JP2003042577A - Regenerator for stirling heat engine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a heat exchanger from being clogged with wire rod chips of mesh wire in a regenerator of a Stirling refrigerator, which have flowed out from the regenerator with a working medium. SOLUTION: A channel for the working medium is located between a high temperature chamber and a low temperature chamber of the Stirling refrigerator. The regenerator is located between a radiation heat exchanger and a cooling heat exchanger in the channel. A filter is disposed at a port opening for the working medium of the regenerator.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a regenerator for a Stirling heat engine such as a Stirling refrigerator, and more particularly to a regenerator equipped with a filter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as a refrigerating device as an alternative to CFCs for global environmental problems, and having a wider operating temperature than conventional cooling devices, therefore, cold or heat utilization equipment for business use such as freezer, refrigerator, throw-in cooler, etc. , Low temperature liquid circulator, low temperature incubator, constant temperature bath, heat shock test device, freeze dryer, temperature characteristic test device, blood / cell storage device, cold cooler, and various other cooling and heating devices The Stirling refrigerator is in the spotlight as a refrigerator that can be applied to cold heat utilization equipment, is compact, has a high coefficient of performance, and has good energy efficiency.

By the way, in the Stirling refrigerator, the working gas flows between the compression chamber (high temperature chamber) and the expansion chamber (low temperature chamber), and a heat radiating heat exchanger (high temperature side heat exchanger) is provided along this flow path. ), A regenerator and a cooling heat exchanger (low temperature side heat exchanger). In the heat radiating heat exchanger and the heat radiating heat exchanger, heat is exchanged with the cold heat refrigerant and the heat radiating refrigerant, respectively, and in the regenerator, heat is exchanged with the working gas to improve their heat exchange performance. ing.

[0004]

By the way, a regenerator is usually constructed by filling fine wire mesh wire rods, and the wire mesh wire rods are partially cut due to aged deterioration or the like to form chips, which together with the working gas. , Which flow into the heat exchanger, the high temperature chamber, the low temperature chamber, etc., increase the flow resistance of the working gas and hinder the smooth operation of the piston, which causes performance deterioration and damage.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a conventional problem, and to make it so that even if chips of the wire mesh wire are generated, they do not flow out of the regenerator together with the working gas. Therefore, it is an object to prevent troubles due to chips of the wire mesh wire, maintain the performance of the Stirling refrigerator, and prevent damage to the device.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is provided in a flow path of a working gas between a high temperature chamber and a low temperature chamber of a Stirling heat engine, wherein a heat radiating heat exchanger and a cooling heat exchanger are used. A regenerator for a Stirling heat engine, characterized in that, in a regenerator arranged between heat exchangers, filters are arranged at inlets and outlets of a working gas at both ends of the regenerator.

The regenerator is made of fine wire mesh wire.

The filter is made of a sintered porous metal or ceramic material.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on examples with reference to the drawings. 1 to 3 are diagrams illustrating a Stirling refrigerator to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 1 is a front view illustrating the entire configuration of the Stirling refrigerator 1. FIG. 2 is a view for explaining a main part of the Stirling refrigerator 1, and FIG. 3 is a part of the right side surface of the cross section.

The housing 2, which is the main body of the Stirling refrigerator 1, is made of cast metal, the inside of which is kept in a hermetically sealed state and the working gas is enclosed. The housing 2 has a motor chamber 4 and a crank chamber 5 which communicate with each other via a partition wall 3. The motor chamber 4 is provided with a motor 6 capable of rotating in the forward and reverse directions, and the crank chamber 5 includes:
A crankshaft 7, connecting rods 8 and 9, which are rotationally driven by a motor 6, and drive mechanisms such as cross guide heads 10 and 11 are provided.

Two crank parts 1 of the crankshaft 7
Reference numerals 2 and 13 are formed with a phase difference so that the crank portion 13 moves ahead of the crank portion 12 when the motor 6 rotates in the normal direction. As this phase difference, a phase difference of about 90 degrees is generally adopted. Connecting rods 8 and 9 are attached to the crank portions 12 and 13, and cross guide heads 10 and 11 are attached to the connecting rods 8 and 9.

A cylinder block 15 is attached to the upper portion of the crank chamber 5 of the housing 2 with a bolt 16 via a seat portion 14. The cylinder block 15 forms a compression cylinder 17 and a part (lower part) of the expansion cylinder 18.

