25 kWe solar thermal stirling hydraulic engine system: Final conceptual design report

Technical Report · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6711931

This report documents the conceptual design and analysis of a solar thermal free-piston Stirling hydraulic engine system designed to deliver 25 kWe when coupled to the 11-meter Test Bed Concentrator at Sandia National Laboratories. A manufacturing cost assessment for 10,000 units per year was made by Pioneer Engineering and Manufacturing. The design meets all program objectives including a 60,000-hr design life, dynamic balancing, fully automated control, >33.3% overall system efficiency, properly conditioned power, maximum utilization of annualized insolation, and projected production costs of $300/kW. The system incorporates a simple, rugged, reliable pool boiler reflux heat pipe to transfer heat from the solar receiver to the Stirling engine. The free-piston engine produces high-pressure hydraulic flow which powers a commercial hydraulic motor that, in turn, drives a commercial rotary induction generator. The Stirling hydraulic engine uses hermetic bellows seals to separate helium working gas from hydraulic fluid which provides hydrodynamic lubrication to all moving parts. Maximum utilization of highly refined, field proven commercial components for electric power generation minimizes development cost and risk. The engine design is based on a highly refined Stirling hydraulic engine developed over 20 years as a fully implantable artificial heart power source. 4 refs., 19 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cleveland, OH (USA). Lewis Research Center; Stirling Technology Co., Richland, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AT04-85AL33408
• OSTI ID: 6711931
• Report Number(s): DOE/NASA-0371-1; NASA-CR-180889; ON: DE89003777
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140909 -- Solar Thermal Utilization-- Miscellaneous Solar Applications-- (1980-)
42 ENGINEERING
425003* -- Engineering-- Power Cycles-- Stirling-- (1980-)
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DATA
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
ELEMENTS
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENGINES
EQUIPMENT
FLUID MECHANICS
FLUIDS
GASES
HEAT ENGINES
HEAT TRANSFER
HELIUM
HYDRAULICS
INFORMATION
MECHANICS
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PERFORMANCE
RARE GASES
SIMULATION
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR HEAT ENGINES
STIRLING ENGINES