Performance Appraisal of a Gamma-Type Stirling Engine

Kwasi-Effah C C

doi:10.11648/j.ogce.20170504.13

Abstract

The demand for energy is expanding due to increase in population and fast industrialization which started in the 20th century. As domestic and industrial systems make use of the accessible energy produced by energy systems, technological headway is critical for these systems to maximally use the accessible energy sources available in the world. Thus, interest in Stirling engine technology is growing once again. This paper utilizes a third order quasi-steady flow model to predict the performance of an experimental gamma type Stirling engine at the heater temperature of 1145K by simulating in MATLAB environment. A prediction error of 8.24% was obtained after comparing simulated performance with the experimental values. Empirical methods such as Beale and West analysis were also used to predict the performance of the Stirling engine. The quasi-steady flow model showed better accuracy when compared to other methods such as Beal and West analysis.

Highlights

The Stirling engine operates by cyclic compression and expansion of gas by a temperature difference across the engine to produce mechanical work
This paper aims to investigate the performance of a gammatype Stirling engine
A gamma type experimental engine performance was investigated at the designed temperature value of 1145K for assertion

Summary

Introduction

The Stirling engine operates by cyclic compression and expansion of gas by a temperature difference across the engine to produce mechanical work. Heat is added persistently at a constant temperature to the expanding gas. This constant temperature heat expansion infers a high heat transfer rate through the cylinder, which is one of the primary challenges with the Stirling engine [1]. The traditional, reciprocating internal combustion (IC) engine, by comparison, burns an air-fuel mixture inside the cylinder to generate the heat and pressure which is converted to work at the crankshaft. Since heat is supplied externally to the Stirling engine, different types of heat sources can be utilized such as: (a) Heat of combustion of any gaseous, fluid, or solid fuel, including all conventional fossil fuels and low-cost solid fuels, for example, petrol internal combustion engines, by contrast, have rather restrictive fuel property necessities to guarantee use of other fuel for combustion. (b) Solar irradiation, for instance using concentrated solar energy by solar dishes (c)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion