Hot wall combustion insert for a rotary vane pumping machine

• US 6,321,713 B1
• Filed: 08/02/2000
• Issued: 11/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mallen Research Limited Partnership
• Original Assignee: Mallen Research Limited
• Inventors: Mallen, Brian D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Denion, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Trieu, Thai Ba
• Application Number:
  US09/631,882
• Time in Patent Office: 482 Days
• Field of Search: 123/243, 123/306, 418/152, 418/218, 418/219
• US Class Current: 123/243
• CPC Class Codes: F01C 1/3443 with a separation element located between the inlet and outlet opening
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 2075/027 four

Abstract

A rotary vane combustion engine is provided that uses a hot wall combustion insert to provide the heat for combusting a fuel-air charge. The rotary vane combustion engine includes a rotor having a plurality of vanes, a stator enclosing the rotor to form a plurality of vane cells between the plurality of vanes, one or more intake ports for providing intake gas to the vane cells, a fuel source for mixing fuel with the intake gas to form a fuel-air charge having a fuel-to-air equivalence ratio, a hot wall combustion insert with an exposed surface provided on the stator for igniting the fuel-air charge during a combustion cycle and producing an exhaust gas, and one or more exhaust ports for removing the exhaust gas from one of the vane cells. The hot wall combustion insert provides the heat to combust the fuel-air charge, and operates on the gas over a wide area, rather than only at a point or a given line of contact. Once the hot wall combustion insert surface reaches the ignition temperature, it can use the heat from the combustion in a given vane cell to maintain its temperature for combustion in the next vane cell.

Claims

1. The rotary vane combustion engine, comprising:

a rotor having a plurality of vanes;

a stator enclosing the rotor to form a plurality of vane cells between the plurality of vanes;

one or more intake ports for providing intake gas to the vane cells;

a fuel source for mixing fuel with the intake gas to form a fuel-air charge having a fuel-to-air equivalence ratio;

a hot wall combustion insert with an exposed surface provided on the stator for igniting the fuel-air charge during a combustion cycle and producing an exhaust gas; and

one or more exhaust ports for removing the exhaust gas from the vane cells.

2. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 1, wherein during normal operation the exposed surface is maintained at an ignition temperature sufficient to ignite the fuel-air charge.

3. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 2, wherein the fuel-to-air equivalence ratio of the fuel-air charge is less than about 0.65.

4. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 2, wherein the ignition temperature is about 600°

C. or greater.

5. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 2, wherein the exposed surface is coated with a combustion catalyst to allow ignition of the fuel-air charge to be performed at a lower surface temperature than would be possible without the combustion catalyst.

6. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 5, wherein the combustion catalyst comprises one of gamma alumina and platinum.

7. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 5, wherein the ignition temperature is between 200°

C. and 400°

C.

8. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 2, wherein the hot wall combustion insert is externally heated to the surface temperature.

9. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 2, further comprising a combustion initiator for starting combustion during a startup operation of the rotary vane combustion engine,

wherein heat from the fuel-air charge combusting raises the temperature of the hot wall combustion insert, and

wherein the combustion initiator operates until the exposed surface is heated to the ignition temperature.

10. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 9, wherein the combustion initiator comprises one of a spark plug and a glow plug.

11. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 9, wherein after the combustion initiator starts combustion, heat from combustion in successive vane cells maintains the hot wall combustion insert at the combustion surface temperature.

12. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 1, wherein the hot wall combustion insert comprises a material having near zero thermal expansion.

13. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 12, wherein the hot wall combustion insert comprises a ceramic material.

14. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 13, wherein the hot wall combustion insert comprises a material from the class known as sodium zirconium phosphates.

15. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 14, wherein the hot wall combustion insert comprises one of calcium magnesium zirconium phosphate, barium zirconium phosphate, barium zirconium phospho-silicate, and sodium zirconium phosphate.

16. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 1, wherein the hot wall combustion insert comprises a curved surface that forms part of an interior wall of the stator, and faces each vane cell during the combustion cycle.

17. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 1, wherein the combustion cycle is performed when the vane cells are at about peak compression.

18. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 1, wherein the hot wall combustion insert is positioned on an inside wall of the stator from about 5 degrees before top dead center.

19. The rotary vane combustion engine, as recited in claim 1, further comprising a rotary scavenging mechanism for performing positive-displacement scavenging of at least one of the exhaust and intake gases.