Abstract:
The rotary engine is an expansion fluid turbine for supplying power to lawn mowers, small vehicles, electrical generators, and the like. Fuel and oxygen are supplied from bladder tanks to combustion chamber, while water is supplied to an annular sleeve surrounding the combustion chamber in a mist by a spray nozzle. Ignition of the fuel-oxygen mixture by a glow plug heats the mist to supply steam for turning a rotor. The rotor has a circular top plate with a plurality of pin diffusers depending from its lower surface, and an annular bottom plate with a plurality of pin diffusers attached to its upper surface. A swirl pan has a flange on which the lower plate seats, and defines a swirl chamber. The steam enters the swirl chamber through a bifurcated intake conduit. Swirling in one direction causes rotation, while swirling in the opposite direction causes braking.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to a rotary engine or expansion fluid turbine powered by a fluid, such as gas and steam, having a novel rotor.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    The internal combustion engine is ubiquitous in today&#39;s society, being used to power vehicles, lawnmowers, emergency electricity generators, and the like. Nevertheless, the internal combustion engine has several drawbacks, including a large number of moving parts which increase the cost of manufacture, maintenance and repair; seals and lubrication for the moving parts; high operating temperature and pressure; high ambient noise level; and the adverse affects of exhaust emissions on the environment. Steam engines and turbines offer an alternative, but the problem with steam turbines is to develop an efficient engine which generates sufficient horsepower to drive a load without requiring a large power plant for producing the steam required. Several patents have been directed towards improving the efficiency of steam turbines and rotary engines driven by fluids.  
           [0005]    U.S. Pat. No. 350,362, issued Oct. 5,  1886  to E. J. Hawley, shows a centrifugal pump having a piston mounted on a rotating shaft, the piston having two faces which are spaced apart by arcuate arms which spiral radially outward, increasing in width from the center to the periphery, which define waterways that permit gritty water to move outward to a removable filter lining, and thence to an outlet. U.S. Pat. No. 461,565, issued Oct. 20, 1891 to Bookwalter et al., describes a water wheel with buckets on both sides of the rim. A nozzle provides a jet of water which is split by a wedge shaped blade to divert the stream to both rows of buckets in order to drive the wheel.  
           [0006]    U.S. Pat. No. 521,713, issued Jun. 19, 1894 to G. M. Hopkins, discloses a steam turbine having a disk shaped wheel with a slot defined about its circumference and having radial wings, a nozzle directing steam and air into the slot against the radial wings to rotate the wheel. U.S. Pat. No. 858,635, issued Jul. 2, 1907 to E. J. St. Croix, teaches a wheel mounted on a shaft and disposed in a casing, the wheel having radial blades which are Z-shaped in cross section. Inlet and outlet valves are used to direct the flow of fluid through the blades, the direction of rotation of the wheel being reversed by reversing the direction of fluid flow.  
           [0007]    U.S. Pat. No. 1,362,853, issued Dec. 21, 1920 to L. A. Darling, shows a turbine wheel with buckets about its rim between spaced apart plates. U.S. Pat. No. 1,793,179, issued Feb. 17, 1931 to Lanterman et al., describes a two stage steam turbine having a high pressure end and a low pressure end. The rotor has a series of discs mounted in parallel, each disc having two plates joined back to back with the outer surface of each plate having buckets or cups extending radially. Steam is introduced against the edge of the discs in the high pressure end and expands into the low pressure end.  
           [0008]    U.S. Pat. No. 1,852,197, issued Mar. 27, 1934 to O. N. Davis, teaches a rotary engine having a rotor with annularly spaced inner and outer rims with septum walls separating the rims and defining passageways. The space between the inner and outer rim is curved and increases in cross sectional diameter from inside to outside. Nozzles in the stator inject fluid (steam, air, combustion gases) into the space between the rims. U.S. Pat. No. 2,780,436, issued Feb. 5, 1957 to H. T. Holzworth, shows a novel design of a nozzle for a nozzle plate.  
           [0009]    U.S. Pat. No. 2,923,526, issued Feb. 2, 1960 to G. Street, Jr., describes a turbine with a stator housing having a divergent outlet and a cylindrical chamber. A movable plunger is mounted in the outlet, with the rotor behind the plunger. Moving the plunger changes the outlet nozzle characteristics. U.S. Pat. No. 3,586,867, issued Jun. 22, 1971 to A. Maillet, teaches a turbine with a stator mounted on a shaft with a transverse rotor shaft mounted on the stator shaft. Rotors are mounted on the rotor shaft and have gear teeth which engage a track. A conduit directs steam against vanes on the rotor.  
