Patent Grant
8820068
The present invention relates to Stirling cycle machines, e.g. engines and heat pumps, and in particular to linear multi-cylinder machines.
Stirling Cycle machines can be generally divided into two categories that are referred to as kinematic and linear (or Free Piston).
Kinematic Stirling machines have piston/cylinder assemblies in which the linear piston movement is converted to rotation e.g. by coupling it to a rotating shaft by a crank mechanism. This arrangement typically has a number of sliding surfaces that require some form of lubrication if rapid wear is to be avoided. Conventional oil lubricated crankshafts can be used but there is then a requirement to keep the oil from the heat exchangers to prevent contamination and loss of effectiveness.
Linear machines have evolved to avoid the requirement for lubrication. In such machines the piston is directly connected to a linear transducer and in principle there are no significant side forces that would require lubricated bearings. Linear motion for these machines is typically ensured by the use of flexures or gas bearings. Sealing is achieved through the application of established dry-running or clearance seal technologies. Such machines are also referred to as free-piston machines as the piston movement is not geometrically determined by a mechanism such as a crank, and this means that usually some measures have to be taken to control overstroke and piston offset.
Most large Stirling machines have been of the kinematic variety. This has enabled them to utilise conventional technology that has been highly developed in the field of internal combustion engines. However there is a major drawback in that the seals used to prevent oil reaching the heat exchangers have a limited life and need to be replaced at fairly frequent intervals (˜10,000 hours).
Linear oil free machines have been demonstrated that have run for prolonged periods without deterioration. However economic manufacture of such machines in large quantities whilst retaining long life is yet to be achieved, but it is likely that designs will evolve that will be successful.
At present most linear machines are relatively small i.e. ˜1 kW. Existing designs are primarily based on a single piston/displacer combination with the required phase angle between them achieved by using the pressure variation to drive the displacer pneumatically. These designs do not appear to scale very well to large sizes; they are inherently unbalanced and achieving the desired piston/displacer dynamics becomes more difficult as the stroke is increased.
An area of application where the Stirling engine has significant advantages is Combined Heat and Power (CHP or Cogeneration as it is also termed). Stirling engines are in principle capable of high efficiency, good reliability and long life—qualities that are important for this application. In addition they are external combustion engines that can more readily utilise less convenient but abundant energy sources such as biomass or solar radiation. There have been major investments in the development of Stirling Cycles for these applications but progress has been relatively slow. The main area open for exploitation appears to be in larger sized machines ˜10 kW or greater, but the use of oil lubricated machines incurs the disadvantage of significant maintenance costs.
The extension of oil-free linear technology to larger multi-cylinder machines is a development that would significantly advance the application of Stirling cycle machines in this area.
Description of Stirling Cycle Machines
In the accompanying drawings
In this simplified version the Stirling cycle machine comprises:
Typically the pistons 1 and 5 reciprocate at a common frequency such that the variations of volumes V1 and V2 are sinusoidal. Depending on the phase and amplitude of the pistons 1 and 5, there will be a variation in pressure P in response to the overall changes in volume. For an ideal gas the pressure is given by:
P=mT·R/M·1/Vd/Td+V1(t)/T1+V2(t)/T2
Where:
V1(t) and V2(t) are the variable volumes given by:
V1(t)=V1a·Sin(ω·t)
V2(t)=V2a·Sin(ω·t−A)
Where A is the phase angle between the two variable volumes/pistons
The phase of the pressure variation will in general be different to the piston phases. For each piston it is possible to calculate by integration a value for the net work transferred from the piston to the gas by evaluating ∫P·dV over a complete cycle. There are three cases depending on the phase between the two piston displacements. Two of these are where the pistons are in phase or anti-phase. These cases correspond to compression and displacement of the gas with no net work done by either piston. The case of interest is where the phase between the two pistons is between 0 and 180 degrees. Starting off with the volume variations in phase then neither piston transfers any net work to the gas. If we retard the phase of one piston we find that the motion of both pistons becomes out of phase with the pressure variation. For each piston there is now a net transfer of work between the gas and the piston. Furthermore it is found that irrespective of the values of T1 and T2, there is a net flow of work into the gas for the variable volume that is