Simulation of the instantaneous free piston Stirling engine-electrical load interaction
In this paper the authors consider a gamma type free piston engine (that is, a configuration with a power piston cylinder and a separate displacer cylinder) with the MARTINI configuration (that is, with a free piston but a kinematically driven displacer). In the modeled engine, the displacer is driven by an electrical motor and there are two symmetrical, free, power pistons. This configuration ensures a complete balancing of the engine. The free pistons bear the moving parts of the linear electric alternators. This engine may be considered for solar to electrical energy conversion for land or space applications, for instance. A dynamic simulation of this engine has been developed using a decoupled analysis. The motion equation of the free piston induces a strong coupling between the electrical load and the thermodynamics inside the free piston Stirling engine. From the thermodynamics point of view, the piston-displacer phase lag is an important parameter. It is shown that if the electrical circuit elements (R-L-C) are constants, the phase lag between the free pistons and displacer motions is far from the optimum. However this phase lag can be controlled by means of a variable electrical resistance. For both cases of stand-alone engine with an independent electrical load, or grid-connected engine, it is shown how one can in a very simple way multiply the net electrical power by a factor 4 to 10 and the efficiency by a factor 1.25 to 2 without any engine geometry modification.
- Research Organization:
- ISITEM, Nantes (FR)
- OSTI ID:
- 20000200
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 33rd Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, Colorado Springs, CO (US), 08/02/1998--08/06/1998; Other Information: 1 CD-ROM. Operating system required: Windows 3.x; Windows 95/NT; Macintosh; UNIX. All systems need 2X CD-ROM drive., PBD: 1998; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 33. intersociety energy conversion engineering conference, by Anghaie, S. [ed.], [2800] pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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