GB427957A - Process of and apparatus for producing heat and cold - Google Patents

Abstract

427,957. Refrigerating. LEBRE, A. F., 74, Boulevard Exelmans, Paris. Aug. 28, 1933, No. 23885. [Class 29] Cold-air and like non-condensing machines and systems.-A process for producing heat and cold consists of an air or gas cycle comprising compression, heat exchange at high pressure during which heat is evolved, expansion, and heat exchange at low pressure during which heat is absorbed, the work done during expansion being utilized to effect cornpression by the interposition of a pressure - exchange air current or partition between the expanding air and the air under compression. The process may be carried out in apparatus comprising a rotor 1, Fig. 3, having a ring of chambers 2 formed by partitions 3 and enclosed by a closely-fitting casing 4. During the passage of the chambers through the expansion zone C-D, puffs of air, which form the pressure-exchange current shown by diagonal shading in Figs. 1 and 7, flow through the stationary connecting ducts 8 to the chambers passing through the compression zone AB. The air remaining in the chambers as they reach the end of the expansion zone is exhausted into the lowpressure heat - exchanger 7<1>, Fig. 1, during the passage of the chambers through the zone DA by warmed air from the heat-exchanger propelled by a fan 9<1>. Thus, the chambers reaching the compression zone AB are filled with relatively warm air at a low pressure. The air compressed in the chambers is exhausted into the heat-exchanger 7 during the passage of the chambers through the zone BC by cooled compressed air propelled by a fan 9. The speed of the fan 9 is adjusted so that the pressure-exchange current just reaches the end of each chamber as the chamber, filled with relatively cool compressed air, shown by the vertical shading in Figs. 1 and 7, is about to enter the expansion zone CD. The pressure difference between the air in the high and low pressure heat-exchangers is maintained by a compressor 13. To prevent leakage of air between any two adjacent chambers over the outer edges of the partition between them, the partitions are made hollow and, in the expansion zone, connected through branches on the connecting ducts with chambers at a lower pressure than that in either of the chambers separated by a partition so that air from both the chambers flows into the partition. In the compression zone, the partitions between adjacent chambers are supplied through other branches on the ducts 8 with air at a pressure greater than that in the chambers on either side of a partition so that air leaks from the outer edges of the partition into the adjacent chambers. In a modification, the changes of pressure produced in the heat - exchangers are compensated by a rotary compressor 13, Fig. 13, of the radially-sliding vane type mounted eccentrically within the rotor 1 and communicating through ports 16, 161 with the chambers and the hollow partitions respectively. The ducts 5, 6 connecting the zones BC, DA with the heat-exchangers are parabolic in form.