Exhaust gas recirculation cooler

Abstract

An exhaust gas recirculation cooler (EGR cooler) provided in an exhaust gas recirculation line departing from an exhaust system and opening into an intake system of an internal combustion engine is configured as a heat pipe heat exchanger including at least one enclosed and evacuated heat pipe filled with a working medium, the first end of the heat pipe being subject to exhaust gas from the exhaust gas recirculation line and the second end being in contact with a heat sink. In order to provide a compact design which will permit simple and effective cooling of the recycled exhaust gas, the longitudinal axis of the EGR cooler is aligned in parallel with the axis of the at least one heat pipe, so that an essentially axial flow of exhaust gas is obtained in the EGR cooler.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.