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Design Method For Stirling Engines PDF
Design Method For Stirling Engines PDF
H Snyman
Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
T M Harms
Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
J M Strauss
Department of Electric and Electronic Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Abstract Nomenclature
Worldwide attempts are being made to increase the A Area [m2]
use of our renewable energy sources as well as to cc Volume (cm3]
use our current fossil fuel energy sources more effi- Cf Frictional coefficient
ciently. Waste heat recovery forms a substantial part cp Ideal gas specific heat at constant pressure
of the latter and is the focus of this project. Stirling (J/kg.K]
technology finds application in both the renewable cv Ideal gas specific heat at constant volume
energy sector and in waste heat recovery. [J/kg.K]
Investigating the applicability of Stirling engines in d or D Diameter [m]
the above-mentioned fields is relevant to develop dh Hydraulic diameter [m]
more efficient external combustion units as well as d Derivative or change in variable
to utilize our renewable energy sources. Developing f Frequency [Hz]
a design analysis and synthesis tool capable of opti- h Convective heat transfer coefficient
mizing Stirling powered units forms the main objec- [W/m2K]
tive of this project. The methodology followed to k Thermal conductivity [W/m.K]
achieve this, involved the application of three differ- m Mass or mass flow rate [kg or kg/s]
ent methods of analysis, namely the method of M Mass [kg]
Schmidt, the adiabatic analysis and the simple NST Stanton number
analysis based on a five volume approach. The Nu Nusselt number
Schmidt analysis is used to obtain the internal p Pressure [bar or Pa]
engine pressure which is a required input for the P Power [W]
adiabatic analysis while the simple analysis intro- Pr Prandtl number
duces pumping losses and regenerator inefficien- PI Indicated power [W]
cies. These methodologies are discussed briefly in Pshaft Shaft power [W]
this paper. Experimental verification of the analyti- Q. Heat transfer [J]
cal data was carried out on a Heinrici Stirling Q Heat transfer rate [W]
engine and both the analytical data and the experi- R Gas constant [J/kg.K]
mental data are presented here. Shortcomings of Re Reynolds number
these methods of analysis are highlighted and an T Temperature [ºC or K] or Torque [Nm]
alternative approach to solve particular shortcom- u Velocity [m/s]
ings is presented. V Volume [m3 or cm3]
W Work [J]
Keywords: Heinrici Stirling engine, Schmidt, adia- Wnet Net work [J]
batic, simple analysis, five volume approach,
renewable energy, waste heat recovery Greek symbols
α Phase angle lead of displacer piston over
power piston [radians or degrees]
γ Ideal gas specific heat ratio or angle
gamma [radians or degrees]
an indication of the relevance and applicability of ton, the power piston starts to move downwards
the use of this ‘old technology’ to solve modern until the positions are reached as indicated in Figure
problems regarding the current rate of fossil fuel 1d, where the power piston is again at its lowest
depletion. position. During this part of the phase, the gas is
In a beta configuration similar to the engine expanding while it is at its highest temperature,
used in this study, two pistons are present, namely resulting in energy being transferred from the
the displacer and the power piston as shown in engine to the drive mechanism. This process is also
Figure 1. Although not shown in Figure 1, these two considered to be isothermal in the ideal case.
pistons are driven by a drive mechanism. Two vari- To complete the cycle, the displacer again starts
able volumes, namely the expansion and compres- to move upwards to its highest position with no
sion spaces and three fixes volumes, namely the hot change in total volume and the gas is again dis-
side heat exchanger (Heater), the cold side heat placed to the cold space.