           [0010]    U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,949, issued Apr. 29, 1975 to Hays et al., discloses the use of a first phase (liquid) and a 2nd phase (vaporizable fluid) to impact the blades of a turbine rotor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,991, issued Nov. 11, 1980 to J. M. Gamell, shows an annular rotor having a roughened surface which is propelled by a high pressure fluid jet directed against the roughened surface of the rotor.  
           [0011]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,949, issued Oct. 26, 1982 to J. M. Bailey, describes a turbine system with a speed sensor and a nozzle having internal flow diverters to divert the flow of fluid issuing from the nozzle to control velocity. U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,276, issued Jan. 1, 1985 to C. C. Reeves, discloses a pneumatic electrostatic spray gun which uses air directed in one direction to turn a rotor, and air flow in the opposite direction for braking the rotor in order to control the speed of rotation.  
           [0012]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,623, issued Dec. 17, 1991 to J. A. Hendershot, shows a bladder containment system for fuel tanks and the like having a rigid housing with a first flexible bladder inside the tank and a second flexible bladder inside the first with a vacuum monitoring system for evacuating space between the bladders. U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,378, issued Jan. 26, 1993 to J. A. Devine, Jr., teaches a vapor generating source having a combustion chamber receiving fuel and air which is ignited by a glow plug to heat liquid in mist form into a vapor which is directed to a transmission means for powering a motor. Exhaust gases from combustion are collected from the transmission and used in a heat exchanger to heat a liquid source into a mist which is then condensed, cooled in a radiator, and recycled.  
           [0013]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,533, issued Jan. 4, 1994 to P. D. Kapich, describes a low noise fan driven by compressed air having turbine blades and fan blades on the same hub, and having muffler plates for reducing noise. U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,542, issued Jan. 11, 1994 to Nakanishi, teaches a turbine for a turbocharger in which a spiral partition is formed on the outer periphery of a rotor with a large number of blades between the turns on the partition.  
           [0014]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,721, issued Sep. 24, 1996 to Kohmura et al., discloses a vapor phase growth system that uses a gas powered motor to turn wafers. U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,793, issued Mar. 6, 2001 to M. E. Bratten, shows a nozzle box mounted to a shaft to improve fluid flow in a turbine. U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,942, issued May 22, 2001 to W. P. White, teaches a turbine with no condenser and pump, the turbine having a drum and fluid exit ports for ejecting fluid as high pressure liquid so that the turbine also acts as a positive displacement pump.  
           [0015]    None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a rotary engine solving the aforementioned problems is desired.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0016]    The rotary engine is an expansion fluid turbine for supplying power to lawn mowers, small vehicles, electrical generators, and the like. Fuel and oxygen are supplied from bladder tanks to a combustion chamber, while water is supplied to an annular sleeve surrounding the combustion chamber in a mist by a spray nozzle. Ignition of the fuel-oxygen mixture by a glow plug heats the mist to supply steam for turning a rotor. The rotor has a circular top plate with a plurality of pin diffusers depending from its lower surface, and an annular bottom plate with a plurality of pin diffusers attached to its upper surface. A swirl pan has a flange on which the lower plate seats, and defines a swirl chamber. The steam enters the swirl chamber through a bifurcated intake conduit. Swirling in one direction causes rotation, while swirling in the opposite direction reverses rotation or causes braking. Steam condensate is recirculated by a pump to maintain pressure on the bladder tanks.  
           [0017]    Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a rotary engine which is a practical quiet engine of the expansion fluid turbine type having one rotating assembly.  
           [0018]    It is another object of the invention to provide an expansion fluid turbine with a controllable power output at various revolutions per minute with braking and reversing capabilities.  
           [0019]    It is a further object of the invention to provide an efficient rotary engine with minimal production and operating costs.  
           [0020]    Still another object of the invention is to provide a rotary engine of the expansion fluid turbine type which provides a clean, non-polluting source of power.  
           [0021]    It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.  
           [0022]    These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0023]    [0023]FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a rotary engine according to the present invention.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a turbine rotor according to the present invention.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 3 is a section view along the lines  3 - 3  of FIG. 1.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the swirl pan, showing an alternative embodiment of the intake conduit.  
