Drive unit for a motor vehicle

US9670836B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• VOLKSWAGEN AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT · DE

Inventors

• Asmus Carstensen · Osloß, DE
• Marcus Dallmann · Meine, DE
• Jörg Fritzsche · Wolfsburg, DE
• Andreas Herr · Wolfsburg, DE
• Christoph Käppner · Braunschweig, DE
• Thomas Schulenburg · Isenbüttel, DE
• Artur Semke · Wolfsburg, DE
• Jörg Volkmann · Oebisfelde, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 9, 2014
• Grant date: Jun 6, 2017
• Expiry date: Jul 29, 2034

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02T10/12
• WIPO field: Engines, pumps, turbines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A drive unit for a motor vehicle that has a combustion machine having an internal combustion engine (10) as well as an exhaust gas system via which exhaust gas can be discharged from the internal combustion engine (10), and has a cyclic device that can be used to convert the thermal energy contained in the exhaust gas into mechanical work in a clockwise thermodynamic cycle, whereby the cycle comprises a heat transfer from the exhaust gas to a working medium in a first heat exchange device, as a result of which the temperature and/or the pressure of the working medium is increased, comprises an expansion of the working medium in an expansion device (30) for generating the mechanical work, and comprises a heat transfer from the working medium to a cooling medium in a second heat exchange device. The drive unit is refined in that the first heat exchange device comprises a first heat exchanger (20) and a second heat exchanger (26) as well as an intermediate circuit (22) containing a transfer medium, whereby in the first heat exchanger (20), thermal energy is transferred from the exhaust gas to the transfer medium, and in the second heat exchanger (26), thermal energy is transferred fro…