• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.638-644
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• 2015

This paper describes the continuing effort to analysis and design on dynamic and electrical behavior of gamma-type free piston Stirling engine/generator with dual-opposed linear generator for domestic micro-CHP (Combined Heat and Power) system. The double acting Stirling engine/generator has one displacer and two power piston which are supported by flexure springs. Two power pistons oscillate with symmetric sinusoidal displacement and are connected with moving magnet type linear generators for power generation. To operate Stirling engine/generator, combustion heat of natural gas is supplied to hot-end and heat is rejected from cold-end by cooling water. The temperature difference across the displacer induces the oscillating motion, and it can be explained with mass-spring vibration system. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design process of linear generator for the double acting free-piston Stirling engine.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.114-120
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• 2016

This paper describes generating efficiency characteristics of the double acting Stirling engine/generator for domestic small-scale CHP (Combined Heat and Power) system. In small distributed generation applications, Stirling engine has competition from fuel cell, microturbine and etc. In order to be economical in the applications, a long life with minimum maintenance is generally required. Free piston Stirling engine (FPSE) has no crank and rotating parts to generate lateral forces and require lubrication. Double acting Stirling engine/generator has one displacer and two power piston which are supported by flexure springs. Two power pistons oscillate with symmetric displacement and are connected with moving magnet type linear generators for power generation from PV work. In experiments, 1 kW class double acting free piston Stirling engine/generator is fabricated and tested. Heat is supplied to hot end of engine by the combustion of natural gas and converted to electric power by linear generators which are assembled with power pistons. The electric parameters such as voltage, current and phase are measured with for variable flow rate of fuel gas. Especially, generating efficiency of FPSE is measured with three different measurement methods. Generating efficiency of the double acting Stirling engine/alternator is about 24%.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.139-144
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• 2008

The focus of this research is that the scavenging aspect of in-cylinder is visualized by the PIV method and its characteristic is analyzed so that the scavenging performance of the free piston hydrogen fueled engine can improve with loop scavenging. As the results, the piston of convex type shows the best scavenging performance among the presented pistons. In case of the abnormal expansion, the scavenging of area between cylinder head and cylinder wall doesn't operate well.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.227-233
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• 2006

A free-piston hydrogen fueled engine is considered as one of the next power systems which is able to obtain high efficiency and low emission, simultaneously. In this study, in order to ensure the possibility as the next generation power system, the combustion characteristics and the performance of the free-piston hydrogen fueled engine are analyzed by using the linear RICEM for the change of injection pressure and equivalence ratio. As the results, in-cylinder maximum pressure is shown at injection pressure $P_{inj}$=6bar. Backfire phenomenon is not observed under experimental condition and knock occurs over ${\Phi}=0.8$. The thermal efficiency is the highest at injection pressure, $P_{inj}$=6bar and equivalence ratio, ${\Phi}=0.7$, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.648-655
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• 2014

This paper describes the continuing effort to develope a single acting free-piston Stirling engine/alternator combination for use of the household cogeneration. Free piston Stirling engines(FPSE) use variations of working gas pressure to drive mechanically unconstrained reciprocating elements. Stirling cycle free-piston engines are driven by the Stirling thermodynamic cycle which is characterized by an externally heated device containing working gas that is continuously re-used in a regenerative, reversible cycle. The ideal cycle is described by two isothermal process connected by two constant volume processes. Heat removed during the constant volume cooling process is internally transferred to the constant volume heating process by mutual use of a thermal storage medium called the regenerator. Since the ideal cycle is reversible, the ideal efficiency is that of Carnot. Free-piston Stirling engine is have no crank and rotating parts to generate lateral forces and require lubrication. The FPSE is typically comprised of two oscillating pistons contained in a common cylinder. The temperature difference across the displacer maintains the oscillations, and the FPSE operate at natural frequency of the mass-spring system. The power is generated from a linear alternator. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design process of the single acting free-piston Stirling engine/alternator. Electrical output of the single acting free-piston Stirling engine/alternator is about 0.95 kW.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.637-646
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• 2021