retarded and a net flow of work out of the gas for the other variable volume. This effect increases as the phase angle is increased to ˜90 degrees and then decreases back to zero as the angle approaches 180. The two pistons/volumes can therefore be distinguished as a compressor piston supplying work into a compression volume and an expansion piston taking work out of an expansion volume. The net output of the system is the sum of the compressor and expansion work. Associated with these work transfers are heat flows in and out of the variable volumes and their heat exchangers. For an idealised Stirling cycle with a perfect regenerator the heat rejected from the compression side is equal to the compression work in and similarly the heat absorbed into the expansion side is equal to the expansion work. This is illustrated in
Typically Stirling cycle machines operate with a phase angle of 90 degrees between the two pistons but the performance is not over-sensitive to phase angle and values in the range of 60 to 120 degrees are quite usable. Whether the system produces or absorbs power depends on the temperatures of the compression and expansion volumes and is determined by the second law of thermodynamics. This states that for reversible processes the change of entropy is given by dS=dQ/T. For a reversible cyclic process the net change in entropy must be zero. If we denote the compression temperature by Tc and the expansion temperature by Te then: dS=0
The three possible cases are:
In practice Stirling engines have almost always sought to provide a mechanism by which the expansion work and compression work are combined so that the only output of the machines is the net work done. This has the advantage of reducing the requirements of any mechanisms used to transfer power into or out of the machine—for an engine giving an electrical power output, a single lower rated generator could be used instead of a combination of a generator and motor. Combining the compression and expansion works has generally been achieved by adopting the Beta and Gamma configurations of the Stirling cycle machine. The Gamma configuration is illustrated in
An alternative to “re-circulating” the expansion work via a displacer 11 is to use the expansion work to provide the compression work for another Stirling cycle unit. This approach has not generally been exploited except for one important exception referred to as the Rinia configuration. This is illustrated in
There have been three notable examples of the Rinia configuration developed in recent years. Whisper Tech have developed a Stirling engine that uses an oil-free wobble plate mechanism instead of cranks to extract power. This engine has been applied to both Marine applications and domestic Micro CHP and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,312 B1 and WO 2007/030021 A1.
The Infinia Corporation have patented a free piston version U.S. Pat. No. 7,134,279 B2. This is a Rinia engine similar to the Whisper Tech engine where double-acting pistons are used and the wobble plate has been replaced by four linear motor assemblies. The linear motor assemblies behave as mass spring systems and respond to the forces acting on the double acting piston as forced harmonic oscillators. The required phasing is achieved by specifying appropriate values for the mass/spring parameters. The double acting piston performs both compression and expansion, and so the compression and expansion sides share the same cylinder and have the same diameter. This configuration offers the advantage of a compact design but it has design constraints that become more disadvantageous as engine size is increased:
The compression and expansion volumes at either end of a piston clearly have to be 180 degrees out of phase and this determines that if the phase for a Stirling cycle unit is A then the phase between adjacent units is 180−A.
Global Cooling has patented a design U.S. Pat. No. 7,171,811 B1 that is similar to the Infinia concept, but has replaced the double acting pistons with stepped pistons. The main difference is that the phase relationship between adjacent units is different. This is due to the 180 degree difference between relative phases of a double acting piston compared with a stepped piston. Thus in the Global Cooling machine the phase angle between adjacent units is the same as the volume phase angle within each Stirling cycle unit.
In other respects the Global Cooling design has some of the constraints and disadvantages already detailed for the Infinia design. An advantage that the Global Cooling design does have over the Infinia design is the freedom to size the compression and expansion volumes independent of each other and the supporting shaft. An additional disadvantage is the requirement for two concentric sealing surfaces. This feature is certain to make greater demands on component accuracy and assembly techniques.
The present invention extends the idea of using the expansion work of one Stirling cycle unit to provide the compression work for another unit of a free-piston multi-cylinder machine, but this is achieved in a different way from the Rinia designs mentioned above, and avoids many of the constraints, particularly with regard to heat exchanger geometry.