exchanger (Cooler) and the regenerator constitutes The cyclic Stirling engine can act as a thermal to
the rest of the engine. a kinetic energy converter (in accordance with the
With piston position indicated in Figure 1a, the second law of thermodynamics), because gas
power piston is in its lowest position, the displacer expansion occurs during higher pressure than when
piston have just moved from its lowest to its highest it is compressed, net work is obtained over one
position displacing all of the gas to the cold space cycle, i.e. more work is delivered by the expanding
where heat is transferred from the gas to the exter- gas than the work delivered to the gas during com-
nal dump. The power piston now moves upwards pression. This process is easily repeated at a tempo
while the displacer remains in its highest position, of up to 3000 rpm for engines with helium as work-
compressing the gas while it is at the lower temper- ing gas.
ature. For this process, energy is transferred from The regenerator consists of layers of heat
the drive mechanism to the engine. Ideally, this absorbent mesh or foils that act as a heat sponge to
process is considered to be isothermal, with only the improve the efficiency of the engine. Since heat is
volume and the pressure that changes. absorbed from the gas while it is displaced from the
When the power piston reaches the position hot side to the cold side, the amount of energy that
indicated in Figure 1b, it has reached its highest needs to be transferred to the external dump via the
position and the displacer now starts to move cold side heat exchanger is much less and could
downwards, effectively displacing the gas to the hot therefore be done more effectively. When the gas is
space, allowing heat to be transferred to the gas again displaced to the hot side, the gas is already
from an external source. The total volume remains heated by absorbing energy from the regenerator
constant during this process, with the temperature and less heat is needed from the external source via
and hence the gas pressure that rises. the hot side heat exchanger for the same net power
Once the displacer has reached the position as output of the engine, hence the improved efficien-
indicated in Figure 1c, i.e. just above the power pis- cy.
given a virtual volume and it is set to be 100% sidered. The first section of Table 3 presents the
porous. In reality the walls of the annulus formed temperature gradients within the heater and cooler
between the cylinder sleeve and the displacer piston heat exchangers, while the second section presents
have some regenerative effect, but this is assumed the engine’s performance before consideration of
negligible for this engine. frictional losses. Specifications of non-ideal regener-
ation as well as actual engine performance, after
4. Simulated HSE performance work loss due to friction, are presented in the final
The HSE was analysed by using the Schmidt, adia- two sections of the table. Note that the power out-
batic and simple methods of analysis presented by put is the total predicted power output of the engine
Berchowitz and Urieli (1984). Experimentally meas- and not only the cyclic power delivered i.e. the
ured data is used as user defined operating condi- cyclic work is multiplied by the operating frequency
tions during analyses performed on the HSE in to obtain the total power output of the engine. This
order to verify accuracy of simulations. These oper- applies to all power relevant (heat or output power)
ating conditions are listed in Table 2. values displayed in the table below. Also note that
the simulated power is only a function of the ther-
Table 2: Operating conditions for HSE modynamic cycle and not of the engine’s drive
Description/variable Value Unit
mechanism. The user defined input temperatures
are stated alongside the simulated results for the
Mean operating pressure (pmean) 1.148 bar
non-ideal heat exchangers for simplicity.
Cold side wall temperature (Tk) 46 ºC When considering the p-V diagram for the sim-
Hot side wall temperature (Th) 448 ºC ple analysis presented in Figure 5 below, it is clear
Operating frequency 73.3 rpm that the consideration of the non-ideal heat
exchangers caused a larger deviation from the ideal
Table 3 lists the numeric results obtained by p-V diagram than that of the adiabatic analysis.
