Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft

Volkswagen Ag

Winfried Bernhardt

Edgard Grundmann

Rudolf Kroll

Paulus Heidemeyer

Dag-Arnulf Schlaf

A drive arrangement for a motor vehicle has an internal combustion engine, a transmission on the output side of the engine and at least one drive axle, and an arrangement for shutting off and restarting the engine depending upon the driving condition. The transmission is a continuously variable automatic transmission and a disconnect coupling is arranged on the output side of the transmission to prevent transmission losses when the engine is turned off. An electromechanical converter capable of operation as a motor or a generator may be provided in place of a flywheel.

Motor vehicle drive arrangement

In a solar radiation collector composed of a mat formed of a black foil member and a radiation pervious foil member, the two members being connected together along the outer edges of the mat and at interior locations of the mat to form an inlet and outlet and an extended flow path for a fluid heat carrier medium between the inlet and outlet, the collector further including a cover connected to the mat along opposed edges thereof and arranged to be disposed in the path of solar radiation toward the mat with an air space being defined between the mat and the cover, with the connections at interior locations of the mat serving to form parallel flow channels defining portions of the flow path and extending parallel to the opposed edges of the mat along which the cover is connected such that the dimension of the mat between the opposed edges at which the cover is connected has a first value when the mat does not contain heat carrier medium and is in a flattened state and a second value less than the first value when the mat is filled with heat carrier medium and is thus in an inflated state, the cover is constructed such that when flat its dimension between the opposed edges has the first value, and the cover is provided with elements rendering it elastically resilient for causing the cover to assume an arched configuration which is concave toward the mat and defines a chamber with the mat when the dimension between the opposed edges attains the second value.

Solar radiation collector

In a solar radiation collector composed of a mat formed of a black foil member and a radiation pervious foil member, the two members being joined together along the outer edges of the mat and at interior locations of the mat to form an extended flow path and an inlet and outlet for a fluid heat carrier medium, the collector further including a cover connected to the mat along opposed edges thereof and arranged to be disposed in the path of solar radiation toward the mat with an air space being defined between the mat and the cover, with the cover being formed to define a flexible support for holding at least one radiation pervious pane and at least one reflecting panel in relative positions such that the pane, the panel and the mat constitute the legs of a triangle enclosing the air space.

A heat pump arrangement includes an evaporator, a first condenser and a compressor connected in a circuit containing a heat-carrying medium. The compressor is arranged downstream of the evaporator and the first condenser is arranged downstream of the compressor as viewed in the direction of the flow of the medium, whereby the compressor receives medium in the vapor phase from the evaporator and delivers medium in the liquid phase to the evaporator through the first condenser. The heat pump arrangement further has an expander, a second condenser connected downstream of the expander and a pump arranged between the output of the second condenser and the evaporator. The temperature in the first condenser which is designed for extracting useful heat is higher and the temperature in the second condenser is lower than the temperature in the evaporator and further, the expander which is driven by means of a first partial flow of the medium flowing from the evaporator is coupled in a force-transmitting manner with the pump as well as with the compressor for the remaining second partial flow of the medium flowing from the evaporator.

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Wolfsburg, Germany

Winfried Bernhardt