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US 6,886,326 B2Granted
Quasi-isothermal brayton cycle engine
AssigneeThe Texas A&M University System
InventorsMark T. Holtzapple, G. Andrew Rabroker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An engine includes a compressor, and combustor, and an expander. The compressor compresses ambient air. The combustor burns the compressed air, and produces exhaust gasses. The expander receives the exhaust gases from the combustor, and expands the exhaust gasses. The compressor may be a gerotor compressor or a piston compressor having variable-dead-volume control. The expander may be a gerotor expander or a piston expander having variable-dead-volume control. Moreover, the engine may include a regenerative brake. The regenerative brake may include one or more valves coupled to the compressor, an expander clutch, and a compressor clutch. Specifically, during braking, the expander clutch is disengaged and the compressor clutch is engaged.
Claims47
An engine comprising:
- a compressor for compressing ambient air;
- a combustor for burning said compressed air, said combustor producing exhaust gasses;
- and
- an expander for receiving said exhaust gases from said combustor and expanding said exhaust gasses;
- wherein said compressor is a gerotor compressor, and wherein said engine further comprises variable compression-ratio control means for achieving a reduced compression ratio by enlarging a discharge port in a valve plate of said gerotor compressor and an inlet port of said expander.
2 more elements
An engine comprising:
- a compressor for compressing ambient air;
- a combustor for burning said compressed air, said combustor producing exhaust gasses;
- and
- an expander for receiving said exhaust gases from said combustor and expanding said exhaust gasses;
- wherein said expander is a gerotor expander, and wherein said engine further comprises variable compression-ratio control means for achieving an increased compression ratio by shrinking an inlet port in a valve plate of said gerotor expander and a discharge port of said compressor.
2 more elements
An engine comprising:
- a piston compressor for compressing ambient air;
- a combustor for burning said compressed air, said combustor producing exhaust gasses;
- a piston expander for receiving said exhaust gases from said combustor and expanding said exhaust gasses;
- a pressure tank for receiving and storing said compressed air from said compressor, and
- at least one variable-dead-volume devices in each of said expander and said compressor, which alter a compression ratio of said engine by increasing or decreasing a dead volume in each said expander and said compressor.
2 more elements
An engine comprising:
- a compressor for compressing ambient air;
- a combustor for burning said compressed air, said combustor producing exhaust gases;
- an expander for receiving said exhaust gases from said combustor and expanding said exhaust gases;
- and
- a regenerative brake comprising:
- a pressure tank wherein said pressure tank stores said compressed air during braking and releases said compressed air during acceleration from a stopped position;
- at least one valve coupled to said compressor;
- at least one valve coupled to said expander;
- at least one valve coupled to said pressure tank;
- an expander clutch;
- and
- a compressor clutch, wherein during braking said expander clutch is disengaged and said compressor clutch is engaged, and during acceleration said expander clutch is engaged and said compressor clutch is disengaged.
9 more elements
An engine comprising:
- a compressor for compressing ambient air, wherein said compressor is a gerotor compressor, in which a shape of an inlet port of said gerotor compressor is changed using variable-compression-ratio control;
- a combustor for burning said compressed air, said combustor producing exhaust gases;
- an expander for receiving said exhaust gases from said combustor and expanding said exhaust gases;
- and
- an igniter selected from the group consisting of a spark plug and a rail gun spark plug, wherein said igniter fires in a manner selected from the group consisting of continuously and periodically;
- wherein said engine further comprises variable compression-ratio control means for altering a compression ratio by concordant adjustments to sizes of an inlet port of said expander and a discharge port in a valve plate of said compressor.
3 more elements
An engine comprising:
- a compressor for compressing ambient air;
- a combustor for burning said compressed air, said combustor producing exhaust gases;
- an expander for receiving said exhaust gases from said combustor and expanding said exhaust gases, wherein said expander is a gerotor expander, in which a shape of an inlet port of said gerotor expander is changed using variable-compression ratio control;
- and
- an igniter selected from the group consisting of a spark plug and a rail gun spark plug, wherein said igniter fires a manner selected from the group consisting of continuously and periodically;
- wherein said engine further comprises variable compression-ratio control means for achieving a compression ratio by concordant adjustments to sizes of an inlet port in a valve plate of said expander and a discharge port of said compressor.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.