während einer Umdrehung;

Fig. 5

stark schematisiert eine Maschine nach Typ KA 3;

Fig. 6

abgewickelte Zylinderschnitte A, B gemäß Fig. 2 durch die Bereiche des wärmebeaufschlagten Wärmetauschers und der Regeneratoren;

Fig. 8,9

Schnitte längs Linien C, D in Fig. 1;

Fig.10,11

einen Schnitt längs Linien I-I und II-II der Maschine gemäß Fig. 12;

Fig. 12

einen Längsschnitt durch die Maschine nach den Fig. 10, 11;

Fig. 13

einen Längsschnitt durch die Maschine in anderer Ausführungsform;

Fig. 14

einen Querschnitt durch die Maschine gemäß Fig. 13;

Fig. 15

in Seitenansicht die Zu- und Ableitungskanäle zu den Wärmetauschern;

Fig. 16

einen Schnitt durch eine besondere Ausführungsform der Wärmetauscher;

Fig.16A-C

Seitenansichten der Wärmetauscher gemäß Fig. 4 in verschiedenen Ausführungsformen;

Fig. 17

einen Längsschnitt durch die Maschine mit stationärem Druckbehälter;

Fig. 18

in Seitenansicht die Anordnung der E-Magnete gemäß Fig. 17;

Fig. 19

das Schaltschema einer KA 4-Zylindermaschine und

Fig. 20

das bekannte Schaltschema einer nach dem Vuilleumier-Kreisprozeßß arbeitenden Wärme- und Kältemaschine.

It shows schematically

Fig. 1

a longitudinal section through the machine;

Fig. 2

a cross section through the rotatable pressure vessel with roller piston arranged therein;

Fig. 3

a section through the pressure vessel with the associated heat exchangers and thermal regenerators in a highly schematic representation;

Fig. 4

the positions of the rolling piston relative to the pressure vessel during one revolution;

Fig. 5

highly schematized a machine according to type KA 3;

Fig. 6

developed cylinder sections A, B according to Figure 2 through the areas of the heat-treated heat exchanger and the regenerators.

Fig. 8.9

Cuts along lines C, D in Fig. 1;

Fig. 10,11

a section along lines II and II-II of the machine of FIG. 12;

Fig. 12

a longitudinal section through the machine of FIGS. 10, 11;

Fig. 13

a longitudinal section through the machine in another embodiment;

Fig. 14

a cross section through the machine of FIG. 13;

Fig. 15

side view of the supply and discharge channels to the heat exchangers;

Fig. 16

a section through a special embodiment of the heat exchanger;

Fig. 16A-C

Side views of the heat exchanger according to Figure 4 in various embodiments.

Fig. 17

a longitudinal section through the machine with a stationary pressure vessel;

Fig. 18

in side view the arrangement of the E-magnets according to FIG. 17;

Fig. 19

the circuit diagram of a KA 4-cylinder machine and

Fig. 20

the known circuit diagram of a heating and cooling machine working according to the Vuilleumier cycle.

First, reference is made to FIGS. 1 to 9. The heating and cooling machine consists of movable separators K (piston) volume-changing rooms 6-9 for the heating circuit HK on the one hand and for the cooling circuit KK on the other hand, the heating and cooling circuits HK, KK each having heat exchangers 10-13 assigned to the volume-changing rooms 6-9. Thermal regenerators 14, 15 are arranged between the heat exchangers 10, 11, 12, 13 of each circuit, and the two circuits HK, KK are connected to one another at point 138 (see FIG. 5 or 20). For this switching principle known per se, it is essential according to the invention, as can be seen from FIG. 1, that the spaces 6-9 and the separating elements K are designed in the form of a rotary piston machine, which comprises a pressure container 1 rotatably mounted in a housing 16 a roller piston 2 arranged therein without a drive and separating the spaces 6-9 is formed, the heat exchangers 10-13 and the regenerators 14, 15 being arranged on the rotatable pressure vessel 1, that is to say they rotate with the latter. The stationary heat supply source 3 is arranged in the arrangement area of the heat exchanger 10 connected between the space 6 and the regenerator 14, which extends over the entire circumference. The assignment of the heat exchangers 10 to 13 is illustrated in a highly schematic manner as a pure circuit diagram in FIG. 3, in which the corresponding reference numerals are used and which represents the prior art.

The pressure vessel 1 is mounted in the containment housing 16, in which the burner forming the heat supply source 3 is also arranged under the pressure vessel 1, with which the heat exchanger 10 is acted upon. An exhaust hood 17 which extends upward around the pressure vessel removes the exhaust gases.