In the compression cylinder 17, a compression piston 19
Reciprocates. Compression piston 19 in compression cylinder 17
The upper space (compression space) is a high temperature chamber 20, in which the working gas is compressed to a high temperature. The compression piston rod 21 connects the compression piston 19 and the cross guide head 10, and is provided so as to extend from the crank chamber 5 to the compression cylinder 17. An oil seal bellows 22 is mounted between the compression piston rod 21 and the upper part of the housing 2 to seal between the compression cylinder 17 and the crank chamber 5 and prevent oil from rising from the crank chamber 5.

On the other hand, the expansion cylinder 18 has a lower portion constituted by the cylinder block 15 as described above, and an upper portion thereof is
It is composed of an inner cylinder 23 of a heat radiating heat exchanger 29 described later and an inner cylinder 24 of a cooling heat exchanger. The expansion piston 25 reciprocally slides in the expansion cylinder 18,
The space above the expansion piston 25 (expansion space) in the expansion cylinder 18 is a low temperature chamber 26, in which the working gas expands and becomes a low temperature.

The expansion piston rod 27 connects the expansion piston 25 and the cross guide head 11 and extends from the crank chamber 5 into the expansion cylinder 18. An oil seal bellows 28 is attached between the expansion piston rod 27 and the upper portion of the housing 2 to seal between the expansion cylinder 18 and the crank chamber 5 and prevent oil from rising from the crank chamber 5. The expansion piston 25 is the compression piston 19
It moves ahead by 90 degrees in phase.

A heat-radiating heat exchanger (high-temperature-side heat exchanger) 29, a regenerator 30, and a cooling heat-exchanger (low-temperature-side heat exchanger) 31 communicate with each other and are annularly arranged so as to surround the expansion cylinder 18. It is set up. A manifold (flow path for working gas) 32 is formed around the lower end of the heat radiating heat exchanger 29 and around the expansion cylinder 18.

At the upper end of the compression cylinder 17,
Communication hole 33 for communicating the high greenhouse 20 and the manifold 32
Are formed. The high greenhouse 20 and the low temperature chamber 26 are configured to sequentially communicate with each other through the communication hole 33, the manifold 32, the heat radiating heat exchanger 29, the regenerator 30, and the cooling heat exchanger 31.

The cylinder block 15 has a heat radiating heat exchange housing 34 on its upper part. A heat exchanger tube 37 is fitted between the heat radiating heat exchange housing 34 and the inner cylinder 23, and the heat radiating heat exchanger (high temperature side heat exchanger) 2
9 is composed. The heat exchanger tube 37 has, on its inner surface,
It has a narrow groove 35 that forms a flow path of the working gas, and has a radiation fin 36 on the outer surface.

The working gas passes through the narrow groove 35 and the cooling water flows through the heat dissipation passage 38 between the heat dissipation housing 34 for heat dissipation and the heat dissipation fins 36, whereby the heat of the working gas is dissipated to the cooling water. A lid plate 39 is watertightly fixed to both left and right side surfaces of the cylinder block 15, and a cooling water passage 40 is formed between the lid plate 39 and the cylinder block 15. The cooling water passage 40 communicates with the inlet 41 and the heat dissipation passage 38.
And is formed so as to surround the compression cylinder 17 and the expansion cylinder 18.

A cooling water inflow port 42 is provided in the heat radiation path 38, an outflow port 43 is provided in the cooling water path 40, and the inflow port 40 and the outflow port 43 are not shown in the drawing, but are not shown in the drawing. It is connected to an air-cooled radiator (radiator) having a cooling fan via a water circulation pump.

The lower part of the inner cylinder 24 is fitted with the inner cylinder 23 and constitutes a part of the expansion cylinder 18. A cooling heat exchange housing 44 is arranged on the outer peripheral side of the upper part of the inner cylinder 24. It is detachably fixed to the cylinder block 15. The heat exchange housing 44 for cooling has a plurality of narrow grooves 45 on its inner surface, is fitted with the inner cylinder 24 to form a working gas passage 46, and has cooling fins 47 on its outer surface.
This constitutes the cooling heat exchanger (low temperature side heat exchanger) 31.

The heat exchanger 31 for cooling cools the cold heat refrigerant of the cold heat utilizing equipment using the cold heat of the Stirling refrigerator of the present invention. Air, water, alcohol, HFE, PFC or the like is used as the cold heat refrigerant.

A regenerator 30 made of a regenerator material such as a metal mesh is arranged in the annular space between the inner cylinder 24 and the cooling heat exchange housing 44.