According to the present invention there is provided a linear, multi-cylinder Stirling cycle machine comprising a plurality of Stirling cycle units, each of said units comprising a compression space in fluid communication with an expansion space via a heat exchange assembly, said compression space and expansion space also being in fluid communication with, respectively, a compression piston and an expansion piston, and wherein each unit is mechanically coupled to another unit by a linear power transmitter connecting the expansion piston of one unit to the compression piston of the other.
Thus, with the invention the expansion and compression pistons are distinct, separate, components at opposite ends of the linear power transmitter in contrast with certain prior art arrangements where a single component is used such as Infinia's double-acting piston or Global Cooling's stepped piston. This means that each pair of cylinders is connected by a different linear power transmitter. This contrasts with prior art multi-cylinder arrangements where cylinders are either not linked mechanically, or all cylinders are linked to the same mechanical assembly (e.g. a wobble plate or crank).
As will become clear, with the invention the phase difference between units (which is 180 degrees minus the Stirling Cycle phase angle) can be set as desired. A lower phase angle allows fewer units to be used while still balanced, but the phase angle also affects performance. For example, a Stirling Cycle phase angle of 60 degrees requires three units at 120 degree phase difference for balance. A Stirling Cycle phase angle of 90 degrees requires four units at 90 degree phase difference for balance. A Stirling Cycle phase angle of 108 degrees requires five units at 72 degree phase difference for balance. A Stirling Cycle phase angle of 120 degrees requires six units at 60 degree phase difference for balance. Some studies have shown that the best performance (compromise between power and efficiency) is achieved at about 120 degree Stirling Cycle phase. Thus, having a variable phase angle allows greater flexibility in achieving trade-offs between performance, complexity and balance. The invention is particularly applicable to high power machines, such as those with a power per Stirling Unit of 10 to 100 kW.
Preferably the axis of each connection between the heat exchange assembly and the compression and expansion spaces is substantially aligned with the axis of the respective compression or expansion piston. This has the advantage of ensuring uniform flows between the heat exchanger assembly and the compression or expansion spaces. Uniform flow helps to reduce irreversible mixing of different gas elements that would increase entropy and hence reduce overall efficiency. Another advantage is that the alignment helps to minimise the dead volume contained in the connection component—dead volume generally reduces performance.
In the closed loop arrangements there is clearly a requirement for changes in direction so that a circuit can be completed. In principle these changes of direction could be accommodated either within a heat exchanger component or in a connecting component and the choice is decided by evaluating the extra loss that would be incurred with a particular component. In most but not necessarily all applications, the heat transfer requirements for one of the heat exchangers results in an extended geometry that can accommodate a change of direction with little penalty. In these circumstances it is still advantageous for each connection between the heat exchange assembly and the compression and expansion spaces to be aligned with the axis of the respective compression or expansion piston
The heat exchange assembly may comprise a series connection of a first heat exchanger, a regenerator and a second heat exchanger, and the first heat exchanger can be a low temperature heat exchanger such as a cooler and the second heat exchanger be a high temperature heat exchanger such as a heater. Preferably at least the regenerator and one of the heat exchangers has a cylindrical form, i.e. is not annular. The other heat exchanger may also have a cylindrical form in an open loop configuration (but in practice optionally not if it is a heater). For a closed loop embodiment one heat exchanger can be used to redirect the enthalpy flow so it will have cylindrical ends but a curve in between. In an engine the heater needs to have an extended surface to get sufficient heat transfer so it is easy to accommodate the change of direction
Preferably the pistons are of the sliding or non-hermetic type using sealing rings or clearance seals to the cylinder walls forming the expansion or compression space. Hermetic types such as diaphragms, bellows or roll socks use flexing members that have limited stroke and a limited ability to withstand pressure differentials.
Thus in one preferred embodiment the gas seal between the pistons and cylinders is achieved by the use of contacting sealing rings. Preferably these sealing rings can operate for a long life without lubrication. In another preferred embodiment the gas seal between the pistons and cylinders is achieved by having a small enough clearance such that the leakage is acceptable. This allows the piston to operate without contacting the cylinder—such an arrangement is often termed a “clearance seal”.
Preferably the expansion piston of one unit, linear power transmitter and compression piston of the next unit form a moving assembly constrained to move linearly. In preferred embodiments the compression and expansion pistons are rigidly attached to the linear power transmitter. This has the advantage of avoiding losses, complexity, expense and potential unreliability associated with linkages containing moving parts.