The two-sided bearing extensions 22 of the pressure vessel 1 simultaneously form the supply openings 22 'for the medium with which the heat exchangers 11, 12, 13 arranged on the end face of the pressure vessel are acted upon. Here, the end faces 1 'of the pressure vessel 1 are provided with radially oriented ribs 23 which on the one hand promote the media flowing through and on the other hand contribute to increasing the heat transfer areas.

The medium (for example air) heated on the warm-up side WS and cooled on the cooling side KS flows out through lines 25 open to the outflow side, which are integrated in the enclosure 16. As indicated schematically, the pressure vessel 1 is coupled to an electric motor 26 for the reasons mentioned, which, however, apart from the starting phase, does not have the task of driving the whole thing, since the drive energy is introduced via the heat exchanger 10 acted upon by the heat source 3.

Since the rolling piston 2 is located without a drive in the interior 4 of the pressure container 1, eccentrically below its axis of rotation 1 ", it is filled with a material of higher specific weight. With regard to the configurations of the rolling piston 2 and the interior 4, reference is made to FIG. 2 , 3 referenced, which correspond to a rotary lobe machine type KA 4.

On the rolling piston 2 act on the one hand frictional forces resulting from the sealing of its side flanks 2 ', and on the other hand gas forces, since flow resistances occur in the regenerators 14, 15 and heat exchangers 10-13 and their connecting lines. In order to ensure that the rolling piston 2 rolls permanently in the lower part of the interior 4, additional weights are attached to the rolling piston 2, for which, as can be seen in FIG. 1, this is provided with additional load bodies 21 located in separate chambers 20, which coaxially coaxial with the rolling piston axis 5 assigned. In order to ensure the position from the rolling piston 2 to the pressure vessel 1, the machine is designed in such a way that the rolling piston 2 is provided on its side flanks 2 'with coaxial, reduced-diameter and disk-shaped, externally toothed extensions 18 and provided with corresponding internal teeth 19, wherein the internal toothing diameter is larger than the external toothing diameter of the extensions 18. These extensions 18 are expediently used to attach the aforementioned additional load bodies 21 to them.

The relative movement of the rolling piston 2, which remains at the bottom due to the force of gravity when the pressure vessel 1 rotates, is schematically illustrated in FIG. 4. For the sake of simplicity, the envelope of the interior 4 is shown as being stationary. This does not require a special explanation, since in relation to the rolling piston movement to the individual rooms 6-9, analogy to the known machine according to FIG. 20 takes place.

The medium displaced from the space 6 passes through the slot 24 or 6 ′ into the heat exchanger 10 and after flowing through a channel 27 into the regenerator 14 and after its passage into the heat exchanger 11 and after this into the enlarging space 9. Likewise, analogously to FIG. 20, the filling gas flows from space 8 through 8 'to heat exchanger 12, through regenerator 15 via heat exchanger 13 and slot 7' into space 7. For this purpose, reference is made in particular to FIG. 3. The slots and flow guides in the developments A, B of Figures 6, 7 are provided with corresponding reference numerals; 6, 7 also illustrate the arrangements and extensions of the heat exchangers and the regenerators 14, 15 on the circumference of the pressure vessel 1. All of the heat exchangers, regenerators and the spaces 6-9 form a self-contained pressure system in which the filling gas goes back and forth is pumped, the heat supply source 3 causing the actual drive. Outside of this pressure system, namely along the end faces 1 'of the pressure vessel 1, the medium that is heating up there on one side WS and the medium that is cooling there (preferably air) sweeps past.

The sections of FIGS. 8, 9 illustrate the heat exchangers 11-13, to which the air supplied through both bearing extensions 22, for example at 25 ° C., is guided in the direction of the arrows in FIG. 1 and on the warm side WS with, for example, 95 ° C and on the cooling side KS flows at 10 ° C. These temperatures are only to be understood as examples.

In Fig. 5, for the sake of completeness, a machine of type KA 3 is shown, in connection with the heat exchangers 10-12 and the two regenerators 14, 15. Here, however, rooms 9, 7 are represented by only one chamber and the connection of the two circles HK and KK takes place on or with this chamber at 138.

For the other embodiments, reference is now made to FIGS. 10-18, in which reference numerals from 100 are used, which refer to corresponding elements.
As can be seen from FIG. 13, the heat exchangers 111, 112, 113 form the radial boundary walls of the rooms 107, 108, 109 and the regenerators 114, 115 are arranged on the outside, but within the pressure vessel 100 along the heat exchangers 111, 112, 113. This results in an extremely advantageous construction of the machine, namely in such a way that the heat exchangers 111, 112, 113, the regenerators 114, 115 and the rotary piston 102 can be formed in the form of a disk-shaped package 128 between two housing shells 129 forming the pressure container 101. In addition to the package, 128 circular disks 128 "with openings 137 for supplying and discharging the heat transfer medium to and from the heat exchangers 111, 112, 113 are arranged on both sides.

