Fluid rotating machines with spiral-like passages and vane wheels

In a positive-displacement rotative machine in which the conversion of the pressure energy of fluids is obtained by the circulation of at least two spaced vane members in at least one spiral-like passage of revolution defined by rib members having top surfaces and side walls, wherein

• said vane members are parts of at least two vane wheels,
• each of said vane wheels is mounted for rotation about its own axis and housed in a slot formed in a first part of said machine,
• said vane members circulate in said spiral-like passages of revolution formed in a second part of said machine,
• at least one of said first and second parts of said machine is rotatable, the axis of rotation thereof constituting the main axis of rotation of said machine,
• the axes of rotation of each of said vane wheels are transverse to said main axis of rotation of said machine,
• said spiral-like passages of revolution are generated by a combined rotation of said vane members about the axis of rotation of their respective vane wheels and by rotation of said first part of said machine in relation to said second part of said machine,
• said spiral-like passages are bound along their intermediate portions by a pair of said rib members while each end extremity portion thereof is bound by a single rib member,
• said intermediate portions of said spiral-like passages are closed across the top surfaces of said rib members by a cooperating surface formed on said first part of said machine receiving said vane wheels in sliding contact therewith to thereby form channels for the circulating fluid, and
• said spiral-like passages extend between an inlet and an outlet for the circulating fluid and have a continuous progressively varying cross-sectional area from the inlet to the outlet thereof,
• the improvement therein which comprises:
• said top surfaces of said rib members and said cooperating surface formed on said first part of said machine in sliding contact therewith each lie in a single plane,
• the volume rates of flow at each of said end extremity portions of said spiral-like passages are substantially the same, and
• said vane wheels are spaced apart a distance such that two successive vane members circulating in said spiral-like passages simultaneously circulate in said intermediate portions thereof for only a short moment,
• whereby the volume rate of flow between two successive vane members circulating in said spiral-like passages is essentially contant.