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Free Piston Engines: Thermoacoustic Stirling Engine :
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In February 1999, the International Academy of Engineering convened anexpert panel to select the technologically outstanding achievements of the 20
th
century & its no surprise that the I.C. Engine Technology topped the list. But,Pollution concerns, global warming and shrinking fossil fuel reserves havefocused world attention on how engines generate electrical and mechanicalpower in a better way.“The free piston engine is an attempt to combine the high thermalefficiency of a reciprocating engine with high power/weight ratio of a rotaryturbine. It is a combination of a reciprocating engine and a rotary turbine.The quest for increased power from a given cylinder size has resulted in along process of development. Important steps in this process of development areimprovements in the fuels used and in the design of various components for higher efficiencies and lower cost and weight. However, a different approach inthe direction of using different cycles of operation or modifications of existingcycle, has also been pursued with great interest.”In a step towards exploiting existing power cycles, scientists at the U.SDepartment of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed aremarkably simple, energy-efficient engine which works on ‘
Stirling Cycle
‘ andhas no oscillating pistons, oil seals or lubricants, known as the
“Thermoacoustic Stirling Engine”
.Sound waves in "thermoacoustic" engines can replace the pistons andcranks that are typically built into conventional engines & hence in true sensethermoacoustic stirling engine can be termed as advancement in free pistonengines.
Free Piston Engines: Thermoacoustic Stirling Engine :
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Basic Stirling Cycle:
Stirling Engine, type of engine that derives mechanical power from theexpansion of a confined gas at a high temperature. The stirling cycle [Fig. 1] waspatented in 1816 by the Scottish clergyman Robert Stirling and was used as asmall power source in many industries during the 19th and early 20th centuries.The need for automobile engines with low emission of toxic gases has revivedinterest in the Stirling engine, and prototypes have been built with up to 500horsepower and with efficiencies of 30 to 45 percent.The cycle that provides the work is called the Stirling cycle; it consists inits simplest form of the compression of a fixed amount of so-called working gas(hydrogen or helium) in a cool chamber. This cool compressed gas is transferredto a hot chamber, which is heated by an external burner, where the gas expandsand drives a piston that delivers the work. The expanded hot gas is then cooledand returned to the cold chamber, and the cycle begins again. Stirling alsoconceived the idea of a
regenerator
(a solid with many holes running through it,which he called the “economiser”) to store thermal energy during part of the cycleand return it later [Fig. 2]The engine is able to transform heat into work because the expansion of the gas at high temperature delivers more work than is required to compress thesame amount of gas at low temperature.The heat for the expansion chamber is provided by an externalcontinuous burner that can operate on gasoline, alcohol, natural gas, propane,butane, or solar energy and the exhaust generated has very low free carbon andtoxic gas levels. The Stirling engine runs smoothly because pressure variations inthe compression and expansion chambers are sinusoidal, that is, relativelygradual, rather than explosive as in internal-combustion cycles.
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