The linear power transmitter may be a linear power transducer. The power transducer may be adapted to receive a power input to the machine and the heat exchange assembly may then operate as a heat pump or cooler. Alternatively the heat exchange assembly absorbs heat and the linear power transducer outputs power from the machine.
The linear power transducer may be an electromechanical transducer such as a linear motor or generator.
The Stirling cycle units may be connected together in an open series configuration with a compressor initiator at one end connected to the compression space of the first unit in the series and an expander terminator at the other end connected to the expansion space of the last unit in the series. In this case the exciter compressor can control the operating frequency of the machine and also, by adjusting the amplitude of the oscillation, the power of the machine. Further, it is easy to stop the machine by stopping the exciter compressor. Stopping Stirling Cycle machines is a significant problem, especially at large sizes, as conventional methods of stopping, such as releasing gas pressure is difficult and dangerous in large machines, especially multi-cylinder ones, and obviously imposes the need to repressurise before restarting.
Preferably in this arrangement the Stirling cycle units are arranged coaxially to provide good balance.
Alternatively the Stirling cycle units may be connected together in a closed loop comprising three or more units with the expansion piston of each unit being connected to the compression piston of the next unit of the loop via said linear power transmitter. The Stirling cycle units may be disposed with their axes coplanar to provide good balance.
The invention allows the components of the Stirling Cycle units to be arranged with minimum use of connecting passages. Connecting passages generally reduce performance for a number of reasons: increased dead volume; pressure drop across connecting passage; and additional irreversible processes such as mixing and unwanted heat transfer. It is also worth noting that it is generally desirable to have uniform flows between the components to minimise these effects.
In the prior art there are significant connecting volumes, and the geometries make it difficult to achieve uniform flow conditions. In contrast the open-series embodiments of the invention allow the components to be assembled in line so that there is an absolute minimum of volume taken up with connecting passages. The simple cylindrical geometry also allows the flows between components to be kept very much more uniform.
For the closed loop embodiments the components cannot be all in line. However in practice changes of direction are easily accommodated within one of the heat exchangers. For example it is common in Stirling engines to have a heater which has an extended tubular construction. The required changes of direction can be achieved in the heater assembly without any additional connecting volumes.
Furthermore, in the prior art the heat exchanger assembly and the part of the pistons that has a temperature gradient across it have to be of approximately equal length. This forces a compromise between the individual optimisations of these components. The open inline geometry of open series-connected embodiments of the invention removes this constraint. The heat exchanger and piston design can be independently optimised.
In the closed loop arrangements an exergy throttle may be included in one or more of the Stirling cycle units to control the power of the machine. Such an exergy throttle may have an array of radially-extending fixed petals mutually spaced to allow fluid flow between them and arranged coaxially therewith an array of radially-extending spaced movable petals disposed such that axial rotation of the movable and fixed petals selectively varies the fluid flow space between the fixed petals. Exergy is the “available” energy, i.e. that energy which can be extracted as work. This depends not only on the total energy input to the system, but also the efficiency of the system. The exergy throttle can affect the fluid flow in the unit in two ways. At small reductions in the flow area it introduces irreversible processes such as flow friction and mixing which reduce efficiency. Larger restrictions significantly restrict fluid flow and so reduce exergy flow in the unit.
The compression and expansion spaces are preferably cylindrical.
The invention may be used in a combined heat and power apparatus comprising a linear, multi-cylinder Stirling cycle machine as above, at least one of said Stirling cycle units acting as an electricity generator, whereby heat supplied to said heat exchange assembly is used to produce electricity, and surplus heat is output for heating.
Further, one of said Stirling cycle units can act as a heat pump or cooler.
A significant advantage of the invention is the freedom that it allows in orienting the Stirling Cycle units. Thus, they can be arranged to achieve good balance and to position the hot and cold heat exchangers in convenient positions for the supply or rejection of heat, and to achieve good separation of the hot and cold parts of the machine.
