Stirling engine burner

Details Stirling engine burner Stirling engine burner

2000-08-04

2001-04-24

Nguyen, Hoang (Department: 3748)

Power plants

Motor operated by expansion and/or contraction of a unit of...

Unit of mass is a gas which is heated or cooled in one of a...

C060S524000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06220030

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a burner. The present invention is more particularly concerned with a burner for use in a heat exchange arrangement. It is particularly suitable for use with an external combustion engine where the engine is powered by a heat source and is not fuel dependent.
With an external combustion engine the heat developed from combustion of fuel in the burner is transferred through a heat exchanger to the working fluid of the engine. Such an external combustion engine can, for example, be one which operates on a Stirling Cycle.
BACKGROUND ART
A Stirling Cycle engine operates on a closed thermodynamic cycle in which one mass of gas is repeatedly expanded and compressed. Unlike an internal combustion engine, there are no valves, intake or exhaust ports, and no combustion in the cylinders. The engine therefore has very low noise output and can be dynamically balanced, thereby resulting in virtually no engine vibration. Little maintenance is required because the combustion products are kept away from the moving engine parts. A Stirling Cycle engine operates with externally heated cylinder heads. The burner of the present invention is thus particularly suited for providing the external heat source.
Desirably, a burner for a Stirling Cycle engine is able to burn different liquid and gaseous fuels. The burner should be quiet in operation otherwise the advantage of a quiet engine operation is lost. The burner desirably also has cool external surfaces and is sufficiently compact for mounting with the cylinder head of the engine. It goes without saying that the burner should also be efficient.
Examples of such burners can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,352,269 (Dineen), 5,005,349 (Momose) and 5,590,526 (Cho). In Cho and Momose, either the inlet air or the exhaust air follows a passage that allows for heat exchange from the combustion chamber. Momose also permits some heat exchange between the exhaust gases and the inlet air, but only on one pass of the inlet air past the exhaust gas passageway. Dineen discloses a burner with an annular heat exchange means and an annular burner about the Stirling engine. The exhaust is centrally located at the top of the burner.
However these three burners have a limited amount of thermal connection between the inlet air and exhaust gases, reducing the efficiency of the heat exchange aspects of the burner. Also, with the burner disclosed in Dineen portions of the exterior of the burner will be hot as they are immediately adjacent the exhaust gas passageways of the burner.
A further difficulty of the disclosed burners is the complexity of manufacture or construction of the burner disclosed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a burner for an external combustion engine which effectively addresses the question of efficient heat exchange with in the burner. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a burner which addresses the question of simplicity of manufacture.
A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a burner which meets or goes some way to achieving all or some of the aforementioned requirements or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a burner or an external combustion engine, said burner comprising:
an external housing;
a shroud within the external housing, said shroud in use defining at least in part a centrally located combustion chamber;
inlet air means from which inlet air is directed over an internal wall surface of the housing for cooling thereof;
guide means for directing inlet air to the combustion chamber, said guide means directing the inlet air such that, in the use of the burner, the inlet air effects a cooling of the shroud prior to the inlet air entering the combustion chamber;
fuel inlet means directing the fuel to the combustion chamber;
an igniter for igniting the fuel; and
gas exhaust means; characterized in that
said external housing, the shroud and the guide means are formed as a series of nested layers about the combustion chamber, said layers being arranged to maximized the heat exchange between any two adjacent layers.
In the preferred form of the invention there is provided heat exchange means whereby inlet air, after having applied a cooling effect to the housing, is heated before being directed to the shroud. Preferably, the heat exchange means has inlet means for receiving exhaust gases from the combustion chamber, and outlet means connected to the gas exhaust means.
In the preferred form of the invention the burner is adapted for mounting to the external combustion engine, which most preferably is an engine operating on a Stirling Cycle.
Preferably, the means for directing air flow to the combustion space includes heat exchange means with the exhaust gases, for heating said air flow.
Preferably, the combustion space is defined at least in part by the shroud over which air heated by said heat exchange means passes before entering said combustion space.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3942324 (1976-03-01), Johansson et al.
patent: 3965976 (1976-06-01), Barton
patent: 4069671 (1978-01-01), Berntell
patent: 5590526 (1997-01-01), Cho
patent: 5794444 (1998-08-01), Hofbauer et al.

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