GB2199899A - Fuel displacement or compression - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention is for a method of fluid displacement or compression by a process of vacuum inducement through suction 1, 10 and delivery nozzles 4, 12 including a provision to control this action in an apparatus employing such a method, by the regulation of the fluid supply thereto or delivery thereby directly by a valve or louvre, e.g. louvres 9, or indirectly by the variation of the strength of the vacuum producing said fluid displacement or compression therein, for example by altering the speed of vacuum pump 14, or stopping this device. A reaction motor incorporating a fluid displacement or compression system according to the invention is also disclosed. <IMAGE>

Description

A METHOD OF FLUID DISPLACEMENT OR COMPRESSION This invention relates specifically to a method of fluid displacement or compression by a vacuum inducement process including a provision to regulate the magnitude of said action even to the point of its stoppage.

The invention is an improvement over the fluid displacement or compression method disclosed in my U.K. patent application No. 8601349.

According to the present invention, a method of fluid displacement or compression consisting primarily of the induction of a fluid flow by vacuum action through a suction nozzle provision and the projection of the induced fluid stream or streams leaving said suction nozzle provision into a delivery nozzle system, or a multiform such method comprising a series of two or more such fluid induction and delivery stages, characterized by the inclusion of an additional provision to regulate or stop the fluid displacement or compression by said method, forms the relevant material.

The invention will now be described in a more explicit manner with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a purely diagrammatic illustration of a reaction motor employing a fluid displacement or compression method according to the invention, in partly fragmentary form.

In the reaction motor shown in the top half of the drawing,the vacuum inducing the fluid displacement is itself induced by an ejector 1 operated by said fluid and withdrawing ambient fluid from the vacuum chamber of the motor's fluid displacement means through a conduit 2, which has a regulating valve 3. The mixed working and ambient fluids exhaust via a nozzle 4 into a receiver 5 and impinge on the left-hand end of said receiver, some of their kinetic energy being lost due to shock.

Thereafter the mixed fluids are returned to the suction side of the motor's fluid displacement means by a pipe 6. Due to this energy loss the reactive thrust of the fluid jet exhausting through nozzle 4 is greater than the counter-thrust exerted on the said end of receiver 5.

By opening or closing valve 3 the vacuum inducing the fluid displacement and thus the motor's thrust may be regulated. Ambient fluid may also be admitted to ejector 1 e.g. from the atmosphere, by a louvre 7 with the same effect. Optionally, the receiver 5 embodies a perforated baffle 8 on which the fluid entering said receiver impinges before striking its end. The motor's working cycle is terminated by the fluid displacement regulation means, viz. by the full closure of valve 3 or full opening of louvre 7.

Another method of regulating the fluid displacement through the motor is by the use of a control valve not shown, embodied in the fluid return pipe 6, throttling the supply of spent fluid to the motor's fluid displacement means.

Referring to the lower half of the drawing, fluid enters the fluid displacement means through louvres 9, which may be closed to regulate or stop this action, and is induced through a suction nozzle 10 by a vacuum present in a chamber 11 (the "vacuum chamber"). The fluid jet ejected from nozzle 10 passes into a delivery nozzle 12 and upon leaving said nozzle 12 strikes a three row strut assembly 13 which by shock reduces the kinetic energy of said jet. The fluid, which is a liquid, then falls to the bottom of a receiver 5 wherein said struts are positioned, and is directed through a return pipe 6 therefrom back to the suction side of the motor's fluid displacement means.In this design the ambient fluid initially present in the vacuum cbamber 11 is evacuated by a turbocentrifugal pump 14, regulation of the speed of which is also used to vary said vacuum and the fluid displacement through nozzle 10.

Alternatively, ambient fluid is admitted by a valve 15 to vacuum chamber 11 when so required, for the same purpose.

of such valves are a necessary provision when a multistage fluid displacement system is employed.

The valve 15 is replaced by a louvre in another design.

A preferred construction of the device 14 comprises a turbine driven centrifugal vacuum pump the driving means i.e. said turbine, of which is operated by some of the displaced or compressed fluid, for example by compressed air passed to it from the receiver 5 shown in the top half of the drawing.

The overall thrust developed by the reaction motors described is in a direction from the left-hand side of the drawing to its right-hand side. This is because some of the kinetic energy of the fluid striking the end of receiver 5 or its baffle 8 or strut assembly 13 is converted into frictional heat and the counter-thrust of said fluid is thus reduced.

It is practical to cool the struts 13, which in this case would be tubular, by passing a suitable coolant, for example some of the spent displaced working liquid, through them, the coolant heat then being dissipated in an embodied radiator fed with said coolant, the kinetic energy of the displaced fluid possibly being further reduced, upon striking said struts, by this means. The baffle 8 and the left-hand end of receiver 5 can be similarly cooled by passing coolant through the follow interior of said baffle and a jacket 16 covering said receiver end of the motor shown in the top half of the drawing.