applying the simple analysis on the Heinrici engine. Reader (1983) states that this phenomenon occurs
Non-ideal heat exchangers and regeneration as well due to the fact that the cylinder walls do not provide
as pumping losses caused by fluid friction are con- a heat transfer medium of sufficient high conduc-
tance to ensure constant gas temperatures within Figure 6 shows the cyclic pressure variation in
the cylinders, thus causing deviation from the the Heinrici engine as obtained from the simple
isothermal conditions and hence the consideration analysis. It is assumed that the internal pressure is
of the non-ideal heat exchangers. Reader (1983) the same throughout the engine. This implies that
also mentions that the deviation is more pro- the pressures in the five cells of the engine are the
nounced on the hot-side of the engine than on the same. The pressure variation of the adiabatic analy-
cold-side, as illustrated by Figure 5. The area sis is also shown in Figure 6. Note the difference in
included within the p-V diagram represents the relative magnitude as well as the phase similarity
developed engine work per cycle. It is not very between the two curves. The difference in magni-
obvious that there is a significant difference in area, tude can be ascribed to the pressure loss (from work
but upon comparison of the results obtained for the loss simulation) taken into account by the simple
adiabatic and simple analyses (refer to Table 4) it is analysis. Incorporating this work loss in the simple
clear that the power predicted by the simple analy- model thus leads to a lower operating pressure ratio
sis (14.05 W) is less than that of the adiabatic analy- which provides a more correct approximation of the
sis (16.18 W). This is expected as the simple analy- real engine.
sis gives a better approximation of the practical con- Figure 7 below shows the cyclic energy flow in
ditions existing within Stirling engines. the three heat exchangers of the engine as well as
the total work done per cycle. Values for the heat
Table 4: Comparison of HSEA results from the rejected by the cooler (Qk) and heat added by the
3 methods heater (Qh) as well as total work done (W) is indi-
Method of Gas mass Power Efficiency
cated (see Table 4 for numeric results.). Note the
analysis (g) (W) (%) difference in magnitude of energy flow between the
regenerator and that of the heater and cooler. Also
Schmidt 0.66054 21.81 55.76
note that the total cyclic energy flow through the
Adiabatic 0.672 16.2 42.1
regenerator sums to zero for the ideal case. The
Simple 0.6606 14.21 (14) 38.4 (3.51) energy flow in the regenerator is of the order of five
times more than that of the heater and six times
where the mass flow comes from arises. The instan- ator cells. Note that the graph representing the
taneous mass in each engine cell is calculated using instantaneous mass of gas in the compression space
the equation of state, similarly the mass accumula- is almost a direct mirror image of that of the expan-
tion within each cell is obtained by applying the sion space. This indicates that most of the gas is
energy equation to the five cells and substituting the within the compression space when compression
ideal gas relations. The mass flow rate within each occurs (heat rejection). Similarly for the expansion
cell is then obtained as a function of the direction of space most of the gas is within the expansion space
flow and depends on the mass flow rate of the pre- when expansion occurs (heat addition). Increase in
ceding engine cell (refer to Appendix A for a sum- pressure is caused by expansion which occurs as
mary of the adiabatic equation set, under the soon as the majority of the operating fluid is con-
‘equations for masses’ section). tained within the expansion space and is heated.
Figure 9 shows the instantaneous mass of gas in Hence, the similarity between the trends of the
each cell of the engine. The pressure variation is pressure and expansion space mass curves. This is
also shown to indicate the interaction between mass easily explained when considering the equation of
and pressure within the heater, cooler and regener- state for an ideal gas; increase in mass and temper-
ature at the same volume constitutes an increase in the Heinrici engine is almost non-existing (as men-
pressure. tioned previously), since it has no regenerative
Figure 10 shows the pressure drop across the matrix (hence a very low heat storing capacity).
three heat exchangers. Note the phase similarity of This is, however, one of the reasons for the relative-
the pressure drop between the heat exchangers. ly low pressure drop across the regenerator.
