GB708199A - Improvements in or relating to hot-gas, refrigerating, or heat-pump reciprocating engines - Google Patents

Abstract

708,199. Refrigerating. NAAMLOOZE VENNOOTSCHAP GLOEILAMPENFABRIEKEN. Jan. 17, 1952 [Jan. 20, 1951], No. 1366/52. Class 29 [Also in Group XXVII] In a hot-gas, refrigerating, or heat-pump reciprocating engine having two or more closed cycles simultaneously performed and in which each heater comprises one or more elements, shown as tubes 15, Figs. 1 and 2, each opening at one end into a hot space 12 above a piston 11 in a cylinder 1 and at the other end into a space 5 containing a regenerator 9 and cooler 10, the cylinders being disposed substantially in the form of or forming a part of an annulus, the elements together form a wall for the exchange of heat energy: -and the areas of the wall surfaces of the elements associated with each cycle are all substantially equal. The cooler communicates with a cold space below a piston (not shown) in a cylinder 2 through a passage 25. Similarly hot spaces in cylinders 2, 3, 4 communicate respectively with spaces 6, 7, 8 similar to the spaces 5. The coolers in the spaces 6, 7, 8 communicate with cold spaces below the pistons in the other cylinders. Heat is supplied by a burner 26. In a modification, spaces 13, 14 between which the heater tubes are connected are dispensed with, and the hot spaces are connected directly to the regenerator spaces by tubes with helical portions. The tubes are surrounded by ring burners. In another modification, Figs. 5 and 6, regenerators 42 and coolers 43 surround the cold spaces. Each hot space is connected through tubes comprising the heaters, a regenerator and a cooler to the associated cold space in an adjacent cylinder. Thus the hot space 12 communicates through pipes 41 and a regenerator and cooler (not shown) with a cold space below the piston in the cylinder 4. The hot space of the cylinder 4 communicates through pipes 45, a regenerator 42 and a cooler 43 with the cold space 44 of the cylinder 3 and so on. All the pipes of each group preferably have substantially equal lengths. The driving gear may comprise a swash plate mechanism or a crankshaft. Instead of having four double acting cylinders as shown, the engine may comprise two, three, or more cylinders and may be either single acting or double acting. The tubes may be arranged close together or spaced apart. The cross-section of the elments may be circular, rectangular or oval.