Enhanced thermodynamic modelling of a gamma-type Stirling engine

Abstract Modelling can substantially contribute to the development of Stirling engines technology and help understanding the fundamental processes of the real cycle for further performance improvement. In the present work, an enhanced thermodynamic model for Gamma-type Stirling engine simulation was developed based on the reconfiguration of non-ideal adiabatic analysis. The developed model was validated against experimental measurements on Stirling engine prototype (ST05 CNC), available at University of Birmingham. Good agreement was found between the model and experiment in predicting the indicated power, shaft power and thermal efficiency at different operating conditions. A parametric study was carried out to investigate the effect of phase angle, gas type, regenerator matrix type and dead volume on engine performance. The feasibility of utilizing the stored cold energy of LN2 to maximize the shaft power was also presented. Results showed that shaft power can be significantly enhanced by 49% for helium and 35% for nitrogen when cooling temperature is lowered to −50 °C while heating temperature remains constant at 650 °C.

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