KR19990062576A - Improved liquid-cooled internal combustion engine - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a liquid cooling internal combustion engine cooling system. The cooling system includes a radiator 10, an impeller 18 mounted to the drive shaft 20 and forming part of the radiator assembly. The space in the header tank of the radiator is used as an impeller chamber, which is occluded by a plate with bearings and seals for cooperation with the drive shaft coming out of the drive motor 12.

Description

Improved liquid-cooled internal combustion engine

The present invention relates to a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine. Conventional chillers generally have a coolant circuit comprising a radiator to allow heat exchange between the coolant and, for example, the flow of the atmosphere by fan drive. The coolant is transferred from the engine to the radiator and vice versa by means of a so-called water pump with an impeller mounted on a drive shaft with a pulley through a flexible hose that allows relative movement of the engine and the radiator. The impeller is located on the cylinder block adjacent to the radiator in the engine's chamber and the pulley is coupled by a V-belt from the crankshaft to drive the alternator and the fan, which is controlled by the engine management system or, in simple terms, the coolant. It is possible through the electric clutch to turn the fan on and off by controlling the thermostat which senses the temperature.

The impeller, the drive shaft and the impeller chamber occlude, and the plate containing the bearing and the seal form one replaceable unit. Common reasons for the replacement are leakage caused by chemicals, dust or impurities in the coolant, and by frequent and improper use of such things as excessively tensioned drive belts that put excessive loads on the bearings or seals. Because of wear.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid cooled internal combustion engine cooling apparatus which is improved over the prior art.

1 is a partial ablation schematic showing the end of a radiator header tank of the present invention;

2 is a schematic perspective view of another embodiment of the present invention;

3 is an exploded perspective view of parts used in the structure of FIG.

4 is a side view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, FIG.

5 is a bottom view of the device shown in FIG. 1, FIG.

6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line VI-VI of FIG. 4,

7 is a block diagram of a system in accordance with the present invention.

(Short description of symbols for main parts of drawing)

10 ... head tank 12 ... drive motor

14 Exit ... 16 Exit

18.Impeller 20 ... Drive Shaft

24 ... cover

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is to provide a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine cooling system including an impeller mounted to the radiator and the drive shaft and forming part of the radiator assembly.

The space of the radiator header tank (assuming a vertical flow radiator) is used as the impeller chamber, which is occluded by bearing and seal plates for cooperation with the drive shaft.

Preferably, the drive shaft has a separate drive motor, which will be an electric motor. This motor is under the control of an engine management system or thermostat, which provides a whole new control in engine management. Applicants have so far been aware that the only coolant fan controlled in this manner is the coolant fan. It is important to control the water pump by the same or similar system as described above, sometimes when the pump is not required, no power is needed to drive the pump, when the coolant temperature does not rise to the point where heat exchange is required. . Furthermore, an increase in engine temperature to the required range can be controlled more rapidly. These factors can lead to significantly improved fuel consumption compared to what is known. In addition, the system can continue to cool the engine even after the ignition is turned off, for example to reach a predetermined non-operating temperature.

Independent of the drive from the engine speed also allows the water pump operating speed to be selected in terms of efficiency. For example, when the engine is idling and the vehicle is stationary, it may be desirable for the pump to run at full speed (assuming speed variations are possible depending on the design chosen), while pump speed is running when the vehicle is running. It will be possible to slow down. In general this is the opposite of conventional devices.

While the foregoing description relates entirely to engine cooling, the same possibility exists when the coolant is used in other applications, for example as part of a heating system of a vehicle. In such cases the operation of the impeller driving the engine coolant through the impeller or heating system is sometimes required when engine cooling is not required. The invention also extends to the use of a valve arrangement that permits the bypass of a coolant according to a number of impellers and other requirements. Multiple impellers (effectively multiple pumps) are used in parallel or in series to effectively provide a multistage pump. Thus the flow of coolant to the radiator may be restricted or blocked and directed to other components or engines of the vehicle for parallel placement or proper valve placement.

Another possibility associated with the use of an electric motor is the creation of a magnetic coupling between the impeller and the motor, which allows the plate bearing the shaft bearing to be completely occluded and again eliminates the risk of leakage to the outside. In the absence of a motor, the motor can be replaced without affecting the coolant system.

In magnetic coupling, however, the drive motor is replaced by a pulley coupled with the drive belt so that the impeller can be belt driven from the crankshaft with a belt drive, for example an engine magnetic coupling, to the impeller. And this has an advantage over conventional devices even if control is difficult. The present invention includes this possibility and it is also possible to use conventional belt drives without even magnetic coupling as far as the radiator position of the impeller is concerned.

