GB630429A - Improvements in or relating to hot gas engines - Google Patents

Abstract

630,429. Hot-gas engines. NAAMLOOZE VENNOOTSCHAP PHILIPS' GLOEILAMPENFABRIEKEN. May 17, 1946, No. 14979. Convention date, Nov. 12, 1941. Drawings to Specification. [Class 7 (i)] In a hot gas engine in which a heat-conveying medium is provided between the source of heat for the' engine and the heater which heat-conveying medium receives through a wall heat from the source and delivers the heat through a wall of the heater to the working medium in the engine the temperature in the hot space exceeds 400‹ C. in operation of the engine the heat is conveyed from the source of heat to the heater by the circulation of the heat-conveying medium which is continually in the liquid phase during operation of the engine and the heat-conveying medium is constituted by a liquid metal or a liquid metal alloy. The medium consists of a metal or metal alloy which is liquid at the operating temperature and is referred to as a liquid metal or liquid metal alloy. The liquid metal may be sodium or potassium and the liquid metal alloy may be an alloy of these metals or Woods' metal. A burner heats the heat-conveying medium in a chamber and it is then circulated through a conduit to a jacket around the engine heater in which it gives up heat to the working medium in the engine. The medium then flows under the action of a pump back to the chamber where it is reheated by the burner. Although the heatconveying medium may be brought into circulation due to the heating effect of the burner it is preferable that it should be brought into circulation or held in circulation by artificial means. By the introduction of a gas or vapour e.g. argon gas into the heatconveying medium at a suitable point gas or vapour bubble lift may be obtained. Where a pump is used to circulate the medium it may be a centrifugal or diaphragm pump and may be driven from the outside for example by means of an electromagnetic coupling. It is possible to act on the heat-conveying medium by a magnetic field passing through the liquid. This may be done by use of a rotating magnet. It is stated that the medium may be subdivided at the source of heat or the heater into a number of parallel channels. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 comprises also arrangements in which a gas for example, sulphofluoride or salts for example zinc chloride or cadmium iodide are employed for the heat-conveying medium. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.