HYDRODYNAMIC MACHINE, IN PARTICULAR HYDRODYNAMIC CONVERTER

Abstract

A hydrodynamic machine has a working chamber that may be filled with a working medium and in which a bladed pump impeller and a bladed turbine impeller are arranged to hydrodynamically transmit torque and/or drive power from the pump impeller to the turbine impeller. A working medium inlet and a working medium outlet are provided for inputting and discharging the working medium in/out of the working chamber. A control valve is furnished in the working medium inlet or in a bypass. The control valve changes the working medium quantity flowing into the working chamber. The control valve is connected to the working medium inlet and/or the working medium outlet and actuated such that the flow cross-section of the control valve is variably adjusted as a function of the working medium pressure in the working medium inlet and as a function of the working medium pressure in the working medium outlet.

Claims

1-13. (canceled)

14. A hydrodynamic machine, comprising: at least one bladed pump impeller; at least one bladed turbine impeller; a working chamber to be filled with a working medium and in which said at least one bladed pump impeller and said at least one bladed turbine impeller are disposed in order to hydrodynamically transmit torque and/or drive power from said at least one bladed pump impeller to said at least one bladed turbine impeller; a working medium inlet for supplying the working medium into said working chamber; a working medium outlet for discharging the working medium out of said working chamber; a bypass for the working medium that branches off from said working medium inlet; a control valve disposed in said working medium inlet or in said bypass, said control valve used to change a working medium quantity flowing into said working chamber by adjusting a flow cross-section for the working medium flowing through said control valve; and said control valve is connected to said working medium inlet and/or said working medium outlet and actuated such that the flow cross-section of said control valve is variably adjusted in dependence on a working medium pressure in said working medium inlet and a working medium pressure in said working medium outlet.

15. The hydrodynamic machine according to claim 14, wherein said control valve has a valve body that is preloaded by means of a preload element and cooperates with a valve seat to limit and adjust the flow cross-section, wherein a preload force of said preload element may be varied.

16. The hydrodynamic machine according to claim 14, wherein said control valve is disposed in said bypass and has a valve body that is preloaded by means of a preload element and cooperates with a valve seat to limit and adjust the flow cross-section, wherein said preload element acts on said valve body in a closing direction of said control valve, and said valve body is subjected to a force contrary to a preload force of said preload element in dependence on the working medium pressure in said working medium inlet and said working medium outlet.

17. The hydrodynamic machine according to claim 16, wherein: said valve body has an active area being a common active area or a plurality of active areas; and said control valve has a first working medium connection, a second working medium connection and a working medium outlet, wherein said first working medium connection is connected to said working medium inlet in a working medium-conducting manner and said second working medium connection is connected to said working medium outlet in a working medium-conducting manner, said first working medium connection is connected to said working medium outlet in a working medium-conducting manner via the flow cross-section, and said first working medium connection and said second working medium connection are respectively connected in a working medium-conducting manner to said active area on said valve body in order to pressurize said valve body against the preload force of said preload element.

18. The hydrodynamic machine according to claim 16, wherein said control valve is a piston spool valve.

19. The hydrodynamic machine according to claim 16, wherein said preload element is a compression spring.

20. The hydrodynamic machine according to claim 19, wherein said compression spring acts on a first side of said valve body configured as a piston and said common active area or said active areas is/are furnished on a side of said valve body opposite thereto.

21. The hydrodynamic machine according claim 17, wherein said control valve has a throttle orifice disposed in said working medium outlet.

22. The hydrodynamic machine according to claim 14, wherein said hydrodynamic machine is a hydrodynamic converter; and further comprising at least one bladed guide wheel disposed in said working chamber, in addition to said at least one bladed pump impeller and said at least one bladed turbine impeller.

23. The hydrodynamic machine according to claim 22, wherein said hydrodynamic converter is configured as an actuating converter, having an actuating member with which a torque ratio of the torque applied to said at least one bladed pump impeller and said at least one bladed turbine impeller may be varied, said actuating member being formed by blades of said at least one bladed pump impeller and/or of said bladed guide wheel which are adjustable relative to a flow of the working medium in said working chamber.

24. The hydrodynamic machine according to claim 15, wherein the preload force of said preload element may be varied manually.

25. A drive train, comprising: a hydrodynamic machine according to claim 14; a working medium supply having a working medium pump, said working medium pump connected to said working medium inlet with a pressure side in a working medium-conducting manner in order to supply said hydrodynamic machine with a pressurized working medium; and a working medium sump from which said working medium pump is connected at least indirectly to a suction side, said bypass with said control valve opening directly or indirectly into said working medium sump.

26. The drive train according to claim 25, wherein said hydrodynamic machine is furnished in a hydrodynamic power branch to which a purely mechanical power branch is connected in parallel in a direction of a drive power flow; further comprising an output shaft; and further comprising a superposition gear, in a form of a planetary gear having a ring gear, a sun gear and a planet carrier with a plurality of planets, that superimposes a drive power transmitted with the hydrodynamic power branch and the purely mechanical power branch and feeds power to said output shaft.