The free-piston Stirling engine (FPSE) has been widely used in aerospace owing to its advantages of high efficiency, high reliability, and self-starting ability. In this paper, a 20-kW FPSE is proposed by analyzing the requirements of space nuclear power reactor. A code was developed based on an improved simple analysis method to evaluate the performance of the proposed FPSE. The code is benchmarked with experimental data, and the maximum relative error of the output power is 17.1%. Numerical results show that the output power is 21 kW, which satisfies the design requirements. The results show that: a) reducing the pressure shell's thickness can improve the output power significantly; b) the system efficiency increases with the wire porosity, while the growth of system efficiency decreases when the porosity is higher than 80%, and system efficiency exhibits a linear relationship with the temperatures of the cold and hot sides; c) the system efficiency increases with the compression ratio; the compression ratio increases by 16.7% while the system efficiency increases by 42%. This study can provide valuable theoretical support for the design and analysis of FPSEs for space nuclear power reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2184-2194
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• 2021

The Free-Piston Stirling engine (FPSE) is of interest for many research in aerospace due to its advantages of long operating life, higher efficiency, and zero maintenance. In this study, a 1-kW FPSE was proposed by analyzing the requirements of Space Reactor Power Systems (SRPS), of which performance was evaluated by developing a code through the Simple Analysis Method. The results of SAM showed that the critical parameters of FPSE could satisfy the designed requirements. The heater of the FPSE was designed with the copper rectangular fins to enhance heat transfer, and the parametric study of the heater was performed with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software STAR-CCM⁺. The Performance Evaluation Criteria (PEC) was used to evaluate the heat transfer enhancement of the fins in the heater. The numerical results of the CFD program showed that pressure drop and Nusselt number ratio had a linear growth with the height of fins, and PEC number decreased as the height of fins increased, and the optimum height of the fin was set as 4 mm according to the minimum heat exchange surface area. This paper can provide theoretical supports for the design and numerical analysis of an FPSE for SRPSs.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.248-257
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• 2016

Recently, researches on the free-piston Stirling engines(FPSEs) are actively investigated. FPSEs have merits in its light weight, simple structure, and little need for maintenance, thus becoming a promising solution for the power conversion of renewable energy and waste heat recycle. This paper presents the methodology that estimates damping coefficients using analytical models of linear and nonlinear dynamics for FPSEs, and validates the methodology by comparing with existing experimental results. The analysis model predicts an operable range of linear damping coefficients forming limit cycles by using the root locus, and time responses obtained by numerical integration determines nonlinear damping coefficients. The model predictions are compared with experimental results of the well-known FPSE B-10B. We also investigate the damping characteristics regarding heater temperatures and power piston motions.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.66-73
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• 2005

Hydrogen linear power system is estimated as the next generation power system which can obtain a performance as same as fuel cell. In order to develop Hydrogen combustion power system with high thermal efficiency, it is very important to understand the basic characteristics of hydrogen combustion and establish combustion stabilization technique of its system. In this study, RICEM(Rapid Intake Compression Expansion Machine) for researching of hydrogen combustion linear power system was manufactured and evaluated, and the basic characteristics of linear RICEM were analyzed.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2017.07a
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• pp.431-432
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• 2017

본 논문은 자유 피스톤 엔진에 적용되는 단상 선형발전기용 전력제어시스템에 관한 연구이다. 자유 피스톤 엔진 선형발전시스템은 피스톤의 움직임을 구속하는 기구가 없기 때문에 기계적 마찰 손실이 적고 상사점 도달 시간이 짧아 에너지 효율측면에서 기존의 피스톤 엔진보다 유리한 기술이다. 하지만, 자유 피스톤 엔진의 경우 초기 기동 할 수 있는 동력원이 필요하며, 단상 선형 발전기의 경우 짧은 스트로크 및 낮은 속도로 인해 인덕턴스가 크게 설계 되어, 높은 인덕턴스로 인한 전류의 위상 지연으로 역률이 낮아지게 되고, 응답성이 떨어지는 문제점을 가지고 있다. 이러한 문제점을 해결하기 위해 본 논문에서는 역률 보상 및 응답성을 높일 수 있는 자유피스톤 엔진용 단상선형발진기용 전력제어시스템을 제안한다.