The Air Engine: Stirling Cycle Power for a Sustainable Future

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The Air Engine: Stirling Cycle Power for a Sustainable Future
Description:
The air engine: Stirling cycle power for a sustainable future
- Contains previously unpublished insights into the pressure-wave and thermal-lag engines
- Addresses the need to reduce harmful gas emissions whilst sustaining economic growth
- Design implications are discussed
Two centuries after the original invention, the Stirling engine is now a commercial reality as the core
component of domestic CHP (combined heat and power) – a technology offering substantial savings in raw
energy utilization relative to centralized power generation. The threat of climate change requires a net
reduction in hydrocarbon consumption and in emissions of 'greenhouse' gases whilst sustaining economic
growth. Development of technologies such as CHP addresses both these needs.
Meeting the challenge involves addressing a range of issues: a long-standing mismatch between inherently
favourable internal efficiency and wasteful external heating provision; a dearth of heat transfer and flow
data appropriate to the task of first-principles design; the limited rpm capability when operating with air
(and nitrogen) as working fluid. All of these matters are explored in depth in The air engine: Stirling cycle
power for a sustainable future. The account includes previously unpublished insights into the personality
and potential of two related regenerative prime movers - the pressure-wave and thermal-lag engines
About the author
Allan J Organ, PhD, DEng, ScD, FIMechE is known internationally for his work on Stirling engines. He is author
of some 50 technical papers and four highly regarded texts on regenerative thermal cycles. The material and
its treatment reflect experience accumulated over four-and-a-half decades of university research in the UK,
Canada and South America.
Contents:
INTRODUCTION
An invention ahead of its time. Full-steam ahead. …after the horse had bolted. Where does the air engine fit
in? A second industrial evolution. Domestic CHP and the air engine.
PART 1 A LONG-OVERDUE RE-APPRAISAL
The famous engine that never was
Status quo. The legend. History re-constructed. Exploratory firing tests. Re-assessment. Post script.
What Carnot efficiency?
Ideal cycle – or perfect alibi? What Carnot efficiency? Old heat exchanger, new air pre-heater. Resources for
first-principles gas path design. A further take on friction factor Cf – and not the last. Beyond the sound
barrier. Geometric descriptors for the wire matrix. Inconsistencies uncovered. Résumé.
The counter-flow spiral heat exchanger – Spirex
Heat provision as an integral part of the engine system. Thermal analysis. Heat transfer and flow friction
correlations. Special case of high NTU. Numerical integration. Specimen solutions. Discussion.
A high-recovery-ratio combustion chamber
Principle. Operation. Operating experience and materials. Preliminary operating experience.
PART 2 LIVING WITH INCOMPRESSIBLE FLOW DATA
The regenerator problem brought down to size
Background. Assumptions. Defining equations. Boundary conditions. Flush ratio. Integration algorithm.
Specimen temperature profiles. Design criterion for NTCR. Alternative formulation in corroboration.
Conclusions.
The regenerative annulus and shuttle heat transfer
Introduction. Background. Re-formulation. Assumptions. Analysis. Cyclic shuttle heat transfer loss.

The rotating-displacer air engine
Résumé. An alternative. Taylor parameter. A rotating-displacer air engine. Academic design exercise.
The strange case of the self-regulating air engine
Background. Some realities. Constructional details. Exploratory power and torque measurement. 'Selfregulation'.
Tentative explanation. Conclusions.
Some light on the inner workings of the thermal lag engine
The concept. 'Thermal lag' engine. Ideal gas process sequence. A detailed model of the thermal processes.
Limited heat transfer. Flow losses. A practical thermal lag engine. Preliminary operating experience. Afterthought.
PART 3 WORKING WITH THE REALITY OF COMPRESSIBLE FLOW
New correlations for old
Right data – wrong application. The misleading Cf – Re correlation. Flow data acknowledging Ma. Dynamic
Similarity to the rescue. Farewell to friction factor. The new format. What the new format reveals about
'incompressible'. Epitaph.
Regenerator thermal analysis – un-finished business
Regenerator design in context. Assumptions. Modified diffusion law. Numerical solution. Parameters of
operation. Pressure and velocity fields. Inevitable asymmetry of flow cycle. Anisotropic matrix. Discussion.
Flow passage geometry
Scope. Symmetrical gauze – flow perpendicular to pane of weave. Flow parallel to plane of weave. Specimen
isotropic material – metal foam. Résumé.
Beyond the performance envelope
Introduction. Method of Characteristics. 'Unit process' of the integration sequence. High-speed operation –
the pressure-wave engine. Discussion.
For the sceptics
What does it all add up to? Flow in the isolated gauze aperture. Defining equations. Radial component of
kinetic energy. The non-so-square-weave wire gauze. Kinetic energy of rotation. 'Real' (van der Waals) gas.
Downstream pressure recovery. Simulated correlation p/p = p/p{Sg, Ma, y, dwmw.}. Implications for firstprinciples
design. Résumé.
PART 4 SOME DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Scaling - and the neglected art of back-of-the-envelope calculation
The overriding objective. Gas path scaling – update. Back-of-the-envelope Ma and Re in the regenerator.
Limiting Ma. Compressibility vulnerability chart. Heat transfer. Implications for back-of-envelope design. A
'screening' test. The wider rôle of scaling.
'How to make a business out of Stirling Engines today'
Tribal wisdom. From alchemy to appropriate technology. What has changed? The VDF-750(aS). Drive
mechanism/kinematics. General mechanical construction. Pressure balance seal. Beyond 2006.
APPENDICES
Appendix I Draft patent specification
What I claim is
Appendix II Crank mechanism kinematics
Algebra of kinematics of high-compression crank mechanism
Appendix III Equilibrium or 'temperature-determined' picture of thermal lag engine
Appendix IV Native wisdom
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