27. The drive train according to claim 26, further comprising: a drive assembly rotating at a constant speed; and a working machine rotating at a variable speed and connected at least indirectly to said output shaft.

Description

[0050] The drawings show the following:

[0051] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of a hydrodynamic machine in the form of a hydrodynamic converter with a control valve according to the invention;

[0052] FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of an exemplary embodiment of a transmission with a hydrodynamic machine according to the invention;

[0053] FIG. 3 is an embodiment modified with respect to FIG. 2.

[0054] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary hydrodynamic machine, which is designed in the form of a hydrodynamic converter, in this case an actuating converter, in particular a counter-rotating converter. A bladed pump impeller 2 is furnished in the working chamber 1, the pump blades of which may be adjusted along an axis transversely or at an angle to the flow direction of the working medium in a working medium circuit in the working chamber 1. The adjustment is carried out, for example, via an adjusting ring 20.

[0055] In the working chamber 1, the blades of a turbine impeller 3 are also furnished behind the pump impeller 2 or blades thereof in the flow direction of the working medium, followed by a guide wheel 17 or blades thereof, the guide wheel being in particular stationary.

[0056] Working medium is fed into the working chamber 1 via the working medium inlet 4 and discharged from the working chamber 1 via the working medium outlet 5.

[0057] The hydrodynamic machine has a drive shaft 21 that is mechanically connected to the pump impeller 2 and an output shaft 22 that is mechanically connected to the turbine impeller 3. The drive shaft 21 and/or output shaft 22 may in principle be implemented as a solid shaft or any suitable type of hollow shaft.

[0058] A bypass 7 branches off from the working medium inlet 4 and opens into a working medium sump 19. The working medium outlet 5 may also open into the working medium sump 19.

[0059] A control valve 6 is furnished in the bypass 7, which has a valve body 9 preloaded with a preload element 8. The force of the preload element 8 acts as indicated by the arrow marked 23. Opposing the force of the preload element 8, a pressure of the working medium acts on the valve body 9, which is fed from the working medium inlet 4 to a first working medium connection 11 of the control valve 6. This pressure acts on a first active area 14 of valve body 9, which together with a valve seat 10 adjusts the flow cross-section of the control valve.

[0060] The valve body 9 also has a second active area 15, on which the pressure of the working medium supplied from the working medium outlet 5 via the second working medium connection 12 acts. The resulting force also acts against the preload force of the preload element 8, together with the force of the working medium pressure that acts on the first active area 14, and the resulting force is shown by the arrow 24.

[0061] In the exemplary embodiment shown, the preload force of the preload element 8 may be variably adjusted by means of an adjusting screw 25.

[0062] In the working medium outlet 13 of control valve 6, from which the working medium supplied via the first working medium connection 11 flows, a throttle orifice 16 is furnished so as to limit the quantity of working medium that flows through the control valve 6 and thus past the working chamber 1.

[0063] The working medium is pumped at least indirectly from the oil sump 19 into the hydrodynamic machine by means of the working medium pump 18. Due to the fact that the entire quantity of working medium does not always have to be pumped through the hydrodynamic machine and that the working medium pressure in the working medium inlet 4 may be reduced to the minimum required level, the energy consumption or power consumption of the working medium pump 18 is reduced, at least when viewed over the entire operating range in which the working medium pump 18 operates.

[0064] In the exemplary embodiment shown, the first active area 14 is formed by a circular area, while the second active area 15 is formed by an annular area. However, this is not mandatory.

[0065] Furthermore, the control valve 6 is represented as a piston spool valve, wherein the piston cooperates with bores in a housing that forms the valve seat 10. However, a different embodiment could also be chosen here.

[0066] FIG. 2 shows an apparatus 101 for transmitting force, which connects a drive assembly 102 and a working machine 103. The apparatus 101 is formed by a transmission with a hydrodynamic power branch and a purely mechanical power branch furnished parallel thereto. The drive assembly 102 may be designed in particular as a motor, particularly preferably as an electric motor. With the structure shown here, this motor typically provides a constant speed at which it drives an input shaft 104 that is connected to it directly or, if necessary, via a gear stage not shown here. In this case, the working machine 103, which is designed as a working machine 103 with variable speed, is driven via the apparatus 101. The working machine 103 may in particular be a condenser or a compressor, a centrifugal pump or the like. In the exemplary embodiment shown here, it is indirectly connected to an output shaft 106 via a spur gear 105. A connection via a planetary gear, bevel gear or the like would also be possible. The apparatus 101 for transmitting force now comprises a hydrodynamic counter-rotating converter 120, the pump impeller 2 of which is directly connected to the input shaft 104. As is typical for a counter-rotating converter 120, a flow of the working medium occurs from the pump impeller 2 to a turbine impeller 3 via a guide wheel 17, which is adjustable as indicated by the arrow 109.

