JP4449014B2 - Hot-air rotary external combustion engine - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an external combustion engine that converts heat into motion by heating and cooling a working fluid from outside to expand and contract.

  In recent years, external combustion engines with low noise and low pollutants in exhaust gas have attracted attention due to the improvement of awareness of the global environment.

  FIG. 7 shows the configuration of a conventional hot-air external combustion engine. In order to operate a hot-air type external combustion engine, two cylinders and a heating mechanism are required, the structure is likely to be complicated, and explosive energy unlike an internal combustion engine cannot be produced, so it is difficult to increase the output. In order to increase the output, there are problems that it is complicated to arrange many cylinders or that the engine needs to be enlarged.

In the present invention, the configuration of the rotary engine is used for the external combustion engine, thereby realizing miniaturization and high output.
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the present invention. A rotor 1 using a roulau triangle that rotates eccentrically and a rotary unit by a housing using a peritrochoid curve adapted to the rotor 1 are arranged on the expansion side and the compression side, and a heater is provided from the exhaust port of the compression side housing 2 4 and the shut-off valve 5 are connected to the intake port of the expansion side housing 3 through the flow path, and the exhaust port of the expansion side housing 3 is connected to the intake port of the compression side housing 2 through the flow path including the cooler 6. The rotor rotation angle relative to the housing causes the expansion side to precede the compression side by 90 °. The inside of the housing and the flow path are filled with the working fluid, and each intake port and exhaust port are opened and closed by the side surface of the rotor 1.

FIG. 2 shows the operation of the present invention. Like the rotary engine, this engine performs a plurality of strokes at the same time. Here, the description will be made by focusing on the shaded portion of the rotor surface and the working fluid.
FIG. 2A shows a state where the expansion side housing 3 has the maximum volume and the compression side housing 2 has the minimum volume. When the rotor is rotated, the working fluid moves from the expansion side housing 3 to the compression side housing 2 and is cooled by the cooler 6.
FIG. 2B shows a state where the moving cooling of the working fluid has been completed. Subsequently, adiabatic compression is performed, but as soon as the rotor is rotated, the compression-side exhaust port opens and the working fluid moves to the expansion-side housing 3 in the flow path including the heater 4. Is closed and the housing and the flow path are separated and adiabatic compression is performed.
FIG. 2C shows a state where adiabatic compression is completed. Here, the shutoff valve 5 is opened, the working fluid is moved from the compression side housing 2 to the expansion side housing 3, and heating is performed by the heater 4.
FIG. 2D shows a state where the moving heating of the working fluid has been completed. Subsequently, adiabatic expansion is performed, but if the rotor is rotated as it is, the exhaust port on the compression side opens before the intake port on the expansion side closes. Therefore, the shutoff valve 5 is closed and the housing and the flow path are separated to perform adiabatic expansion. Do it.
When the adiabatic expansion is completed, the state returns to the state of FIG. 2A, and the engine operates by repeating the above.

FIG. 3 shows an operation chart of the present invention. Since the upper half and the lower half have the same configuration as shown in FIG. 1, the description of the operation of the lower half is omitted to simplify the chart.
The internal space of each housing is divided by the three surfaces of the rotor, and a plurality of strokes are performed at the same time. Here, explanation will be made by focusing on one cycle indicated by a thick line. Due to the rotation of the rotor, the volume of each space in the housing changes in a sinusoidal shape. The intake and exhaust port indications indicate the period when the rotor side is not closed. The shut-off valve display indicates the closed period. The rotor rotation angle corresponds to the angle when the point attached to the rotor in FIG. 2 is viewed from the rotor center.
The rotor rotation angle of 0 ° corresponds to the state shown in FIG. The exhaust port on the expansion side and the intake port on the compression side open simultaneously, and the working fluid is cooled while moving from the expansion side to the compression side as the volume of each housing changes.
The rotor rotation angle of 90 ° corresponds to the state shown in FIG. The compression-side exhaust port and the expansion-side intake port are both open, but adiabatic compression is performed because the shut-off valve is closed.
The rotor rotation angle of 150 ° corresponds to the state shown in FIG. As the shut-off valve opens and the volume changes, the working fluid is heated while moving from the compression side to the expansion side.
The rotor rotation angle of 180 ° corresponds to the state shown in FIG. The shut-off valve is closed and adiabatic expansion takes place.
The rotor rotation angle of 240 ° returns to the state of FIG. 2A, but the moving and cooled working fluid is received on a different surface from the previous side of the compression side rotor, and the cycle continues.

The shutoff valve not only stops the movement of the working fluid, but also increases the efficiency as the volume change ratio at the time of adiabatic change increases. Arranged to be close.
The change in state of the working fluid during moving heating and moving cooling varies depending on the volume ratio of the compression side and the expansion side and the volume of the flow path. If the volume of the flow path is large, the rate of change of the volume is small during the movement of the working fluid, so that it approaches a constant volume change, the expansion side volume is made larger than the compression side volume, and the pressure at the start and completion of movement of the working fluid If it is made the same, it will approach the isobaric change.
When there is no cooling side flow path, the engine operates as an open type. From the state of FIG. 2A, without moving cooling, outside air is taken in from the compression side intake port to be used as working fluid, adiabatic compression-moving heating-adiabatic expansion is performed in the same manner as above, and finally the working fluid is supplied from the expansion side exhaust port Return to the open air.

According to the present invention, an engine that performs a stroke corresponding to four cylinders of a conventional external combustion engine is housed in two housings in a compact manner due to the rotary configuration.
In the conventional external combustion engine, the piston rod is sealed and the crankbox is pressurized so that the working fluid does not leak outside. However, in the present invention, there is no extra pressurizing part and the number of places to be sealed is minimized. Just do it. (Of course, the rotor side sealing is necessary to prevent the intake and exhaust ports from coming off in the same housing.) In addition, the rotary configuration also features quietness and low vibration.

Since it is a well-known fact that when the output shaft of a reversible hot air engine is driven from the outside, it becomes a heat pump, its application example and description are omitted. Here, in order to further increase the output, optimization of the configuration when a rotary unit is added will be described.

FIG. 4 shows a configuration when there are two expansion-side and compression-side rotary units.
Four heating-side flow paths are evacuated from the compression-side housings 2a and 2b and four are sucked into the expansion-side housings 3a and 3b. The heater 4 is shared by switching the four flow paths together. Thus, the working fluid can always flow through the heater 4. FIG. 4 shows an example in which the shut-off valve is a switching valve as the flow paths are aggregated.
FIG. 5 shows the valve structure. FIG. 5A shows the structure of the shut-off valve, and the opening of the valve is axisymmetric so that the stress is minimized even when a high-pressure working fluid is used. FIG. 5B shows the structure of the switching valve. The opening is made axially symmetric like the shutoff valve, and one of the four flow paths is selected and connected to the heater according to the rotation angle of the valve. Channels that are not selected are blocked. This valve is preferably a solenoid valve in consideration of sealing.
FIG. 6 shows an operation chart of the embodiment. The elongated rectangle indicates the period during which each inlet and outlet is open. If the pair of 2a, 3a and the pair of 2b, 3b are aligned in the same direction, the strokes overlap each other, so the rotor rotation angle is shifted by 30 °, and the heating period is a above -b above -a below -b below And in order. In addition, since it is desirable that the rotor rotation angle be reversed by 180 ° for canceling out vibrations, it is preferable that the entire housing be twisted by 30 °.

    It is a block diagram of the present invention.     It is an operation | movement diagram of this invention.     It is an operation | movement chart figure of this invention.     It is a block diagram of the Example of this invention.     It is a block diagram of the Example of this invention.     It is an operation | movement chart figure of the Example of this invention.     It is a block diagram of the conventional system.

Explanation of symbols

1. Rotor 2. 2. Compression side housing 3. Expansion side housing 4. Heater Shut-off valve 6. Cooler

Claims (2)

  The rotor (1) is housed in each of the compression housing (2) and the expansion housing (3), which are two housings using peritrochoid curves that fit the rotor (1) using the eccentrically rotating Rouleau triangle. The housing is provided with an intake port and an exhaust port, respectively, and the exhaust port of the compression side housing (2) and the intake port of the expansion side housing (3) are flow paths including the heater (4) and the shutoff valve (5). Connect the rotor so that the rotation angle of the rotor relative to the housing is 90 ° ahead of the compression side of the expansion side, close the shutoff valve (5), and adiabatic compression of the working fluid in the compression side housing (2) After that, the shut-off valve (5) is opened and heated by the heater (4) while moving the working fluid from the compression side housing (2) to the expansion side housing (3). Flip performed adiabatic expansion of the expandable housing (3) in a working fluid, a rotary external combustion engine, wherein a flow only in the working fluid in one direction in the flow path.   The exhaust port of the expansion side housing (3) and the intake port of the compression side housing (2) are connected by a flow path including a cooler (6), and the working fluid is transferred from the expansion side housing (3) to the compression side housing (2). The rotary external combustion engine according to claim 1, wherein the rotary external combustion engine is cooled while being moved.

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