As can be seen in particular from FIGS. 16, 16A-C, the heat exchangers 111, 112, 113 are formed from tubes 136, which are provided at their ends 133 with widenings 134, the cross section of which corresponds to polygons, which form a honeycomb structure with contiguous side flanks of the expansions 134 are joined together and are connected to one another in a liquid-tight and gas-tight manner at the expansion ends 135. These tubes 136 extend parallel to the machine axis 139, ie the hatching chosen for this in FIG. 13 does not correspond to the actual tube orientation. The regenerators 114, 115 are designed in a correspondingly arcuate manner and are formed, for example, from sintered metal.

Partitions 142 inserted into the heat exchangers 111, 112, 113 ensure a meandering flow through the heat exchangers of the operating medium contained in the two closed circuits, which are connected to one another at 138.

In the embodiments according to FIGS. 13 and 17, the pressure container 101 is designed as a stator, and at least one electromagnet 132, which is controlled in the sense of the piston movement, is arranged on at least one side adjacent to the piston driven as a rotary piston 102. This eliminates the load bodies 21, 121 (FIGS. 1 and 12) and the relatively complex connections 143 for the supply and discharge of the heat transfer media (air or water), which, however, are also possible and are shown in FIG. 12. As can be seen from FIGS. 13 and 17, the accommodation spaces 144 can also be hermetically sealed by disks 145 with respect to the high-pressure and gas-carrying spaces, so that they no longer have to be charged for the total dead volume of the machine.

The advantageous design of the machine in the shell design, in which the disk-shaped package 128 is enclosed, also forms the prerequisite for an embodiment according to FIG. 17 in that the disk-shaped package 128 is divided into two chambers in which the rooms 106, 107 and the Rooms 108, 109 are arranged offset by 90 ° to one another; A rotary piston 102 is arranged in each chamber 130; the two rotary pistons 102 are firmly connected to one another, whereby a division into a "warm and cold" side can be achieved, and heat insulation 131 can also be arranged in disk form between the two chamber packages 128 'without any problems, in order to allow an internal heat flow from the warm to the largely prevent cold side.

In the already mentioned embodiment according to FIGS. 10 to 12, the pressure container 100 is rotatably mounted in a suitable manner, which is indicated only schematically with bearings 150. The connections 143 are, as shown, designed as rotary guides, the left connection 143 for the supply of the Heat exchanger 111 and the right one is used to supply heat exchangers 112 and 113. The further connection openings 143 'leading to the outside are located in front of or behind the display level.

Regardless of whether the pressure vessel 101 rotates or is stationary in the embodiments according to FIGS. 10 to 17, the flow arrows for the operating medium (for example helium) are shown in FIGS. 10 and 11. Openings 151 for the heat exchanger 111, openings 152 for the heat exchanger 112 and openings 153 for the heat exchanger 113 are provided for the media (for example water) to be supplied to the heat exchangers 111, 112, 113 from the outside via the rotary guides 143 or to be discharged to the outside. With 154 thermal insulation in the pressure vessel 101 is designated. The electromagnets 132 are controlled via a control circuit 155, which is only schematically indicated in FIG. 18.

The reference numeral 156 in FIG. 19 denotes an additional regenerator in the poor area between the cold and the hot side of the machine. Such an additional regenerator 156 is also present in the machine according to FIGS. 10 to 12 or 17, which is installed in the partition between the two packets 128 ′ or the chambers 130. With this additional regenerator 156, the temperature values between the cold and hot iron of the machine can be better separated, i.e. there are different temperatures even in the warm area.

Claims (15)

