THERMODYNAMIC DEVICE AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING MECHANICAL ENERGY FROM HEAT USING MULTIPLE FLUIDS, MIXED AND THEN SEPARATED, IN ONE OR MORE THERMODYNAMIC CYCLES.

摘要

The device and method of the invention employ the mixing of a thermodynamic fluid with other, incompressible fluids having a high volumetric heat capacity, at certain steps of a thermodynamic cycle. In these steps of the thermodynamic cycle, the incompressible fluid accompanies the thermodynamic fluid in transformations in which it generates or receives work under quasi-isothermal conditions, and/or the incompressible fluid exchanges heat with the thermodynamic fluid in transformations in which it neither generates nor receives work with respect to the outside, and/or the two fluids are present in the same zone where the heat at high temperature is generated, called primary heat, for example from reactions with the oxygen contained in the thermodynamic fluid, and in which the presence of the incompressible fluid makes it possible to control the reactions and the temperature therein. These arrangements are by nature conducive to the reversibility of the thermodynamic transformations, allow thermodynamic cycles having a high efficiency and allow various types of reactants to be used in a flexible manner, such as solids, generating the primary heat mainly in internal combustion cycles or with more general chemical reactions than combustion. The qualitative and quantitative conditions of the mixing between a thermodynamic fluid and an incompressible fluid according to the present invention are defined therein. The expansion or compression apparatus is especially volumetric or dynamic apparatus, modified and adapted according to the invention when a thermodynamic fluid and an incompressible fluid are present as a mixture therein. The device may implement various thermodynamic cycles, for example an Ericsson cycle or a Brayton cycle. The device applies to the fields of the generation and use of mechanical energy, especially the propulsion of vehicles or the conversion of mechanical energy.