The various advantages of the invention, in particular of minimising connecting passages and free optimisation and arrangement of components become greater as machines are scaled to large sizes. Thus the invention is particularly useful in applications to large-scale CHP where a power per Stirling Unit of 10 to 100 kW is envisaged (i.e. for a six unit engine the corresponding total power would be 60 to 600 kW).
The basic components of machines in accordance with the invention are:
In designs that do not form a continuous loop additional components may be provided such as:
In the preferred embodiments the axes of the transmitters are coplanar to allow overall balancing.
In embodiments that do not form a continuous loop (i.e. require exciter compressor and terminating expander) at least two of the transmitters will be coaxial—otherwise they will not be easily balanced.
Another aspect of the invention provides a linear, multi-cylinder Stirling cycle machine comprising a plurality of Stirling cycle units connected together in an open series configuration with a compressor initiator at one end connected to a compression space of the first unit in the series and an expander terminator at the other end connected to an expansion space of the last unit in the series. Such an open-series configuration in a multi-cylinder machine is not known in the prior art.
With the open-series arrangement the exciter compressor can control the operating frequency of the machine and also, by adjusting the amplitude of its oscillation, the power of the machine. Further, it is easy to stop the machine by stopping the exciter compressor. Stopping Stirling Cycle machines is a significant problem, especially at large sizes, as conventional methods of stopping, such as releasing gas pressure is difficult and dangerous in large machines, especially multi-cylinder ones, and obviously imposes the need to repressurise before restarting.
The Stirling Cycle units in this aspect of the invention may use the preferred features of the other aspects of the embodiments of the invention discussed above and below, of course especially the open-series configurations. For example, each of the units may comprise a compression space in fluid communication with an expansion space via a heat exchange assembly, said compression space and expansion space also being in fluid communication with, respectively, a compression piston and an expansion piston, and each unit may be mechanically coupled to another unit by a linear power transmitter connecting, preferably rigidly, the expansion piston of one unit to the compression piston of the other. Preferably the axes of the connections between the heat exchange assemblies and compression and expansion spaces are substantially aligned with the piston axes, and preferably the pistons are of the sliding, non-diaphragm type using sealing rings or clearance seals.
The invention will be further described by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:—
The phase angle between compression and expansion spaces is also indicated by including its value (e.g. 90). The heat and work flows are indicated by the arrows.
Thus in
Linear Power Transmission/Conversion Component
The other main component required in embodiments of the invention is shown in
The two components described are both different types of energy conversion devices. The Stirling cycle component of
As an example
It is clear that any number of Stirling cycle components and power transmission components can be coupled together in a chain like this to build larger machines. It is noted that the transmission component adds a phase of 180 degrees by virtue of having pistons at opposite ends—i.e. successive expansion space pistons will have a phase difference of 180−A.
In practice it is necessary that:
The phase angle between succeeding piston/transmitter assemblies must be that required for the Stirling cycle process to operate. This will be explained below although it is known to the person skilled in the art as it is required in free piston machines such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,134,279 B2 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,171,811 B1.
The phase angle of a transmitter device is determined by its response to the net force acting. The moving assembly of the transmitter device together with the effective spring rate supplied by flexures 15 etc constitute a mass/spring system or harmonic oscillator.
In order to analyse the behaviour of a single transmitter we can begin by assuming that it is part of an infinite series (in similar way that ladder filters can be analysed in electronics).
The desired phases of the compression and expansion volumes are also shown in
Min Ve(n): phase angle θ=0
Min Vc(n): phase angle θ=A
Min Vc(n+1): phase angle θ=180
Min Ve(n+1): phase angle θ=180−A
It will be seen that the phase angle between successive units is 180−A. For A=90 the phase angle is 90 degrees for A=60 the phase angle is 120 degrees
The pressure variation for the units is given by
P(t)=mT·R/M·1/Vd/Td+Ze·Sin(ωt)+Zc·Sin(ωT−A)
Where
Ze=Vea/Te
and
Zc=Vca/Tc
Vea and Vca are the volume amplitudes
It will be seen that the maximum pressure occurs between the points of minimum compression and expansion volume so that pressure phases are:
Max Pn(t): phase angle θ=B
Max Pn+1(t): phase angle θ=180−A+B
B is determined by the relative values of Ze and Zc but is confined to the range A>B>0
Although the actual pressure variation is not strictly sinusoidal it can be reasonably represented by:
Pn(t)=Pa·Sin(ωt−B)
Pn+1(t)=Pa·Sin(ωt−(180−A+B))
The total force acting on the moving mass of the transmitter 13 in the +X direction is given by:
FT=Pn(t)·APe−Pn+1(t)·APc
Where APe and APc are the areas of the expansion and compression pistons 1 and 5.
