Design and Analysis of a Free-Piston Stirling Engine for Microreactor Applications

Abstract

With the development of micro-reactors, a Free-Piston Stirling Engine (FPSE) is a great candidate for the power conversion unit. Based on the advantages of the micro-reactor such as the compact design, long lasting, highly efficiency, and remote-control operation, an FPSE can provide almost the same as the requirements. In this paper, a 20-kW electric FPSE is proposed to support the development of the power conversion unit for microreactor application. The calculation method was done through MATLAB to analyze the design with all the significant losses in the engine. Through various designs and operating conditions for the engine, the proposed design has 21.4 percent efficiency with a total output power of 20.7 kW electric. With the testing through different parameters in the engine, the current design is well optimized to balance all the constraints which offer highly efficient, compact design, and reliability. Additionally, there is room for improvement during the design process, such as using the heat flux instead of a heat exchanger, robust foil for the regenerator, and simulation through 3D modeling to maximize the potential of the design. This study provides theoretical support for the design and analysis of the FPSE for micro-reactor applications.