The space between the oil seal bellows 28 and the expansion piston 25 (the same applies to the space between the oil seal bellows 25 and the compression piston 15) is called a buffer space (buffer chamber) 48. Buffer space 4
8 is connected to the buffer tank 51 by a pipe 49, and the buffer tank 51 is connected to the crank chamber 5 (or the motor chamber 4) of the housing 2 by a pipe 50.

The present invention is characterized by the structure described below in the Stirling refrigerator having the above structure. In the Stirling refrigerator according to the present invention, as shown in FIG.
A regenerator 30 is provided between the heat radiating heat exchanger 29 and the cooling heat exchanger 31. FIG. 4 illustrates the regenerator in a Stirling refrigerator in comparison with a conventional example, and FIG. 4A shows a regenerator 30 according to the invention.
4B shows a conventional example.

2 and 4, the regenerator 30 has a fine wire mesh-like shape in a donut-shaped space 52 between the inner cylinder 24 of the cooling heat exchanger 31 and the cooling heat exchange housing 44 outside thereof. The wire 53 is filled. This wire mesh wire 53 is formed by being compressed into a solid state.

In the Stirling refrigerator, the working gas frequently reciprocates between the high temperature chamber 20 and the low temperature chamber 26, but at this time, since it frequently passes through the regenerator, the wire mesh wire 53 is aged over time.
Part of the gas is cut into chips, and the fine groove 3 becomes
After passing through Nos. 5 and 45, they enter the high temperature chamber 20 and the low temperature chamber 26.

When this happens, the narrow grooves 35, 4
5 becomes clogged to increase the flow resistance of the working gas, which causes an increase in power loss.
And the space between the expansion cylinder 18 and the inner surface of the expansion cylinder 18 to hinder the smooth reciprocating motion of the piston, which may cause damage to the cylinder.

In the conventional regenerator shown in FIG. 4 (b), the donut-shaped space 52 is filled only with fine wire-mesh-like wire rods 53. It could not be prevented from flowing out together with the working gas.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the regenerator 30 according to the present invention has the upper and lower inlets / outlets 5 of the working gas at the upper and lower ends of the donut-shaped space 52 constituting the regenerator 30.
Filters 56 are installed at the 4 and the lower end entrance / exit 55, respectively.

The filter 56 is formed with a gap that allows the working gas to pass through but does not allow the chips of the wire mesh wire to pass through, and is made of, for example, a wire mesh material having a fine mesh formed of SUS material. A thin plate or a thin plate made of a porous sintered material having fine porosity formed of a metal or a ceramic material is used.

(Operation) Next, the operation of the Stirling refrigerator of the above embodiment of the present invention will be described. The motor 6 rotates the crankshaft 7 in the forward direction, and the crank portions 10 and 11 in the crank chamber 5 rotate 90 degrees out of phase with each other.
Connecting rod 8 connected to the crank portions 10 and 11,
The compression piston 19 and the expansion piston 25 reciprocate with a phase difference of 90 degrees from each other through the 9, cross guide heads 19 and 11, the compression piston rod 17, and the expansion piston rod 23.

While the expansion piston 25 is moving 90 degrees ahead and moving slowly near the top dead center, the compression piston 19 moves rapidly near the middle toward the top dead center to compress the working gas. The compressed working gas flows into the narrow groove 35 of the heat radiating heat exchanger 29 through the communication hole 33 and the manifold 32, and radiates heat to the cooling water flowing through the heat radiating passage 38. Further, the working gas is cooled by the cold heat stored in the regenerator 30, passes through the narrow groove 45, and flows into the low temperature chamber 26 (expansion space).

When the compression piston 19 slowly moves near the top dead center, the expansion piston 25 rapidly moves toward the bottom dead center, and the working gas flowing into the low temperature chamber 26 (expansion space) rapidly expands. Then cold heat is generated. As a result, the head portion (called a cold head) 48 including the heat exchanger 31 for cooling is cooled to a low temperature.

Then, in the cooling heat exchanger 31, the cold heat refrigerant for the equipment utilizing cold heat, which is in contact with the cooling fins 47, is cooled. When the expansion piston 25 moves from the bottom dead center to the top dead center, the compression piston 19 moves from the intermediate position to the bottom dead center, and the working gas flows from the low temperature chamber 26 through the narrow groove 45 of the cooling heat exchanger to the regenerator. Cold heat flowing into the working gas 30 and contained in the working gas is stored in the regenerator 30. The cold heat stored in the regenerator 30 is transferred from the high temperature chamber 20 to the heat radiating heat exchanger 29 as described above.
The working gas sent through is reused for cooling again.

