Analytical Solution of Heat Transfer Performance of Grid Regenerator in Inverse Stirling Cycle

Yajuan Wang, Jun’an Zhang (), Zhiwei Lu, Jiayu Liu, Bo Liu and Hao Dong
Additional contact information
Yajuan Wang: School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Jun’an Zhang: School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Zhiwei Lu: School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Jiayu Liu: School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Bo Liu: School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China
Hao Dong: School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 19, 1-25

Abstract: The regenerator plays an extremely important role in the Stirling circulation. A grid regenerator can be used for inverse Stirling machines at room temperature due to its low flow resistance. This paper proposes a hexagonal grid regenerator to theoretically explore heat transfer properties in the inverse Stirling cycle and establishes an approximate analytical model to analyze the effect mechanism of working frequency, thermal diffusivity and wall thickness on the oscillation flow. The results show that the wall thickness is one of the key factors affecting the equivalent heat transfer coefficient. Specifically, too small or too large wall thickness increases the instability of the heat transfer process. The ultimate wall thickness is determined by the equivalent heat transfer coefficient and thermal penetration depth, whose optimal value ensures not only sufficient heat exchange but also the full utilization of materials. With the increase in frequency, heat exchange performance is improved monotonously. Therefore, high–frequency operation can improve the heat exchange performance of the regenerator. In addition, an optimization criterion for the size of regenerator with the specific capacity of heat transfer as the objective parameter is proposed based on the equivalent heat transfer coefficient. The optimal parameters were obtained when relative thickness was set as 0.8 mm and the equivalent heat transfer coefficient was up to 10 4 –10 5 W/m 2 ·K indicating that the grid regenerator has broad application prospects in the inverse Stirling cycle.

Keywords: grid regenerator; heat transfer performance; oscillation flow; inverse Stirling cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/19/7024/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/19/7024/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:19:p:7024-:d:924274

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().