         [0027]    Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0028]    The present invention is a rotary engine for supplying power to a lawnmower, small vehicle, emergency electrical generator, etc. As shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1, the rotary engine  10  includes a combustion chamber  12  surrounded by a bottle-shaped enclosure  14  or sleeve. The combustion chamber  12  is supplied with fuel and oxygen or air by deflatable, bladder-type fuel and oxygen tanks  16  and  18 , respectively. The fuel tank  16  and the oxygen tank  18  are disposed in a water reservoir  20  which is supplied with water to maintain external pressure on the bladder tanks  16  and  18 , thereby pressurizing the fuel supply. The fuel and oxygen from nozzle  26  mix in the combustion chamber  12 . Water from the reservoir  20  is supplied to the annular space between the enclosure  14  and the combustion chamber  12  by a spray nozzle  28  which forms a mist. The enclosure  14  converges to a neck  30  before diverging to form a pressure manifold  32  joined to the turbine&#39;s intake conduit  34 . The neck  30  has a variable orifice which may be defined by a valve  36  having a movable diaphragm to widen or narrow the orifice.  
         [0029]    The turbine&#39;s intake conduit  34  passes through a turbine casing  40 . A discharge tube or outlet pipe  42  exits the turbine casing  40 , and is connected to the water reservoir  20 . A pump  24  disposed in the casing  40  is used to recycle water (steam condensate) used to drive the turbine in order to pressurize the fuel cells  16  and  18 , the water being filtered by membrane filter  22 . A rotatable power shaft  44  extends transversely through the turbine casing  40  and is connected by a transmission means to a load (not shown). Fuel and air mix in the combustion chamber  12 , entering through the mixing nozzle  26 , and are ignited by a glow plug (not shown). Heat in the combustion chamber  12  reaches approximately 1500° F., and the walls of the combustion chamber  12  conduct heat so that the exterior surface of the walls reaches a temperature of about 350° F., causing the water mist to explode into steam seventeen hundred times in size. A mixture of combustion gases and steam pass through the variable orifice  36  in the neck of the enclosure and pressure manifold  32  to the swirl chamber  61  (seen in FIG. 2). The majority of the combustion gases and steam are forced by pressure into the conduit  34  to drive the turbine. The steam expands radially through the rotor assembly  50  and condenses and passes through openings  46  defined in the periphery of the lower plate  54  of the rotor  50  and membrane filter  22  and is recirculated by pump  24  to the water reservoir  20  to maintain pressure on the fuel cells  16  and  18 .  
         [0030]    Disposed within the turbine casing  40  is a water pump  24 , I membrane filter  22 , and a novel rotor assembly  50 , shown in FIG. 2. The rotor  50  comprises an upper plate  52  and a lower plate  54  which are fixedly attached to each other. The upper plate  52  is a circular plate, the power shaft  44  extending through the center of the upper plate  52  and being fixed thereto in order to rotate with the upper plate  52 . The lower plate  54  is an annular ring having the same diameter as the upper plate  52 , and has openings  46  defined about its periphery to allow steam condensate to escape into the turbine casing  40 . The rotor  50  receives velocity from a swirl pan  56  having a bottom  58  and a cylindrical or frusto-conical sidewall  60  defining a swirl chamber  61 . A flange  62  extends normal to and about the upper periphery of the sidewall  60 . The shaft  44  extends through the center of the bottom wall  58  and is supported for rotation by a bearing  64 . Swirl pan  56  is fixed to intake conduit  34  and casing  40  so that it does not rotate, the flange  62  being sandwiched between the upper plate  52  and the lower plate  54  with the sidewall  60  extending through the central opening defined in the lower plate  54 . An adjustable retainer ring  76  is fixed to the shaft  44  below swirl pan  56 .  
         [0031]    The rotor  50  has a plurality of pin diffusers  66  or projections disposed between the upper plate and the lower plate  54 . The pin diffusers  66  are preferably cylindrical in shape, and extend radially outward in a symmetrical pattern of concentric circles, as seen in FIG. 3, defining a plurality of circular passages of progressively increasing radius. The pin diffusers depending from the upper plate  52  are divided into an inner section  66   a  and an outer section  66   b  by an annular zone  67  sized and dimensioned for seating the upper plate  52  on the flange  62 . The pin diffusers  66  may be disposed only on the upper plate  52 , on both the upper  52  and lower  54  plates, or may extend between the upper  52  and lower  54  plates, as by rivets attaching the upper plate  52  to the lower plate  54 .  
