Development of an analytical model useful for micro heat engine analysis

Abstract

A general endo-reversible heat engine model is presented for a combustion driven system. It is composed of a Carnot heat engine and a combustor operating at a specified temperature. The model is inspired by past work on ideal engine/combustor systems and the need for an analysis technique incorporating heat losses suffered by all practical micro engines. This latter consideration results from the necessary structural connections existing between the hot and ambient temperature sections of the engine. In the model developed here, a counterflow heat exchanger provides this structural connection while recovering a portion of the sensible heat in the exhaust flow. A thermal shunt resistance to the surroundings is used to account for conductive heat loss. Finally, a high degree of idealization is employed to obtain a closed form analytical solution for the operating conditions of the engine/combustor system which, in this case, is assumed to be at the maximum power point of the device.