Instead of providing an impeller chamber in a header tank or similar part of a radiator, it can be located in a chamber housing connected to the radiator. In that case the chamber may form part of a complete unit that can be replaced if necessary.

The header tank may have pump components included as part of a single injection molding or die casting structure and additional components assembled therein.

The invention is explained in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 to 7 includes a water pump located at one end of the header tank 10 of the vehicle radiator associated with the internal combustion engine. The electric drive motor 12 is mounted on one end face of the header tank, and the header tank itself or the drive motor structure is provided with appropriately interposed seals and bearings. The coolant enters through an inlet 14 coaxially located with the drive motor and exits through an outlet 16 providing a pair of passageways in an eight-shaped cross section. The flow of this coolant is caused by the impeller 18 mounted on the drive shaft 20 and stored in a suitable swirl chamber 22.

7 is a schematic block diagram of a cooling system according to the invention. The motor 12 communicates with a controller 32, such as an engine management system, which further includes a thermo couple 34 for monitoring engine temperature. Of course, multiple thermocouples can be used to monitor temperature at different locations. Thus, the controller 32 is used to operate the drive motor 12 to perform pumping by the impeller 18 as appropriate as previously determined according to the speed and temperature of the engine.

In the following Figures 2 and 3 showing another embodiment, reference numerals similar to those used in Figures 1 and 4 to 6 are used for similar parts. Here, the drive shaft 20 extends in the normal direction with respect to the length of the header tank 10. The motor 12 is associated with a lid 24 that provides a seal about the shaft 20, which covers the pump housing 26 forming an equivalent to the swirl chamber of FIG. 1.閉 塞) An impeller chamber is formed in the pump housing 26, and the impeller 18 is located in the impeller chamber occluded by the cover 24.

The pump housing 26 includes a flange 28 bolted against the flange 30 of the header tank 30.

Any seal required by the electric motor is much simpler than required where the shaft is needed to project the drive pulley. In other words, in the electric motor, a rotating part that protrudes outward is not necessarily required, and the motor can be made completely wrapped in a barrel.

Although the specific embodiments described above use centrifugal flow impellers, this is not necessarily the case, and axial flow or mixed flow devices are also possible, which can be an advantage when space considerations are important.

Moreover, although the present invention is specifically described with respect to the position of the impeller in the radiator header tank, other positions may be provided around the radiator, in particular to suit the particular conditions required for spatial considerations.

Claims (16)

A cooling system of a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine comprising a radiator assembly having a radiator and an impeller mounted to a drive shaft and forming part of the radiator assembly. The method of claim 1, And said radiator comprises a header tank forming a chamber for receiving said impeller. The method of claim 2, And the chamber is closed by a plate attached with a bearing and a seal for cooperating with the drive shaft. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The drive shaft is a separate drive device, the cooling system of a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine, characterized in that it has a motor, such as an electric motor. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, And a controller for controlling the operation of the drive device according to a predetermined engine temperature characteristic. The method of claim 5, The controller includes a portion of the engine management system for a vehicle or a cooling system of a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine, characterized in that it comprises a thermostat for monitoring the engine temperature of the vehicle. The method according to claim 5 or 6, And said controller enables said engine to reach a required operating temperature before operating said motor to initiate cooling of said engine. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 7, And the controller continues to operate the pump after the engine ignition is turned off to ensure continuous cooling of the engine. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, And at least two impellers and valves for allowing bypass of the coolant, such that the coolant does not necessarily pass through the radiator. The method of claim 9, The cooling system of the liquid-cooled internal combustion engine, characterized in that the two or more impellers are arranged in parallel and independent of each other. The method according to claim 9 or 10, And said at least two impellers are arranged in series to provide a multistage pump. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, And the impeller and motor are magnetically coupled through a relatively stationary and relatively nonmagnetic plate. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, And the drive shaft includes a pulley operatively provided with a drive belt for driving the impeller in cooperation with a drive means such as an engine crankshaft. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, Cooling system of a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine, characterized in that a separate chamber housing is provided to be connected to the radiator to form a complete unit. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, A cooling system for a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine, characterized in that a radiator header tank is provided having one or more pump components, such as chambers, inlets or outlets formed therein during manufacture. The method of claim 15, The header tank is formed by injection molding or die casting to provide the at least one pump component.