         [0032]    Fluid is supplied to the swirl pan  56  by an intake conduit  34 . As shown in FIG. 2, the intake conduit  34  may bifurcate proximate its junction with the sidewall  60  of the swirl pan  56  into a first branch  70  which directs the fluid through the sidewall  60  into the swirl chamber  61  in a generally clockwise swirling pattern, and a second branch  72  which directs the fluid through the sidewall  60  in a generally counterclockwise swirling pattern, as indicated by the bidirectional arrow  80 . Flow through the two branches  70  and  72  is controlled by a sliding or swinging gate valve  74 , which can be controlled to completely block the flow of fluid from the intake conduit  34  into one or the other branch  70  and  72 , or to partially block the flow in one branch and admit the flow into the other branch in continuous fashion. Alternatively, intake conduit  34  may terminate in a generally pyramidal manifold  100  attached to the sidewall  60  of the swirl pan  56 , with the gate valve  74  disposed in the mouth of the manifold to direct flow in a counterclockwise direction when the valve  74  is positioned as shown in solid lines in FIG. 4, or in a clockwise direction when positioned as shown in dashed lines in FIG. 4.  
         [0033]    In operation, with no fluid pressure applied, upper plate  52  seats on flange  62  of swirl pan  56  by gravity. As steam and hot combustion gases are applied through one branch  70  or  72  of the intake conduit  34 , a swirl pattern (either clockwise or counterclockwise) develops in the swirl pan  56 . As the steam impinges on the pin diffusers  66   a , the upper plate  52  and lower plate  54  begin to rotate, turning shaft  44 . As the volume of steam and combustion gases increases and pressure builds, the upper plate  52  “floats” or rises off the flange  62 , causing the lower plate  54  to rise with it. The steam and combustion gases swirl through the diffuser pins  66  in a circular path, expanding radially outward from the inner section of diffuser pins  66   a  through the outer section of diffuser pins  66   b.  The gap between the flange  62  and the upper plate  52  creates a venturi effect, increasing the velocity of the swirl.  
         [0034]    When increased power is required, the internal fluid pressure in the swirl chamber  61  is regulated by the adjustable retainer  76  which is used to adjust the gap between the flange  62  and the upper plate  52  in order to increase the velocity directed to the outer diffuser pins  66   b.  The retainer  76  may be a two piece structure with an upper half, a lower half, and a compression spring disposed between to two halves, or there may be an external compression spring  78  concentric with the shaft  44  disposed between the bottom  58  of the swirl pan  56  and the retainer  76  and abutting a washer  82  or other bearing surface. When the rotor assembly  50  rises, the spring  78  is compressed, and when the fluid pressure is decreased, the spring  78  expands to return the upper plate  52  to its seat on the flange  62 .  
         [0035]    When an increased torque is required for a heavy load, increasing the fluid volume by adjusting the valve  36  to widen the variable orifice increases the number of pins loaded for power output. Centrifugal force plays a part in lowering the pressure on the downwind side of the pins. Exhaust gases and steam condense at the periphery of the upper  52  and lower plates  54 , and is exhausted through outlet pipe  42 .  
         [0036]    When it is desired to decrease the speed of revolution, the position of the sliding or swinging gate valve  74  may be adjusted to reduce the flow in the original direction of rotation and to induce a counter flow in the opposite direction, thereby slowing rotation, and the volume of fluid may be reduced by adjusting valve  36  to narrow the variable orifice. As rotation slows and pressure within the swirl chamber  61  decreases, the upper plate  52  lowers into frictional contact with the flange  62 , thereby helping to brake the rotor  50 . When it is desired to reverse the direction of rotation, the sliding valve  74  may be moved to block the original inlet branch  70  or  72  and to open the opposite branch  70  or  72 .  
         [0037]    The temperature of the combustion chamber should be maintained between 350° and 400° F., controlled by a heat sensor which sends control signals to a fuel flow valve. Water spray from the reservoir  20  is added or reduced as needed to control power. The rotary engine of the present invention is estimated to be capable of producing power double to that of a comparable reciprocating internal combustion engine operating at the same rpm, while producing a lower volume of environmental pollutants and having decreased construction and maintenance costs due to the single rotating structure.  
         [0038]    It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.