Also note the relative magnitude between the pres- Note that the pressure drop in each engine cell
sure drop across the regenerator and that across the is not calculated as part of the simulation proce-
heater and cooler. The regenerator is clearly the dure. It is only calculated after the convergence of
obstruction in the flow field causing the highest the simulation procedure in order to evaluate the
resistance to mass flow i.e. the regenerator governs pumping loss of the engine.
the pumping loss in the engine. The regenerator of Figure 11 shows the temperature fluctuation of
the expansion (Te) and compression spaces (Tc) as perature and external source and sink measure-
well as the constant regenerator temperature as ments)
obtained from the simple analysis of the Heinrici • Pressure transducers (expansion space pressure
Stirling engine. The simple analysis incorporates the measurement)
effect of non-ideal heat exchangers thus introducing • Torque transducer
a temperature gradient between the wall and the • Crank-rotation angle transducer
gas within the heater and cooler heat exchangers. • DC motor/generator
Note that the non-ideal heat exchanger simulation Figure 12 shows the experimental layout with the
indicates that the hot side gas temperature (Th) is CCU on the left hand side and the test section with
lower than the user defined hot side wall tempera- the HSE on the right.
ture (Twh). Similarly, the cold side gas temperature The HSE has a built-in water jacket that pro-
(Tk) is higher than the user defined wall temperature vides the sink (cooler) temperature while the source
(Twk). This is in fact the case in actual Stirling (heater) temperature is provided by the exhaust
engines and implies that the engine operates gases of a continuous combustion unit (CCU). The
between narrower temperature limits, thus produc- finned heat exchanger (hot-end) section of the HSE
ing less power than predicted by the adiabatic and (refer to Figure 4) is placed in the exhaust system of
isothermal models. The user defined wall tempera- the CCU in such a way that the exhaust gas is
tures are also shown in Figure 11. These are the forced through the un-finned (or free flow) area of
same temperatures as the hot (Th) and cold (Tk) the heat exchanger by means of guide vanes. The
side temperatures used for the adiabatic analysis reason for using this approach instead of less com-
and are listed in Table 3. plicated options like simply using a Bunsen-burner
Table 4 compares the results obtained from sim- is to enable closer approximation of the waste heat
ulation of the HSE using the three different meth- recovery process as found in internal combustion
ods. Note that for the simple analysis in Table 4 the engines for future research, as well as to provide a
results only incorporate the non-ideal heater and uniform heat source for the heater instead of a
cooler heat exchangers effects, while the value ‘point source’ as would be the case with a Bunsen-
shown in brackets includes the effects of pumping burner.
loss and non-ideal regeneration. A direct current (DC) motor, used as a DC gen-
erator, was connected to the output shaft of the
5. Experimental HSE performance HSE. This DC generator provided the load for the
5.1 The HSE experimental test arrangement HSE while the developed electric energy is dissipat-
The experimental test arrangement comprised the ed by a bank of resistors connected to the genera-
following equipment: tor. A torque sensor is places between the HSE and
• Heinrici Stirling engine the DC generator. A speed (revolutions per second)
• Continuous combustion unit (CCU) sensor measures the rotational speed of the HSE’s
• Thermocouples (internal hot/cold-side gas tem- fly-wheel. From these two measurements the engine
output power (Watt) can be calculated. The DC Table 5: Experimental vs. simulation results
motor is also used to run the HSE engine (turn the Experimental Simple Adiabatic Schmidt
HSE at the same rpm as operational rpm developed Power [W]* 18 14.2 (14.0) 16.2 21.81
by HSE during tests) in order to measure the fric-
Efficiency [%]* 2.96 38.4 (3.51) 42.1 55.76
tional, pumping and other losses within the Heinrici
engine. This is done by connecting the DC motor to * Results for the Stirling cycle power and efficiency and
not for the total engine thus excluding power required to
the output shaft of the HSE at stand still conditions
overcome losses in the drive mechanism.
i.e. at constant overall temperature (room tempera-
ture) conditions for the HSE engine.