My aforementioned patent application having an earlier filing date only discloses the basic principle of fluid displacement or compression by vacuum induction.

The return of the liquid to the suction side of the fluid displacement means by pipe 6 (lower half of drawing) is also regulated by the louvres 9, but a valve can be provided in said pipe for said purpose.

In a further arrangement the flow of fluid displaced or compressed by the method is regulated by valve means placed at the delivery side, for example in the ejector 1 or in delivery nozzle 12 of the reaction motors described, of the fluid displacement or compression means.

Although the present invention is disclosed on particular apparatus including the fluid displacement or compression regulating provision, it may be applied to all kinds of open or closed circuit engines and devices, such as fluid driven turbine plants, jet propulsion units, fluid ejectors and pumps, air compressors and the like, using the method referred to, it being practical to control the power output and thrust of turbine engines and jet propulsion units by said provision.

If the vacuum producing ejector (such as ejector 1) is operated by for example combustion gas in a ram jet employing the basic air compression method, it is practical to regulate the vacuum and the thrust produced by the engine simply by controlling said engine's fuel supply and like working fluid generation means. This also applies to engines and apparatus in which the fluid displacement or compression is only partly effected by said method, and including said ejector.

The fluid displacement or compression provisions described giving control of the fluid induction are capable of use singlely or in any chosen combination depending on the design of the apparatus to which they are applied.

Ambient fluid, which may be recycled, can also be evacuated from the vacuum chamber 11 of the example shown in the lower half of the drawing, when starting its, said example's, working cycle, by a portable vacuum pump connected e.g. by a pipe or a flexible pipe and a suitable coupling to valve 15 during said period, or a combination of this and other methods of withdrawing said fluid may be employed, (during said phase).

Claims (10)

Claims

1. A method of fluid displacement or compression consisting primarily of the induction of a fluid flow by vacuum action through a suction nozzle provision and the projection of the induced fluid stream or streams leaving said suction nozzle provision into a delivery nozzle system, or a multiform such method comprising a series of two or more such fluid induction and delivery stages, characterized by the inclusion of an additional provision to regulate or stop the fluid displacement or compression by said method.

2. A method as defined in Claim 1, wherein the regulation or stoppage of the fluid displacement or compression is effected by varying the strength of the vacuum inducing it, said fluid process.

3. A method as defined in Claim 1, wherein the regulation or stoppage of the fluid displacement or compression is effected directly by the control of the supply or/ and deliveryof said fluid.

II. A method as defined in Claim 1 and Claim 2, wherein the variation in the strength of the vacuum is achieved by the admission or control thereof of an ambient fluid quantity into said vacuum entity.

5. A method as defined in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the variation of the strength of the vacuum is achieved by the regulation of the action of the means producing it (said vacuum) by the obstruction or partial obstruction of the evacuation of fluid from the vacuum space or system by an ejector said means, or by regulating the motive fluid supply of such an ejector means or by altering the speed of a rotary turbo said means.

6. A method as defined in Claim 1, wherein the regulation of the fluid displacement or compression is effected by a combination of any of the systems specified in Claims 2 to 5.

7. A method as defined in any previous Claim, including the use of louvre or valve means for the control or stoppage of the working or/and ambient fluid flow, supply or delivery or, as appropriate, for the partial such fluid movement control or stoppage, said ambient fluid flow being directly into the vacuum space or spaces or into the suction side of an ejector vacuum producing means.

8. A method as defined in any previous Claim, wherein the starting of the working cycle is obtained or partially obtained by the use of a portable vacuum producing means.

9. A reaction motor employing the method defined in any previous Claim(s), comprising a fluid displacement or compression and control means according to the invention, a receiver accepting the said displaced or compressed (working) fluid and arranged to reduce the kinetic energy of this fluid by a process of its, said fluids impingement in jet form on the inside of one end of said receiver or/and on strut or baffle means located in said receiver downstream of the entry point of said fluid, said receiver end and said strut or baffle assemblies optionally being objectively cooled (to increase said energy loss) by a circulating coolant fluid passed through a cooling jacket provision around said receiver end or through hollow interior spaces of said strut or baffle means, and a radiator fed therewith and dissipating the heat of, said coolant medium, the purpose of said reduction in the kinetic energy and thus the momentum of said (working) fluid jet effluence being to derive a positive overall thrust reaction, in the (closed) working system of this motor, in a direction opposite to that of the motion of said efflux, for any use practical, said working fluid being continuously recycled during said operation, after its energy (and momentum) loss.

10. A method or apparatus substantially as hereinbefore defined and described.