1. A hydraulic support element for a valve train of an internal combustion engine, said support element comprising a hollow cylindrical housing that can be installed with an outer peripheral surface in a reception of a cylinder head of the internal combustion engine and receives an axially displaceable pressure piston in a bore, a head of said pressure piston extending beyond an edge of the housing, a high-pressure chamber for a hydraulic medium being formed between a front end of the pressure piston oriented away from the head and an underside of the housing, which high-pressure chamber can be closed by a one-way valve that is fixed on said front end and opens in direction of the high-pressure chamber that is supplied with hydraulic medium through the one-way valve from a reservoir enclosed by the pressure piston, said housing comprising at least one radial opening for the hydraulic medium from the cylinder head, said radial opening being in fluid communication radially inwards with at least one passage to the reservoir in the pressure piston, said passage being situated axially above the radial opening of the housing, wherein,
a) on the one hand, a fractional quantity of hydraulic medium situated at least directly in front of the one-way valve is separated by a separating means from hydraulic medium entering through the passage, and,
b) on the other hand, the pressure piston comprises at least one vent bore situated axially above the passage but within the housing.
2. A support element of claim 1, wherein the pressure piston comprises at least two vent bores that are circumferentially equally spaced from each other.
3. A support element of claim 1, wherein the separating means is configured as a deflecting sleeve for the hydraulic medium and is sealingly fixed axially below the passage on an inner peripheral surface of the pressure piston while extending to near the head of the pressure piston, a rising path for the hydraulic medium being arranged between the deflecting sleeve and an inner peripheral surface of the pressure piston, which hydraulic medium is routed in a region of the head into an inner space of the deflecting sleeve actually constituting the reservoir, so that the hydraulic medium accumulates directly in front of the one-way valve.
4. A support element of claim 3, wherein the deflecting sleeve is made as a thin-walled light-weight component, typically as a sheet metal component, and is fixed on the inner peripheral surface of the pressure piston by one of snapping-in, welding or gluing.
5. A support element of claim 3, wherein the rising path is configured as a circumferentially continuous annular channel.
6. A support element of claim 1, wherein the passage in the pressure piston is situated in an annular groove in the outer peripheral surface of the pressure piston.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of sensing propellant degradation in solid propellant fuel, comprising the steps of:
collecting gas in a near vicinity of the solid propellant fuel into a gas collecting chamber, the gas passing through a nanoporous wall including alumina on a portion of the gas collecting chamber, the nanoporous wall being positioned near the solid propellant fuel, and the collecting of gas being accomplished by a) reducing internal pressure of the gas collecting chamber via a micro pump for sucking ambient air out of the gas collecting chamber thereby forcibly bringing gas out of the gas collecting chamber through the pores in the nanoporous wall and also for blowing inert gas selected from a group consisting of argon, helium, neon, krypton, xenon, radon, sulfur hexafluoride, nitrogen and combinations thereof into the gas collecting chamber and out through the nanoporous wall thereby to rid the nanoporous wall of accumulated particles, and by b) channeling the gas sucked by the micro pump from the solid propellant fuel to the gas analysis device via a baffle, the baffle being located in the gas collecting chamber near an area of the gas collecting chamber where the pump is connected; and
measuring concentrations of gases collected within the gas collecting chamber via gas sensing methods selected from a group consisting of an ultraviolet absorption spectrum measuring method, a visible absorption spectrum measuring method, an infrared absorption spectrum measuring method, a chemical reductions measuring method, an electrochemical effects measuring method, and combinations thereof, the gases measured being selected from a group consisting of CO, CO2, NO, N2O, NO2 and combinations thereof.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein nanoporous material in the nanoporous wall comprises pores having an average diameter of from 0.2\xd710\u22129 m to 5.0\xd710\u22124 m.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the gas collecting chamber has an internal pressure varying from 0 to 5,000,000 pounds per square inch.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the pressure of the gas collecting chamber is at least partly regulated by a control valve in the gas collecting chamber, the control valve either opening or closing the gas collecting chamber to incoming outside gas.
5. A method of using a gas collecting chamber to sense propellant degradation in solid propellant fuel, comprising the steps of:
collecting gas in a near vicinity of the solid propellant fuel into the gas collecting chamber, the gas passing through a nanoporous wall including alumina on a portion of the gas collecting chamber, the nanoporous wall being positioned near the solid propellant fuel, and the collecting of gas being accomplished by a) reducing internal pressure of the gas collecting chamber via a micro pump for sucking ambient air out of the gas collecting chamber thereby forcibly bringing gas out of the gas collecting chamber through the pores in the nanoporous wall and also for blowing inert gas selected from a group consisting of argon, helium, neon, krypton, xenon, radon, sulfur hexafluoride, nitrogen and combinations thereof into the gas collecting chamber and out through the nanoporous wall thereby to rid the nanoporous wall of accumulated particles, and by b) channeling the gas sucked by the micro pump from the solid propellant fuel to the gas analysis device via a baffle, the baffle being located in the gas collecting chamber near an area of the gas collecting chamber where the pump is connected; and
measuring concentrations of gases collected within the gas collecting chamber via gas sensing methods selected from a group consisting of an ultraviolet absorption spectrum measuring method, a visible absorption spectrum measuring method, an infrared absorption spectrum measuring method, a chemical reductions measuring method, an electrochemical effects measuring method, and combinations thereof, the gases measured being selected from a group consisting of CO, CO2, NO, N2O, NO2 and combinations thereof.
6. The method according to claim 5, wherein nanoporous material in the nanoporous wall comprises pores having an average diameter of from 0.2\xd710\u22129 m to 5.0\xd710\u22124 m.
7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the gas collecting chamber has an internal pressure varying from 0 to 5,000,000 pounds per square inch.
8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the pressure of the gas collecting chamber is at least partly regulated by a control valve in the gas collecting chamber, the control valve either opening or closing the gas collecting chamber to incoming outside gas.