Engine assembly

A method for starting an expander of an engine assembly including an internal combustion engine coupled to the expander in a force-transferring manner, a pulley rotatably arranged on a shaft of the expander and coupled to the internal combustion engine via a belt drive in a force-transferring manner, a drive disk arranged on the shaft in a rotationally fixed manner axially adjacent to the pulley, a coupling device including an operating element accommodation that opens toward the drive disk, the coupling device further including at least one elastic operating element arranged within the operating element accommodation in an axially deformable manner with respect to the shaft, the drive disk arranged between the pulley and the at least one operating element, and a pressure device connected to the operating element accommodation via a fluid line, the method comprising:

• applying a pressure to the operating element accommodation via the pressure device;
• deforming the at least one operating element in an axial direction via applying the pressure to the operating element accommodation;
• pushing the drive disk into force-transferring contact with the pulley via deformation of the at least one operating element;
• transferring an initial torque from the internal combustion engine to the expander;
• and
• wherein pushing the drive disk into force-transferring contact with the pulley includes bending the drive disk into contact with the pulley via deformation of the at least one operating element.

An engine assembly comprising:

• an internal combustion engine;
• an expander coupled to the engine in a force-transferring manner;
• a pulley rotatably arranged on a shaft of the expander, the pulley coupled to the internal combustion engine via a belt drive in a force-transferring manner;
• a drive disk arranged on the shaft of the expander in a rotationally fixed manner axially adjacent to the pulley;
• a coupling device including at least one operating element accommodation that opens toward the drive disk, the coupling device further including at least one elastic operating element arranged within the at least one operating element accommodation in an axially deformable manner with respect to the shaft, the drive disk arranged between the pulley and the at least one operating element;
• and
• a pressure device configured to apply a pressure to the at least one operating element accommodation, the pressure device connected to the at least one operating element accommodation via a fluid line;
• wherein the at least one operating element is deformable in an axial direction such that the at least one operating element pushes the drive disk into force-transferring contact with the pulley when the at least one operating element is axially deformed by the pressure applied to the at least one operating element accommodation by the pressure device;
• wherein the coupling device further includes an operating element accommodating disk;
• wherein the at least one operating element accommodation includes a plurality of operating element accommodations disposed circumferentially spaced apart from one another relative to the operating element accommodating disk;
• wherein the at least one operating element is structured as a plurality of ring segment-shaped operating elements;
• and
• wherein the plurality of ring segment-shaped operating elements are each arranged within a respective one of the plurality of operating element accommodations.