Compressor-expander of the vane type having canted vane cavity

Abstract

A compressor-expander having a vaned rotor in which the vanes rotate about an axis which is canted with respect to the rotor axis. The housing of the device has a disc-shaped main cavity having adjacent hub recesses which are concentrically spherical. The cavity is in the form of a doubly truncated sphere canted with respect to the shaft axis. The rotor has a central spherical portion for mating with the recesses and includes an integral Saturn-like ring extending to the outer wall of the cavity to divide the cavity into first and second complementary sides of annular wedge shape. The vanes occupy radially extending slots in the rotor and serve to separate each side into successive chambers which vary cyclically in volume as the shaft rotates without requiring the vanes to bodily reciprocate either radially or axially. Each side is provided with inlet and outlet ports. The vanes have laterally projecting shoulders along their lateral edges formed to mate with the respective concave spherical surfaces in the housing. The vanes comprising each pair are interconnected in coplanar relation by a central connector, the central connectors being offset in the axial direction for crossing one another in the hollow of the rotor. The vanes have lateral edges lying in a cylindrical locus and have a thickness which is related to the thickness of the cavity and the angle of cant of the vane axis.