Isothermal Positive Displacement MachineryAbstractPositive displacement isothermal gas cyclemachinery is designed with explicit control of theheat flow between the gas, the walls of the chamberand a thermal reservoir externally of the chamber.The control is achieved by providing a large chamberwall area to chamber volume ratio through the use ofbellows-like walls having a configuration that ensuresduring each stroke numerous heat exchanges betweenthe working gas and the bellows-like walls. Themachinery includes Stirling cycle heat pumps andmotors and isothermal compressors. Significant gainsin thermal efficiency, up to a factor of 2, are attain-able because the largest inefficiency in all isothermalmachinery is imperfect control of heat flow. Aregenerator for the isothermal machinery minimizescycle losses due to gas transfer friction, gas thermalconduction, dead volume, regenerator heat mass,regenerator heat mass thermal skin depth, and regenera-tor mass thermal conductivity in the gas flow direction.
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