Continuous external heat engine
OwnerMarius A. Paul, Ana Paulinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A thermal engine utilizing a positive displacement rotary expander and preferably a positive displacement rotary compressor in conjunction with an external substantially steady-state thermal source, such as a continuous fuel combustor, the external source heating a high pressure gas that is directed from the thermal source to the rotary expander wherein the gases expand driving a rotor in the positive displacement rotary engine before discharge. An additional embodiment of the thermal engine includes a modified epitrochoidal chamber configuration for the compression cycle and the expansion cycle to utilize the total internal volume for each compression pulse and expansion pulse for obtaining improved thermal efficiency in a manner similar to super long stroke reciprocal piston engines.
Claims8
A Wankel-type, volumetric displacement mechanism comprising a housing having an internal, elongated, epitrochoidal cavity having two lobed cavity sections and a substantially triangular rotary piston with three symmetrically spaced apexes eccentrically rotatable in the cavity with the piston and housing forming variable volume chambers within the cavity as the piston rotates wherein the housing has a curved, perimeter wall with two opposed elongated wall segments forming opposite sides of the cavity with a first side of the elongated cavity having a first wall segment having a gas inlet and a gas outlet communicating with respective cavity sections of the cavity, and an opposite second side of the elongated cavity having a second wall segment with a central portion of the wall segment having an interconnecting channel means for allowing free and substantially unrestricted passage of gas from one cavity section to the other as delimited by the piston, wherein the channel means comprises a channel in the central portion of the wall segment on the second side of the cavity, wherein the channel has a length substantially equal to, but less than the distance between adjacent apexes of the piston, wherein an extended volumetric displacement occurs in a chamber formed in the cavity by the rotating piston and the wall of the housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.