The temperatures Th and Tk used as inputs for
Experimental measurements the simulation program (refer to Table 2) are the
The following losses were measured: temperatures experimentally measured as the
• Crank system frictional losses respective internal hot-end and cold-end gas tem-
• Fan belt and pulley system frictional losses peratures and are therefore in correspondence with
With the pistons disconnected from the crank the input temperatures of the adiabatic analysis,
system the frictional losses of the rotating compo- where the heat exchanger gas temperatures, also
nents are obtained. Table 6 lists the results of the referred to as Th and Tk , are fixed. As for the sim-
HSE losses test. Torque required to run the engine ple analysis, it was found to be difficult to accurate-
at the given operating frequency was used to calcu- ly measure the wall temperatures of the heat
late the power required to overcome the internal exchangers and therefore the input temperatures of
losses in the engine according to the P = ωT rela- the simple analysis, namely the heat exchanger wall
tion, where ω in radians per second is the operating temperatures referred to as Twh and Twk were set at
frequency measured at the torque transducer and T Th and Tk respectively as well. The simple analysis
[Nm] the measured torque. specifically incorporates the effect of non-ideal heat
exchangers in order to predict the gas temperatures
Table 4: HSE losses test data when given the heat exchanger wall temperatures
Losses
and it is therefore anticipated that the simple analy-
sis will under-predict the power output of the engine
Speed (rpm) 72
as indicated in Table 7.
Torque (Nm) 1.41 Overall it is important to note that the correla-
Power loss (W) 10.41 tion between the predicted results and experimental
data is not very close. However, the predicted
Table 7 compares the power and efficiency of results are of the same order of magnitude as that of
the HSE obtained from experimental tests to that the actual engine. The results therefore do provide
obtained from simulations (refer to appendix B for useful insight and a meaningful base to further
calculations regarding experimental results). Once understand the performance of Stirling engines. In
again in Table 7, the values stated in brackets for this context is good to remember the well known
the results of the simple analysis include the non- phrase: ‘all models are wrong, but some are useful’
ideal heat exchangers, pumping loss as well as non- (e.g. Box et al., 2005). Walker (1980) also states
ideal regeneration effects while the values not in that the real engine always rejects more heat and
brackets only include the effect of non-ideal heat produces less power than that predicted by the ana-
exchangers. lytical engine. He pointed out that nevertheless
practical experience accumulated over many years its of the ideal p-V diagram than that of the adia-
has made it possible for researchers to provide close batic analysis. As mentioned earlier, this is due to
and realistic predictions of the performance of the fact that the adiabatic analysis is a less complex
Stirling engines, and the Phillips research group was method i.e. it does not take into account the non-
one of the leaders in this aspect. ideal effects present in the real engine. The simple
Keep in mind that the three methods increase in analysis does consider some of these effects and
complexity from Schmidt, adiabatic to the simple therefore moves even further away from the ideal
analysis as more realistic assumptions are made and situation and similarly the real engine is even fur-
more non-ideal effects are considered. The predict- ther removed from the ideal limits.
ed results should thus also approach reality in that Figure 14 shows the simulated and measured
order. This effect is seen from the p-V diagrams pre- pressure vs. crank angle.
sented in Figure 13. The simulated pressure versus crank angle graph
The simple analysis is further away from the lim- for the simple analysis in Figure 14 predicts a high-
Thermal efficiency:
Equations for gas masses in each cell: Use overall surface efficiency of hot-end fin array
(ηo =13.25 %) from finned hot-end design calcula-
mi = pVi/(RTi), where i = c, k, r, h, e (A2) tions to obtain available hot-end energy:
Equations for change in mass or mass accumulation Qhot = ηoQHwall = 609.54 W (B2)
in each cell:
Angular rotation of DC generator (at torque trans-
dmc = (pdVc + Vcdp/γ)/RTck ducer):
dmi = midp/p, where i = k, r, h (A3)
dme = (pdVe + Vedp/γ)/RThe ϖDC = 2.π.66 = 6.912 rad/s (B3)
60
Equations for mass flow over cell interfaces: Experimentally measured operational torque deliv-
ered by HSE (at steady state conditions):
mck = –dmc
mkr = –mck –dmk (A4) Tout = 1.105 Nm (B4)
mhe = –dme
mrh = mhe –dmh Experimentally determined system frictional losses: