JPS6042335B2 - Intercooler with compressed air leak detection device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an intercooler that cools compressed air more than the compressor of a supercharger.

Conventionally, in order to further improve output in some vehicles, an exhaust turbine supercharger (hereinafter referred to as
Some models are known to be equipped with a turbocharger (turbocharger). In vehicles equipped with a turbocharger, the turbocharger and intake It is preferable to provide an intercooler between the manifold and the manifold.

However, since this intercooler has thin tubes through which the refrigerant passes in a complicated fin-like arrangement, and the wall plate serving as the framework is thin, compressed air has conventionally been prone to leaking in the intercooler. When a compressed air leak occurs, the amount of air supplied to the engine combustion chamber naturally decreases, resulting in a drop in output, the fuel consumption rate also worsens, and the cooling effect of the intercooler is reduced, causing the exhaust temperature to become abnormal. This can easily lead to engine damage.

Conventionally, only the following measures have been taken as means for detecting this leakage.

In other words, you can remove the intercooler with the engine stopped and perform an airtightness test, monitor the drop in boost pressure with a gauge while driving, or check the rise in exhaust temperature with a meter. The company was trying to find a compressed air leak. However, it is not possible to remove each intercooler and perform an airtightness test because it requires time and effort, and checking for a drop in boost pressure or an abnormal rise in exhaust temperature depends on the engine usage conditions. Since these methods change, they cannot be effective means, and none of them are practical.

An object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional compressed air leak detection means for intercoolers, and to provide a compressed air system that can automatically detect compressed air leaks with high precision and issue an alarm during operation. An object of the present invention is to provide an intercooler with a leak detection device.

In order to achieve this object, the first invention provides an intercooler for cooling compressed air provided between an exhaust turbine supercharging air of an internal combustion engine and an air intake manifold. It is divided into two medium chambers in parallel, and each of these medium chambers is divided into two small chambers each in series in the flow direction of the compressed air, and an intermediate tank is formed at each boundary in the series direction of these small chambers. ,
Each of these intermediate tanks is provided with a pressure sensor, each of these pressure sensors is connected to a comparator via a pressure car voltage converter and a variable resistor, and an alarm means such as a lamp buzzer is provided on the output side of this comparator. It is characterized by this.

Moreover, the second invention divides the intercooler into two intermediate chambers in series in the flow direction of compressed air, forms an intermediate tank between these intermediate chambers, provides a pressure sensor in this intermediate tank, and A bypass path is provided in parallel with
An intermediate tank is formed in the middle of this bypass path, a pressure sensor is provided in the intermediate tank, and this output sensor and the pressure sensor are connected to a comparator via a pressure converter and a variable resistor, respectively. The comparator is characterized in that an alarm means such as a lamp or a buzzer is provided on the output side of the comparator.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an engine supercharging system with an intercooler, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an intercooler with a compressed air leak detection device of the first invention, and Fig. 3 is a compressed air leak detection device of the second invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the attached intercooler and a circuit diagram of a Wheatstone bridge for explaining the principle of compressed air leak detection. In Figure 1,
1 is the engine body, 2 is an exhaust manifold, 3 is a turbocharger consisting of a turbine 3a and a compressor 3b, 4, 4'' is an air supply vibe, 5 is an intercooler, 5
a is its upstream header, 5b is its downstream header, and 6 is an intake manifold.

Hot pressure gas is introduced from the exhaust manifold 2 to the turbine 3a of the turbocharger 3 and drives it. As a result, the compressor 3b, which is coaxial with the turbine 3a, rotates and sends compressed air to the engine 1 in the direction of the arrow in Figure 1 through the air supply vibes 4, 4''.At this time, it is compressed by the compressor and heated. By cooling the compressed air whose density has decreased due to expansion in the air supply vibe 4 by the intercooler 5, its density is increased and the degree of filling in the cylinder is increased, so that combustion efficiency is improved. High output and high torque can be obtained.In FIG. 2, intercooler 5 is divided into four small chambers 7, 8, 9 and 10.

That is, two middle chambers 7 are arranged in parallel in the flow direction of the compressed air.
8, 9, and 10, and further divided into small chambers 7, 8, and small chambers 9, 10, respectively, in series in the flow direction of compressed air, with intermediate tanks 11 and 12 as boundaries, respectively. Note that partition walls 13 are provided at the boundaries in the parallel direction, that is, the boundaries between the small chambers 7 and 9, the boundary between the intermediate tanks 11 and 12, and the boundary between the small chambers 8 and 10, respectively. Intermediate tanks 11 and 12 are provided with pressure sensors 14 and 15, respectively.

Pressure sensors 14 and 15 are connected to comparator 20 via pressure car voltage converters 16 and 17 and zero balance variable resistors 18 and 19, respectively. Comparator 2
An alarm lamp 22 is connected to the output side of 0 via a transistor 21. In such an intercooler with a compressed air leak detection device, the compressed air flowing in from the upstream header 5a is divided into two streams in parallel by the partition wall 13, and one stream flows through the small chamber 7 and the intermediate tank 1.
1 and chamber 8 to reach the downstream header 5b, and another flow passes through chamber 9, intermediate tank 12 and chamber 10 to reach the downstream header 5b. In this way, the intercooler 5 is divided into four small chambers 7, 8, 9 and 10,
The reason why the compressed air flow is divided into two parallel flows is to automatically and accurately detect compressed air leaks during operation.

That is, the compressed air leakage in the intercooler 5 is detected by applying the Wheatstone bridge principle as shown in FIG.

As is well known, the Wheatstone bridge consists of four electrical resistances P, Q, R and S, a galvanometer G,
This is a circuit in which a DC power source B is assembled as shown in FIG. When the bridge is in equilibrium, i.e. P/Q=R/S
When this relationship holds true, the deflection of the galvanometer G becomes 0. If the equilibrium is broken, the deflection of G will not be O. In the case of the intercooler 5, the flow of compressed air corresponds to an electric current, and the flow path resistance that occurs at that time corresponds to an electrical resistance.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
If pressure sensors 14 and 15 are provided inside the chamber, and connected to a comparator 20 via pressure car voltage converters 16 and 17 and variable resistors 18 and 19 (for initial zero balance), the comparator 20 will become a galvanometer. This corresponds to a meter. That is, if zero balance is first achieved with variable resistors 18 and 19, small chambers 7, 8, 9 and 1
As long as the balance of the bridge in intercooler 5 consisting of 0 is not broken (=unless compressed air leaks), comparator 2
No output signal is output from 0.

Therefore, transistor 21 remains off and lamp 22 does not light up. However, if a compressed air leak occurs somewhere within the intercooler 5, the balance of the bridge will be broken and an output signal will be output from the comparator 20. Therefore, the transistor 21 becomes conductive and the lamp 22 lights up to warn of a compressed air leak. In addition, lamp 2
2 may be replaced with a buzzer 22'', and a lamp 2
2 and the buzzer 22'' may be used simultaneously.
The intercooler 5 may not only be divided into four parts, but also into two parts as shown in FIG. 3, and small bypass passages 26 and 27 may be provided in parallel with the intercooler 5.

In FIG. 3, middle chambers 23 and 24 in intercooler 5 are divided into two in series in the flow direction of compressed air;
Bypass paths 26 and 27 constitute a bridge.

Pressure sensors 14 and 15 are provided in intermediate tanks 25 and 28, respectively. The other configurations are the same as in the case of FIG. 2, and the operating principle is also the same. However, in the case of FIG. 3, it is safe to assume that there is no compressed air leakage in the bypass paths 26 and 27, so if the lamp 22 lights up, the This means that an air leak has occurred.

Therefore, even when configured as shown in FIG. 3, compressed air leakage from the intercooler 5 can be detected effectively. As explained above, since each of the first and second inventions has the above configuration, both can automatically detect compressed air leakage from the intercooler and issue an alarm during operation.

Moreover, since the device is based on Wheatstone bridge equilibrium in principle, it is not affected by fluctuations or pulsations in the overall air supply pressure, and can perform highly accurate detection. Therefore, if the intercooler with the compressed air leak detection device of the present invention is used, compressed air leaks from the intercooler can be reliably detected at an early stage during operation, thereby making it possible to prevent wasted fuel. Furthermore, damage to the engine due to an abnormal rise in exhaust temperature can also be prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an engine supercharging system with an intercooler, Fig. 2 is a configuration diagram of an intercooler with a compressed air leak detection device of the first invention, and Fig. 3 shows a compressed air leakage system of the second invention. A configuration diagram of an intercooler with a detection device and a circuit diagram of a Wheatstone bridge for explaining the principle of compressed air leak detection are shown in Fig. 4. 1...Engine, 3...Turbo・Charger (exhaust turbine supercharger), 5... Intercooler, 6... Intake manifold, 7, 8, 9
, 10... Small chamber, 11, 12... Intermediate tank,
14, 15... pressure sensor, 16, 17...
... pressure car voltage converter, 20 ... comparator,
22...Lamp, 23,24...Middle chamber,
25, 28... intermediate tank, 26, 27...
・Bypass road.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an intercooler for cooling compressed air provided between an exhaust turbine supercharger and an intake manifold of an internal combustion engine, the intercooler is installed in two middle chambers in parallel in the flow direction of compressed air. and each of these medium chambers is divided into two small chambers each in series in the flow direction of the compressed air,
An intermediate tank is formed at each of the serial boundaries of these small chambers, and a pressure sensor is provided in each of these intermediate tanks, and each of these pressure sensors is connected to a comparator via a pressure-voltage converter and a variable resistor. An intercooler with a compressed air leak detection device equipped with alarm means such as a lamp or buzzer on the output side of the comparator. 2. In an intercooler for cooling compressed air installed between an exhaust turbine supercharger and an intake manifold of an internal combustion engine, the intercooler is divided into two intermediate chambers in series in the flow direction of the compressed air, and An intermediate tank is formed in between, a pressure sensor is provided in this intermediate tank, a bypass path is provided in parallel with the intercooler, an intermediate tank is formed in the middle of this bypass path, and a pressure sensor is provided in this intermediate tank, This pressure sensor and the pressure sensor are connected to a comparator via a pressure-voltage converter and a variable resistor, respectively, and an alarm means such as a lamp or a buzzer is provided on the output side of the comparator to detect compressed air leakage. Intercooler with device.