Positive displacement brayton cycle rotary engine

Claim 2

A rotary engine comprising: air compression means adapted to provide a substantially continuous flow of compressed air; fuel mixing means responsive to the output of said compression means for mixing fuel with air and providing a fuel-air vapor; combustion chamber for receiving said fuel-air vapor under pressure from said mixing means and burning the fuel-air vapor mixture; positive displacement, sequentially operable, multi-stage rotary expander valve means for receiving an expanding gas output of said combustion chamber and sequentially directing flow of said gas into each of the several stages of said multi-stage expander; and drive means responsive to a rotary output of said rotary expander for driving said compression means and providing rotary shaft output power.

Claim 3

A rotary engine as set forth in claim 1 wherein each said stage of said expander comprises: an expander body having a cylindrical cavity; a rotor having an eccentric lobe and a lobe tip adapted to seal against the inner surface of said last named cylindrical cavity and to provide an annular space interrupted by the tip of said last named lobe; an exhaust outlet and intake port, coupled to said valve means, closely spaced but separated about said last named cavity in the order of rotation; and a flow restricting flap supported by said expander body in the region between said closely spaced outlet and inlet ports and adapted to provide a seal of said annular cavity between said exhaust port and inlet port.

Claim 4

A rotary engine as set forth in claim 1 wherein said valve means comprises a cylindrical tube rotatably driven by said rotary expander, said tube being open at one end to receive expanding gases from said combustion chamber and having a plurality of axially and circumferentially spaced ports adapted to sequentially supply said gases to discrete stages of said expander.

Claim 5

A rotary engine as set forth in claim 1 wherein said fuel mixing means comprises a surface of a perforated and fuel saturated member positioned adjacent a flow of air positioned along an air stream between said compression means and said combustion chamber.

Claim 6

A rotary engine as set forth in claim 1 further comprising flow control means for controllably regulating the flow of compressed air from said air compression means to said fuel mixing means for controlling the speed of said engine.

Claim 7

A rotary engine as set forth in claim 5 wherein said flow control means comprises: first and second, a first pair, of rectangular, oppositely positioned, plates And each plate including first mounting means for pivotally mounting a plate along a first edge and second mounting means for pivotal connection along a second, opposite, edge; third and fourth; a second pair, of oppositely positioned plates and including third mounting means for pivotal connection along a first edge of each of the second pair of plates and fourth mounting means for pivotal connection along a second, opposite, edge, of each of said second pair of plates; first pivotal coupling means for pivotally interconnecting a second said first plate to a first edge of said third plate and second pivotal coupling means for pivotally interconnecting a second edge of said second plate to a first edge of said fourth plate; control means pivotally connected to said second edges of said third and fourth plates and including means for varying the distance between the plate edges coupled by said first and second pivotal coupling means; whereby an adjustable passageway for said flow is achieved.

Claim 8

A rotary engine as set forth in claim 1 wherein said air compression means comprises a multi-stage, positive displacement, compressor.

Claim 9

A rotary engine as set forth in claim 7 wherein each said compressor stage comprises: a compressor body having a cylindrical cavity; a rotor having an eccentric lobe having a tip adapted to seal against inner surfaces of said cavity and providing an annular space interrupted by the tip of the lobe; a compressed air outlet and air inlet closely spaced but separated about said cavity in the order of rotation; a flow restricting flap supported by said compressor body in the region between said closely spaced outlet and inlet and means responsive to the outlet, pressure of said compression means for operating said flap to provide a seal of said annular cavity in said region when the output pressure of said compression means is less than a predetermined pressure and unseal said region of said annular cavity when said pressure is greater than said predetermined pressure.