1. Externally heated regenerative heat and cold generating machine working according to the Vuilleumier cyclic process, consisting of spaces (69) variable in volume by means of movable separating elements (K) and intended for the heating circuit (HK) on the one hand and for the cooling circuit (KK) on the other hand, the heating and the cooling circuit (HK, KK) each having heat exchangers (10 to 13) assigned to the spaces (6 to 9) variable in volume, and thermal regenerators (14, 15) being arranged between the heat exchangers (10, 11, 12, 13) of each circuit, and the two circuits (HK, KK) being connected to one another, and, furthermore, the spaces (6 to 9) and the separating elements (K) being designed in the form of a rotary piston machine, characterized in that the piston of the rotary piston machine is arranged in a pressure vessel (1) containing the spaces (6 to 9) and driven in rotation about its horizontal longitudinal axis (1''), as a driveless rolling piston (2) which consists of material having a high specific gravity or the interior of which is filled with a material of high specific gravity and which is thereby held by load bodies (21), which are arranged coaxially relative to the rolling-piston axis on the side flanks (2') of the rolling piston (2) in separate chambers (20) of the pressure vessel (1) and which are connected to the rolling piston (2), in a position in which the rolling piston (2) rolls relative to the rotating pressure vessel (1), and in that the stationary heat supply source (3) is arranged in the region of the heat exchanger (10) inserted between one (6) of the spaces (6 to 9) and one (14) of the regenerators (14, 15).
2. Machine according to Claim 1, characterized in that the interior (4) of the pressure vessel (1), the said interior containing the spaces (6-9), and the associated rolling piston (2) correspond in their contours to a trochoidal machine of the "KA 4" or "KA 3" type.
3. Machine according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the rolling piston (2) is provided on at least one of its side flanks with a disc-shaped externally toothed extension (18), and in the interior (4) of the pressure vessel (1) is arranged a web (19) which is assigned to the extension (18) and is provided with a corresponding internal toothing and which forms the pitch circle for the extension (18) of the rolling piston (2).
4. Machine according to one of Claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the end faces of the pressure vessel (1) are designed as heat exchangers (11, 12, 13), the heat exchangers (11, 13) being arranged on the heating side (WS) and the heat exchanger (12) on the cooling side (KS).
5. Machine according to Claim 4, characterized in that ribs (23) enlarging the heat transmission surfaces and having the effect of radial conveyance are arranged externally on the end faces (1') of the pressure vessel (1).
6. Machine according to one of Claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the heat exchangers form the radial limiting walls of the spaces (7-9) and the regenerators (14, 16) are arranged externally along the heat exchangers (11-13).
7. Externally heated regenerative heat and cold generating machine working according to the Vuilleumier cyclic process, consisting of spaces (106 to 109) variable in volume by means of movable separating elements (K) and intended for the heating circuit (HK) on the one hand and for the cooling circuit (KK) on the other hand, the heating and the cooling circuit (HK, KK) each having heat exchangers (110 to 113) assigned to the spaces (106 to 109) variable in volume, and thermal regenerators (114, 115) being arranged between the heat exchangers (110, 111, 112, 113) of each circuit and the two circuits (HK, KK) being connected to one another, and, furthermore, the spaces (106 to 109) and the separating elements (K) being designed in the form of a rotary piston machine, characterized in that the piston of the rotary piston machine is a rolling piston which is guided as a planetary piston (102) and which is arranged in a pressure vessel (100) containing the spaces (106 to 109) and designed as a stator, in that at least three electromagnets controlled for the purpose of the piston movement and intended for driving the planetary piston (102) relative to the pressure vessel (100) are arranged adjacent to the planetary piston (102) in the pressure vessel (100) at least on one side, and in that the heat exchangers (111 to 113) form the radial limiting walls of the spaces (107 to 109) and the regenerators (114, 115) are arranged externally along the heat exchangers (111 to 113).
8. Machine according to Claim 7, characterized in that the heat exchangers (111-113), the regenerators (114, 115) and the planetary piston (102) are arranged in the form of a disc-shaped stack (128) between two housing shells (129) forming the pressure vessel (101).
9. Machine according to Claim 8, characterized in that circular discs (128'') having perforations (137) for the supply and discharge of the heat-exchange medium to and from the heat exchangers (111-113) are arranged on both sides next to the stack (128).
10. Machine according to Claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the disc-shaped stack (128) is divided into two chambers, in which the spaces (106, 107) and the spaces (108, 109) are arranged offset at 90° to one another, and in that a planetary piston (102) is arranged in each chamber (130) and the two planetary pistons (102) are fixedly connected to one another.
11. Machine according to Claim 10, characterized in that heat insulation (131) is arranged between the two chamber stacks (128').
12. Machine according to one of Claims 7 to 11, characterized in that the heat exchangers (111-113) are designed in the form of elements through which the flow can pass in a meander-like manner.
13. Machine according to one of Claims 7 to 12, characterized in that the regenerators (114, 115) are formed from sintered metal.
14. Machine according to one of Claims 7 to 13, characterized in that the heat exchangers (111-113) are formed from small tubes (136) and these are provided at their ends (133) with widenings (134), the cross-section of which corresponds to polygons which are joined together without a gap with mutually abutting side flanks of the widenings (134) to form a honeycomb structure and which are connected to one another in a liquid-tight and gas-tight manner at the ends (135) of the widenings (134).
15. Machine according to Claim 10, characterized in that an additional regenerator (156) is arranged between the two chambers (130).

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