[0067] Parallel thereto, the power is transmitted mechanically directly via the input shaft 104. The two power branches are then brought together again by a planetary gear 111 and together reach the area of the output shaft 106.

[0068] The planetary gear 111 has a ring gear 112, a sun gear 113 and a plurality of planets 115 arranged on a planet carrier 114. In the structure shown here, the turbine impeller 3 of the hydrodynamic counter-rotating converter 120 is connected directly to the sun gear 113 of the planetary gear 111 via a hollow shaft 116. Through the hollow shaft 116, the input shaft 114 [sic] is connected to the planet carrier 114 and thus to the individual circumferential planets 115 on the side of the planetary gear 111 facing away from the counter-rotating converter 120. The output shaft 106 is in turn connected to the ring gear 112 of the planetary gear 111.

[0069] According to the desired speed or output shaft 106, a corresponding power transmission in the hydrodynamic power branch and thus from the input shaft 114 [sic] to the sun gear 113 is now achieved by adjusting the guide wheel 17 and/or the filling level of the hydrodynamic counter-rotating converter 120 with working medium. This power transmitted via the hydrodynamic power branch is then summed with the main part of the power entered via the planet carrier 114, which is transmitted directly mechanically, and reaches the output shaft 116 via the ring gear 112, as combined power. In the case shown here, the driven machine 113 is then driven via the spur gear 115 with a constant transmission ratio. As a function of the desired instantaneous speed in the area of the working machine 113, the hydrodynamic counter-rotating converter 120 is adjusted accordingly by adjusting the guide wheel 17 and/or varying the amount of working medium in the hydrodynamic counter-rotating converter 120.

[0070] As a result, the output speed may be regulated to be very close to the desired speed.

[0071] The structure is extremely compact and accordingly easy to implement, since no stationary gear is required, no coupling sleeve has to be used and a comparatively small planetary gear 111 may be used due to the very favorable speeds. Due to the possibilities for mounting the input shaft 114 in particular on the output shaft 116, a structure is created that causes no forces, or no appreciable forces, in the axial direction on the individual elements 112, 113, 115 of the planetary gear 111. This makes it possible to design the individual elements 112, 113, 115 of the planetary gear 111 in a single helical gearing, so that they may be implemented comparatively simply and cost-effectively as a result of both their size and also their design.

[0072] The structure overall is very compact, light and may be produced and assembled simply and cost-effectively due to the comparatively small number of individual elements.

[0073] The configuration according to FIG. 3 has been changed from the configuration of FIG. 2 with respect to the mounting. For example, the hollow shaft 116 that carries the turbine impeller 3 or is connected to it in a rotationally fixed manner, may be mounted in the transmission housing via bearings, for example ball bearings, in particular angular contact ball bearings. These bearings may absorb axial forces of the turbine. In the exemplary embodiment shown, an additional thrust bearing 121 is furnished for the input shaft 104 and a thrust bearing 122 is provided for the output shaft 106.

[0074] The sun gear 113 and the hollow shaft 116 may be connected via a toothed coupling that does not transmit axial force.

[0075] Axial forces of the working machine 103 are preferably transmitted to the thrust bearing 122 of the output shaft 106 via a double helical spur gear stage of the spur gear 105.

[0076] The planetary gear 111 is also preferably furnished with double helical gearing in order to be able to transfer the axial forces to the bearings.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0077] 1 Working chamber [0078] 2 Pump impeller [0079] 3 Turbine impeller [0080] 4 Working medium inlet [0081] 5 Working medium outlet [0082] 6 Control valve [0083] 7 Bypass [0084] 8 Preload element [0085] 9 Valve body [0086] 10 Valve seat [0087] 11 First working medium connection [0088] 12 Second working medium connection [0089] 13 Working medium outlet [0090] 14 Active area [0091] 15 Active area [0092] 16 Throttle orifice [0093] 17 Guide wheel [0094] 18 Working medium pump [0095] 19 Working medium sump [0096] 20 Adjusting ring [0097] 21 Drive shaft [0098] 22 Output shaft [0099] 23 Force [0100] 24 Force [0101] 25 Adjusting screw [0102] 101 Apparatus [0103] 102 Drive assembly [0104] 103 Working machine [0105] 104 Input shaft [0106] 105 Spur gears [0107] 106 Output shaft [0108] 109 Arrow of adjustability [0109] 111 Planetary gear [0110] 112 Ring gear [0111] 113 Sun gear [0112] 114 Planet carrier [0113] 115 Planet [0114] 116 Hollow shaft [0115] 120 Counter-rotating converter [0116] 121 Thrust bearing [0117] 122 Thrust bearing