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US 4,070,871 AGranted
Method of cold production and devices for the practical application of said method
AssigneeCommissariat a l'Energie Atomique
InventorsMaurice de Cachard, Robert Moracchioli, Gerard Marie
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A first mass of driving vapor is admitted into a single chamber of variable volume and permitted to perform isobaric then polytropic work in an expansion which increases the chamber volume. A second mass of vapor derived from the refrigeration cycle is then admitted at constant pressure in order to attain maximum volume. The work performed by the driving vapor is utilized in a polytropic process for compressing the vapor masses which are then discharged to the condenser in an isobaric process when the chamber approaches minimum volume.
Claims8
A method of refrigeration by means of:
- a condenser for liquefying a refrigerant, a vaporizer for vaporizing some of the liquefied refrigerant and thereby absorbing heat provided from a heat source for powering refrigeration cycle, an evaporator for evaporating some of the refrigerant and thereby refrigerating a space to be cooled, and a vapor-driven variable-volume machine having a variable-volume chamber, an energy-storing rotary member, a single outlet, and separate first and second inlets, comprising the steps of:
- passing a portion of the liquid refrigerant output of said condenser to said evaporator;
- vaporizing said portion of said liquid refrigerant in said vaporizer while absorbing heat in said refrigerant from a heat source provided for powering a refrigeration cycle;
- concurrently with said vaporizing step, passing another portion of the liquefied refrigerant output of said condenser to said evaporator and evaporating said last-mentioned portion of said condenser output in said evaporator to provide cooling;
- feeding the output vapor of said vaporizer to the said first inlet of said variable-volume machine and simultaneously feeding the output vapor of said evaporator to said second inlet of said variable-volume machine;
- operating said variable-volume machine by the substeps of:
- admitting to the variable-volume chamber of said machine, through said first inlet, a quantity of output vapor of said vaporizer and permitting it to perform first isobaric work and then polytropic work to increase the volume of the chamber while storing energy in the flywheel,
- admitting to said variable-volume chamber, through said second inlet at constant pressure, a quantity of the output vapor of said evaporator and thereby accelerating the increase of the chamber volume to its maximum,
- utilizing the energy stored in the energy-storing rotary member to compress both said quantities of vapor, together, in a polytropic process by reduction of the volume of said chamber, and
- discharging said quantities of vapor to the input of said condenser in an isobaric process when the volume of said chamber approaches its minimum, and
- converting said vapor discharged by said machine to the liquid state in said condenser.
8 more elements
A refrigeration apparatus comprising:
- a condenser for liquefying a refrigerant medium having a branched discharge duct connected thereto for leading first and second portions of said liquefied refrigerant respectively to a driving loop nad to a refrigerating loop;
- a vaporizer, including a heater and having its refrigerant input and output connected to said driving loop for receiving liquid refrigerant from the driving loop branch of the condenser discharge duct, for converting the refrigerant so received to vapor, and for delivering said vapor at a pressure suitable for powering the apparatus;
- a refrigerating evaporator having cooling passages connected in said refrigerating loop for producing refrigeration by the conversion of liquid refrigerant received from said refrigeration loop branch of the condenser discharge duct into vapor, and having a vapor discharge;
- a vapor-driven variable-volume machine having a rotatable inertial mass and having a variable-volume chamber with a single outlet port, a first inlet port, and a second inlet port, for storing energy in said inertial mass by expansion of vapor of said refrigerant medium and for compressing said refrigerant vapor by means of energy so stored and delivering said compressed vapor to said condenser, said first inlet port being connected to the output of said vaporizer, said second inlet port being connected to the vapor discharge of said evaporator and said outlet port being connected to said condenser, said ports being openable and closeable in accordance with the cycle of said machine.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.