1. A flameless boiler comprising:
generator means for generating heat in fluid circulated therethrough by shearing of said fluid;
an internal combustion engine drivingly connected to said generator means for shearing of said fluid;
a first heat exchanger for transferring heat from the exhaust gases of said internal combustion engine to said fluid;
a supply reservoir for said fluid;
a first pump for circulating said fluid from said supply reservoir to said generator means; and
a pressure vessel in fluid communication with said generator means for receiving heated fluid therefrom, said pressure vessel having an outlet for drawing steam therefrom.
2. The flameless boiler of claim 1 wherein said fluid is circulated through both of said generator means and said first heat exchanger.
3. The flameless boiler of claim 2 wherein said first heat exchanger is disposed between said generator means and said pressure vessel to be in serial fluid communication with both.
4. The flameless boiler of claim 3 wherein said generator means and said first heat exchanger are in parallel fluid communication with said pressure vessel.
5. The flameless boiler of claim 4 including a second heat exchanger for transferring heat from said internal combustion engine’s coolant to fluid from said supply reservoir.
6. The flameless boiler of claim 5 including a second pump for pumping fluid from said supply reservoir into said pressure vessel.
7. The flameless boiler of claim 1 wherein said generator means is a water brake having a first inlet for fluid from said supply reservoir.
8. The flameless boiler of claim 7 wherein said water brake includes one or more supplementary inlets in fluid communication with said first pump, said supplementary inlets being sized for the delivery of a reduced amount of fluid into said water brake.
9. The flameless boiler of claim 8 including valve means disposed between said first pump and said first inlet of said water brake, said valve being operable to open and close the flow of said fluid into said water brake.
10. The flameless boiler of claim 9 wherein, when said valve means are closed, said fluid continues to be discharged in a reduced amount into said water brake through said supplementary inlets.
11. The flameless boiler of claim 10 wherein said fluid flowing through said supplementary inlets is directed at seals in said water brake for the cooling thereof.
12. The flameless boiler of claim 7 including a conduit for delivering pressurized air or steam into said first inlet of said water brake when said valve means are closed, wherein said pressurized air or steam forces fluid out of said water brake to substantially empty the same.
13. The flameless boiler of claim 7 wherein said water brake, when empty or substantially empty of said fluid reduces loading on said internal combustion engine’s without being drivingly disconnected therefrom.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. A process for the formation of a three-dimensionally-periodic porous structure, comprising the steps of
(a) crystallizing spheres of material A into a first structure having three-dimensional periodicity, and voids between spheres, wherein the material A is mechanically and thermally stable to at least about 300 C.,
(b) treating this first structure so that necks are formed between the spheres of material A,
(c) infiltrating said first structure with material B to form a A-B composite structure, and
(d) removing material A from said A-B composite structure to form a second structure comprising material B.
2. The process of claim 1, wherein the first structure is either cubic, hexagonal, or a mixture of face-centered cubic and hexagonal packing arrangements; the spheres of material A are substantially monodispersed; said material B is comprised of a form of elemental carbon; and the three-dimensional periodicity of the first structure is replicated in the said second structure.
3. The process of claim 1, wherein the first structure comprises an array of SiO2 spheres having diameters of from about 20 nm to about 100 m and wherein the infiltration is by a melt infiltration process that substantially completely fills the space between spheres A.
4. The process of claim 1, wherein the removal of the material A is by treatment with either an acid, a base, or a solvating or reacting chemical at a temperature of about 200 C. or below.
5. The process of claim 1, wherein the first structure is either body-centered-cubic or hexagonal close-packed and wherein the three-dimensional periodicity of the said first structure is replicated in the said second structure.
6. The process of claim 1, wherein the infiltration of said first structure with material B results in the filling of substantially the entire space between spheres A.
7. The process of claim 1, wherein the infiltration of said first structure with material B results in the filling of less than about 10% of the space between spheres A.
8. The process of claim 7, wherein the material B is comprised of graphite.
9. The process of claim 1, wherein the spheres of material A are crystallized into a cubic or hexagonal sphere array, or mixture of cubic and hexagonal arrays, and wherein these sphere arrays of material B are mechanically deformed to decrease symmetry either prior to or after the infiltration step (c).
