Stirling engine
AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsHiroshi Yaguchi, Daisaku Sawada
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A stirling engine includes a flow path which communicates a working space of the stirling engine and a crankcase of the stirling engine. An output of the stirling engine is controlled so that the output lowers when a pressure inside the working space is higher than a pressure in the crankcase, with a transfer of a fluid in the working space to the crankcase via the flow path thereby causing a decrease in the pressure of the working space.
Claims9
A stirling engine of a two-piston type in which a working fluid reciprocates between a compression space which is a working space of a low-temperature side cylinder and an expansion space which is a working space of a high-temperature side cylinder, comprising:
- a compression-space-side path that communicates the compression space with a crankcase when a power piston of the low-temperature side cylinder is positioned at a lower dead point side, to allow the working fluid to flow only in a direction from the crankcase to the compression space;
- a compression-space-side valve that is arranged in the compression-space-side path;
- an expansion-space-side path that communicates the expansion space with the crankcase;
- an expansion-space-side valve that is arranged in the expansion-space-side path;
- and
- a check valve that is arranged in the expansion-space-side path to allow the working fluid to flow only in a direction from the expansion space to the crankcase,
- the compression-space-side valve being caused to be closed and the expansion-space-side valve being caused to be open when the output of the stirling engine is decreased, and
- the expansion-space-side valve being caused to be closed and the compression-space-side valve being caused to be open when the output of the stirling engine is increased.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.