Characteristics and potential of a novel inclined-flow stirling regenerator constructed by sinusoidal corrugated channels

Minjie Yu, Lei Xu, Haichuan Cui, Zhichun Liu and Wei Liu

Energy, 2024, vol. 288, issue C

Abstract: The characteristics of the regenerator significantly impact the overall performance of Stirling engines. To improve heat and mass transfer characteristics of the regenerator and enhance the heat-to-work conversion potential of Stirling engines, this study introduced a novel design concept of inclined-flow regenerators, where the matrix surface is inclined to the gas flow direction. For the first time, a sinusoidal corrugated-channel regenerator, constructed by corrugated structures, was designed based on this concept. The heat and mass transfer characteristics of this type of regenerator in oscillating flows, along with the heat-to-work conversion performance of the engine, were investigated at both component and system levels and compared with the cross-flow and parallel-flow regenerators. The results demonstrate that the proposed sinusoidal corrugated-channel regenerator exhibits well-balanced heat and mass transfer performance. Compared to cross-flow regenerators, the engine equipped with sinusoidal corrugated-channel regenerators achieves a maximum increase of 210 % in output power and 39 % in thermal efficiency. Compared to parallel-flow regenerators, it shows a slight decrease of 3 % in output power but an increase of 102 % in thermal efficiency. These findings confirm the feasibility of the proposed design concept of inclined-flow regenerators and the corresponding sinusoidal corrugated-channel regenerator in enhancing the overall performance of Stirling engines.

Keywords: Stirling engine; Inclined-flow regenerator; Sinusoidal corrugated channel; Heat and mass transfer; Heat-to-work conversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:288:y:2024:i:c:s0360544223030803

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.129686

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