10. The process of claim 1, wherein the step (a) crystallizing of the spheres of material A is accomplished with the spheres on a substrate and the thickness of the crystallized sphere array on the substrate is less than about 1 mm.
11. The process of claim 10 wherein steps (a)-(d) are accomplished on said substrate and said substrate is substantially planar.
12. The process of claim 11, wherein said substrate is patterned with a periodic array of holes, troughs, or protuberances, and such results in a crystallographically oriented crystallization of the spheres of material A.
13. The process of claim 1 wherein said material B comprises either a ferroelectric material or an electrostrictive material, wherein said electrostrictive material can provide a fractional dimension change of at least about one percent in response to an applied electric field.
14. The process of claim 2, wherein said form of elemental carbon comprises diamond.
15. The process of claim 1, wherein material B is a carbon precursor or carbonsilicon precursor and the process comprises an additional step of thermally converting this carbon precursor to a form of elemental carbon or the carbonsilicon precursor to a carbonsilicon mixture.
16. The process of claim 15, wherein said carbon or carbonsilicon precursor comprises a phenolic derived polymer, a furfuryl alcohol derived polymer, or a silicon-containing acetylenic polymer.
17. The process of claim 1 where material B comprises either a graphitic or glassy carbon or a material that is converted to a graphitic or glassy carbon, which process further comprises an additional process step in which the form of elemental carbon is treated to increase surface area.
18. The process of claim 1 wherein the material B comprises either a metallic conductor, an elemental metal, a thermoelectric, a ferroelectric, or a ferromagnet.
19. The process of claim 1 that additionally comprises infiltrating the material obtained from step (d) with a material C to form a B-C composite structure having three-dimensional periodicity.
20. The process of claim 19 wherein the material B in said B-C composite structure is partially or substantially completely removed to form a three-dimensionally periodic structure comprising the material C.
21. The process of claim 1, wherein said first structure comprises an array of at least two or more sphere diameters, each of which is from about 20 nm to about 100 m.
22. The process of claim 21, wherein said first structure comprises a periodic array of two different diameters of monodispersed spheres, N and M, wherein this array has the composition MN13 or MN2 and the radius of the N spheres are smaller than for the M spheres.
23. The process of claim 1, wherein the said first structure additionally comprises cylinders of material A1, having monodispersed diameters, wherein this first structure in obtained by the crystallization of said materials A and A1.
24. The process of claim 1 wherein the material B comprises an organic polymer.
25. The process of claim 24 wherein the organic polymer is comprised of a piezoelectric polymer, an elastomer, or a conducting polymer.
26. The process of claim 1 wherein the first structure having three-dimensional periodicity is treated with a reagent that increases void volume, prior to the infiltration of material B.
27. The process of claim 24 wherein the organic polymer is comprised of a block copolymer.
28. The process of claim 1 wherein the infiltration is by a chemical vapor deposition process.
29. A process for the formation of a structure having three-dimensional periodicity comprising a composite material A and an organic polymer B, comprising the steps of
(a) crystallizing particles of material A into a first structure having three-dimensional periodicity and lattice repeat dimensions of from about 20 nm to about 100 m,
(b) infiltrating said first structure with either material B or a precursor thereof to form a A-B composite structure.
30. A process for the formation of a porous structure having three-dimensional periodicity comprising materials A and B, which comprises the steps of
(a) crystallizing particles of material A into a first structure having three-dimensional periodicity,
(b) treating the particles of material A so that interparticle necks are formed,
(c) infiltrating said first structure with material B to form an A-B composite structure, and
(d) partially or completely melting and solidifying either component A or B, but not both.
31. The process of claim 30 wherein the component that is partially or completely melted comprises a material that either provides or combines to provide a work function of less than about 2 eV.
32. A three-dimensionally periodic thermoelectric or thermionic composition containing surfaces or interfaces that are inverse replicas of the surfaces of a sphere array, wherein the sphere diameter is from about 20 nm to about 10 m and the thermoelectric composition contains less than about 50 percent by volume of an electrically insulating composition.
