Intercooler for supercharged internal combustion engine
AssigneeNissan Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorYoshimasa Hayashi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A supercharged engine intercooler includes a coolant jacket in heat exchange with the hot compressed air from the supercharger. The coolant in the jacket is permitted to boil and the vapor condensed in a radiator. The rate of condensation during high engine load is maintained sufficiently high to induce sub-atmospheric pressures within the radiator and coolant jacket which lowers the boiling point of the coolant, while during low load operation the rate of condensation can be reduced to raise the pressure in the coolant jacket and thus the boiling point of the coolant to rise above 100.degree. C. Upon stoppage of the engine, the coolant jacket and radiator are completely filled with liquid coolant to prevent contaminating atmospheric air from leaking into the system.
Claims7
In an internal combustion engine having a combustion chamber:
- an induction passage leading to said combustion chamber;
- a supercharger for discharging air under pressure into said induction passage;
- and
- an intercooler associated with said induction passage for cooling the air discharged by said supercharger, said intercooler comprising:
- a conduit through which the air from said supercharger passes;
- a coolant jacket disposed about said conduit, said coolant jacket including means for receiving coolant in its liquid form and for discharging coolant in its gaseous form;
- a radiator in fluid communication with said coolant jacket for receiving said coolant in its gaseous form and condensing same to its liquid form;
- a sensor for sensing the temperature of the air emitted from said conduit;
- a device responsive to said sensor for controlling the rate of condensation of said gaseous coolant in said radiator;
- and
- a pump for returning condensed liquid coolant from said radiator to said coolant jacket.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.