Characteristics and potential of a novel inclined-flow stirling regenerator constructed by sinusoidal corrugated channels

Abstract

The characteristics of the regenerator significantly impact the overall performance of Stirling engines. To improve heat and mass transfer characteristics of the regenerator and enhance the heat-to-work conversion potential of Stirling engines, this study introduced a novel design concept of inclined-flow regenerators, where the matrix surface is inclined to the gas flow direction. For the first time, a sinusoidal corrugated-channel regenerator, constructed by corrugated structures, was designed based on this concept. The heat and mass transfer characteristics of this type of regenerator in oscillating flows, along with the heat-to-work conversion performance of the engine, were investigated at both component and system levels and compared with the cross-flow and parallel-flow regenerators. The results demonstrate that the proposed sinusoidal corrugated-channel regenerator exhibits well-balanced heat and mass transfer performance. Compared to cross-flow regenerators, the engine equipped with sinusoidal corrugated-channel regenerators achieves a maximum increase of 210 % in output power and 39 % in thermal efficiency. Compared to parallel-flow regenerators, it shows a slight decrease of 3 % in output power but an increase of 102 % in thermal efficiency. These findings confirm the feasibility of the proposed design concept of inclined-flow regenerators and the corresponding sinusoidal corrugated-channel regenerator in enhancing the overall performance of Stirling engines.