33. A thermionic composition of claim 32, wherein there are either interruptions in connectivity or semiconductor-to-metal junctions between elements that are inverse replicas of a sphere array.
34. A three-dimensionally-periodic piezoelectric ceramic, piezoelectric polymer, or electrostrictive material composition containing surfaces or interfaces that are inverse replicas of the surfaces of a sphere array, wherein the sphere diameter is from about 20 nm to about 100 m and wherein an obtainable electrically generated strain is at least 1% for the electrostrictive composition.
35. The composition of claim 34 which is either part of an optical switch in an electro-optical circuit, an electrochromic element on a display, or a electrically switchable window.
36. A three-dimensionally-periodic electrically insulating structure containing surfaces or interfaces that are inverse replicas of the surfaces of a sphere array, wherein necks exists between neighboring spheres in said sphere array and the average sphere diameter does not exceed about 100 nm.
37. The electrically insulating structure of claim 36 that is a deposition on an electrical circuit substrate, wherein at least about 75% of the structural volume is occupied by a void space, and the occupied volume comprises either an insulating foam or cubic diamond.
38. A colorant for ultraviolet, visible or infrared wavelengths comprising a three-dimensionally-periodic structure containing surfaces or interfaces that are inverse replicas of the surfaces of a sphere array, wherein necks exists between neighboring spheres in said sphere array and the average sphere diameter is from about 20 nm to about 1 m.
39. The colorant of claim 38 that comprises an organic polymer.
40. The colorant of claim 38 dispersed in a matrix of either the same or a different polymer, so as to produce a colored polymer.
41. The colorant of claim 40 dispersed in a melt-processible matrix polymer, wherein the melting point or flow point of the colorant is above the processing temperature of the matrix polymer and lower than the temperature where the matrix polymer undergoes substantial thermal degradation, and wherein the particle size of the colorant dispersed in the matrix polymer is at least about 30 m in at least one dimension.
42. A process for substantially eliminating the coloration of a material comprising particles of a colorant in a matrix polymer wherein the particles of the colorant comprise an array which is three dimensionally periodic at visible wavelengths which process comprises heating the material to a temperature that is higher than the melting temperature of the colorant, and below the degradation temperature of the matrix polymer.
43. An elastomer having a three-dimensionally-periodic structure that contains either (a) surfaces or interfaces that are inverse replicas of the surfaces of a sphere array or (b) elastomer spheres, wherein the sphere diameter is from about 20 nm to about 100 m.
44. An article comprising an elastomer of claim 43, which article changes color when stretched.
45. A periodic material comprising either a conducting form of diamond, diamond with hydrogenated surfaces, polycrystalline diamond where sp2 carbons at grain boundaries confer electrical conductivity, diamond-like carbon, or nitrogen-doped diamond, wherein said periodic material contains surfaces or interfaces that are inverse replicas of the surfaces of a sphere array having, a sphere diameter that is from about 20 nm to about 100 m.
46. A material of claim 45, which is in the form of a flat plate or planar surface coating, wherein the said sphere array is a single crystal sphere array.
47. A device functioning by electron emission due to high fields at sharp surface features of a carbon phase, where such sharp surface features comprise the material of claim 46.
48. A device of claim 47 that is either a flat panel display, a thermionic cooler, or a power generator.
49. A three-dimensionally periodic material comprising graphite whose surfaces or interfaces are inverse replicas of the surfaces of a sphere array, wherein the sphere diameter is from about 20 nm to about 100 m, wherein the sheets of said graphite are oriented with respect to the original surfaces of the spheres in said sphere array.
50. A three-dimensionally periodic material comprising carbon, whose surfaces or interfaces are inverse replicas of the surfaces of a sphere array, wherein the sphere diameter is from about 20 to about 100 m, and the carbon is a foam having an average pore diameter of from about 4 to about 10 .
51. A three-dimensionally periodic material comprising at least three spatially separated compositions, wherein the interfaces between these compositions are inverse replicas of the surfaces of a sphere array, wherein the sphere diameter is from about 20 nm to about 100 m.