Then, the cold heat refrigerant cooled in the cooling heat exchanger is sent from the outflow pipe 57 to various cold heat utilizing devices and used for cooling. For example, the cold heat refrigerant is sent to a cold heat refrigerant pipe in a cold heat utilization apparatus such as a freezer, and performs a freezing or cooling action in the cold heat utilization apparatus. Then, the cold heat utilization equipment circulates back to the cooling heat exchanger 31 through the inflow pipe 58 and is cooled again.

The cooling water sent from the radiator (radiator) flows into the heat radiating heat exchanger 38 through the inlet 42, passes through the heat radiating passage 38, and cools the working gas. Further, this cooling water flows into the cooling water passage 40 and flows around the compression cylinder 17 and the expansion cylinder 18. As a result, the compression cylinder 17 and the expansion cylinder 18 formed inside the cylinder block 15 are cooled from the surroundings. After that, the cooling water flows out from the outflow port 43, is cooled by the cooling fan in the radiator, and is circulated again to the heat radiation heat exchanger 29.

The buffer tank 51 has a buffer space 48.
The housing 2 has a uniform pressure, absorbs pressure fluctuations in the buffer space 48, and absorbs pressure fluctuations in the housing 2 so as not to affect the buffer space.

In the regenerator 30 according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4 (a), the upper and lower inlets / outlets 54 and 55 of the regenerator 30 are provided with the filters 56, so that the filter 56 allows the working gas to pass therethrough. Since the chips of the wire mesh wire do not pass through, the chips of the wire mesh wire together with the working gas regenerator 30
Can be prevented from flowing out. As a result, chips of the wire mesh wire rods are generated in the high temperature chamber 20, the low temperature chamber 26, the narrow groove 35,
It is possible to prevent the entry into 45 and the like.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above based on the examples, but the present invention is not limited to the above examples, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the technical matters described in the claims. It goes without saying that there are examples.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, by adopting the simple structure of mounting the filter on the conventional regenerator,
Even if chips of wire mesh wire are generated due to deterioration over time, it is possible to prevent the wire from flowing out of the regenerator together with the working gas. The increase in power loss due to the increase in flow resistance due to clogging in the inside and the smooth reciprocation due to entering between the compression and expansion cylinder inner surface and the piston are obstructed,
Various troubles that damage the cylinder can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view illustrating an entire Stirling refrigerator, which is an application example of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a main part of the Stirling refrigerator of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a right side view of a partial cross section of the Stirling refrigerator of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a configuration of a regenerator according to the present invention in comparison with a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Stirling Refrigerator 2 Housing 4 Motor Chamber 6 Motor 7 Crankshaft 12, 13 Crank Part 15 Cylinder Block 17 Compression Cylinder 18 Expansion Cylinder 19 Compression Piston 20 High Greenhouse 23 (In Heat Exchanger for Radiation) Inner Cylinder 24 (Heat for Cooling) Inner cylinder 25 (expansion cylinder) Expansion piston 26 Low greenhouse 29 Heat dissipation heat exchanger 30 Regenerator 31 Cooling heat exchanger 34 Heat dissipation housing 40 (of cylinder block) Heat dissipation housing 40 Cooling water channel 44 Cooling heat exchange housing 51 Buffer tank 52 Donut-shaped space 53 Wire mesh wire 54 Donut-shaped space upper end door 55 Donut-shaped space lower end door 56 Regenerator filter

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Takashi Atomic             2-5-3 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture             Within Yo Denki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takehiro Nishikawa             2-5-3 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture             Within Yo Denki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takayuki Mizuno             2-5-3 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture             Within Yo Denki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Eiju Fukuda             2-5-3 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture             Within Yo Denki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yasuo Sakamoto             2-5-3 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture             Within Yo Denki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroshi Nishikawa             2-5-3 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture             Within Yo Denki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Denji Mashita             2-5-3 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture             Within Yo Denki Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A regenerator arranged in a working gas flow path between a high temperature chamber and a low temperature chamber of a Stirling heat engine, wherein the regenerator is arranged between a heat radiating heat exchanger and a cooling heat exchanger. A regenerator for a Stirling heat engine, characterized in that filters are arranged at the inlet and outlet of the working gas at both ends of the regenerator. 2. The regenerator for a Stirling heat engine according to claim 1, wherein the regenerator is formed of a fine wire mesh wire. 3. The regenerator for a Stirling heat engine according to claim 1, wherein the filter is made of a sintered porous metal or ceramic material.