GB1437996A - Thermodynamic system including vortex separating means in combination with a pair of feedback loops - Google Patents

Abstract

1437996 Vapour power plant R D HAWKINS 13 Nov 1973 52523/73 Heading F1Q [Also in Division F4] Vortex tubes are employed in a thermodynamic system including a heat engine to separate input gases into a pair of relatively low-pressure flow components having higher and lower temperatures than the input flow, the components passing through a first feedback loop including the heat engine and a second feedback loop, respectively, to the vortex tubes inlet. As shown in Fig. 1, the first feedback loop comprises a primary heat exchanger 11, in which gas from the high temperature pump 15 is heated by an external source, a heat engine 12 and an adiabatic compressor 13. The pump and compressor are driven by the output shaft of the heat engine, the primary load of which may be an electrical induction machine utilized as a motor or generator of a vehicle. The second feedback loop includes a low temperature pump 16 and a low temperature heat exchanger 17. The system, apart from the heat exchanger 17, may be located in a refrigerator and the heat withdrawn therefrom is used as the input Q s of the heat exchanger 17. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 2, the system is applied to a turbine 25 and a second vortex bank is included in the first feedback loop to provide relatively hot gas flows for vapourizing and heating the working fluid after it has been condensed into a liquid, the latent heat of vapourization being supplied as one of the scavenged heat inputs to the heat exchanger of the second feedback loop. The working fluid may be dichordifluormethane. A two-stage turbine system is described with reference to Fig. 4 (not shown).