Regenerative heat exchanger and system
AssigneeBalanced Engines, Inc.
InventorBruce L. Zornes
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A regenerative heat exchanger in which a compact arrangement of alternating thermally conductive and thermally insulating solid layers have an array of communicating passages therethrough. One of the outer thermally conductive layers is heated and the other is cooled. The intermediate thermally conductive layer(s) has a regenerative function when flow is alternated through the passages. Although each passage is preferably small, the total number of passages in the array is such as to give a large combined cross-sectional area for heat transfer providing improved overall performance and efficiency when incorporated in stirling and other heat engines without sacrificing structural integrity.
Claims21
A regenerative heat exchange system comprising:
- a set of alternating solid layers of thermally insulating material and thermally conductive material each having an array of passageways through its thickness which communicate with passageways in adjacent layers, there being at least three of said thermally conductive layers, two of which are at opposite ends of said set, and the remainder of which are intermediate regenerative layers;
- heat energy supply means for constantly applying heat energy to the thermally conductive layer at one end of said set;
- heat energy removal means for constantly removing heat energy from the thermally conductive layer at the other end of said set;
- respective end chambers communicating with said arrays of passageways of the thermally conductive end layers at the ends of said set;
- and
- means for alternately supplying and discharging a heat-energy transporting compressible fluid to and from said end chambers to thereby alternate the flow direction of said fluid through said passageways, whereby heat energy is transferred directly from said fluid to said regenerative layers in one direction of travel of said fluid, and is transferred directly from said regenerative layers to said fluid in the opposite direction of travel of said fluid, said regenerative layers collectively having sufficient heat capacity for regeneration.
A heat exchanger comprising:
- a set of alternating thermally insulating and thermally conductive layers each having an array of passageways through its thickness which communicate with respective passageways in adjacent of said layers, there being at least three of said thermally conductive layers, two of which are at opposite ends of said set, and the remainder of which are intermediate regenerative layers;
- the passageways in said thermally conductive layers having a different cross-sectional area than respective communicating passageways in said thermally insulating layers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.