SIMULATION OF STIRLING ENGINE

Abstract

In the face of dangers posed by Climate Change in the World today. A shift to renewable sources is the need of the hour. A healthy mix of different energy sources of both renewable & non-renewable nature is the way to move forward. A Solar Stirling Engine has one of the highest thermal efficiency among Solar Thermals. Its applications can play a vital role in contributing to this energy mix of fuel sources. Among the various types of analysis methods for the Stirling Engine, fourth-order analysis, which is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis, is the only one that considers the actual geometry of the engine, and is capable of recognising complex gas flow behaviour, uneven pressure and temperature distributions in the engine. The present work summarises applications of solar Stirling Engine, 2D and 3D CFD simulation studies, list them under the different software such as ANSYS Fluent, OpenFOAM and COMSOL that were used for simulation, highlighting the study type, computational domain and eddy viscosity models used for modelling of Stirling Engine. Hydrogen, Helium and Air are popular working fluids of Stirling Engine, Air being the safest and cheapest working fluid. Studies regarding 3D CFD performance analysis of the Stirling Engine are limited. The work performs a 3D CFD Simulation of the GPU3 Stirling Engine with Air as the working fluid. It was found that there was a reduction in power output and efficiency by 40% and 46% respectively as compared to using helium as working space. The impinging effect was responsible for vortex formations and enhancement of heat transfer.