It will be initially assumed that the expansion and compression pistons 1 and 5 are equal in diameter i.e. APe=APc
The total force can then be expressed as:
FT=Ap·Pa(Sin(ωt−B)−Sin(ωt−(180−A+B)))
The subtraction of 180 degrees from the second term reverses its phase so that it is now positive:
FT=Ap·Pa(Sin(ωt−B)+Sin(ωt−(B−A)))
Further simplification leads to
FT=Ap·Pa·G·Sin(ωt−(B−A/2))
where
G=2·Cos(A/2)
The net force acting on the moving mass M of transmitter 13 therefore has a phase angle θ=B−A/2
For a harmonic oscillator the phase C between the driving force and the displacement can be between 0 and 180 degrees depending on the ratio of the drive frequency to the resonant frequency of the oscillator:
For ω/ωr<1 C tends to 0
For ω/ωr˜1 C is ˜90 degrees
For ω/ωr>1 C tends to 180 degrees
It is now possible to assess how to set the dynamics of the transmitter 13 so as to obtain the required response. The movement of the transmitter 13 is in phase with expansion volume Ve(n) so the required phase angle for maximum displacement is 180 degrees:
Min Ve(n): phase angle θ=0
Max Ve(n)=Max X: phase angle θ=180
The phase angle C required can therefore be calculated from:
C+B−A/2=180
or
C=180−(B−A/2)
It will be seen that for this arrangement to work the pressure phase angle B must be greater than A/2. This condition is generally achieved by ensuring that the peak pressure is reasonably close to the minimum compression volume. This requires that:
Vca/Tc>Vea/Te
As the diameters of pistons 1 and 5 have been assumed to be equal and the strokes are necessarily equal then the condition requires that the expansion temperature must be higher than the compression temperature. This condition is clearly fulfilled for engines but not for heat pumps or coolers.
For an engine operating with Te=1000K and Tc=300K and phases of 60 and 90 deg typical values might be:
A=60, B˜50 C˜160 A=90, B˜75 C˜150
The operating frequency will therefore be higher than the resonant frequency of the mass spring system as defined. Also the frequency will tend to be higher for A=60 compared with A=90.
If the piston diameters are allowed to be different then the requirement for correct phasing can be met by increasing the ratio of compressor piston diameter to expansion piston diameter. It is therefore possible for this arrangement to work for heat pumps and coolers providing the pistons' diameters are sized correctly.
Initiating and Terminating the Series
The analysis above has concerned itself with the operation of the Stirling/Transmitter component combinations in an infinite series i.e. once the enthalpy flow into and out of the machine has been established. For practical machines the series will be finite and some means is required for initiating and terminating the series. In general there are two possible ways of achieving this:
Initiation is easily provided by a single linear compressor used as an exciter which is driven by an external power source. For efficient operation it is only necessary that it is driven at resonance by matching the moving mass to the spring rate. The details of such a compressor are conventional and are familiar to those skilled in the art.
The terminating device can be an expander that absorbs the enthalpy flow and preferably outputs it as useful power. This is very similar to the initiating compressor and again is familiar to those skilled in the art. A typical arrangement for a terminating expander or initiating (or exciting) compressor is shown in
The use of an “exciter” compressor 110 and “terminating” expander 112 is shown in
If the exciter and terminator devices were 100% efficient, then in principle with necessary phase adjustment the total power input to the initiating compressor 110 could be supplied by the terminating expander 112. In practice a significant part of the initiating compressor power may be supplied in this way, but not all, so there will generally be a requirement for power input to the initiating compressor 110 in addition to the power generated in the terminating expander 112. Where the series of Stirling cycle units is operating as an engine this will come from power developed by the transducers incorporated in the linear power transmitters 13.
A significant advantage of this arrangement is that in engine applications the power output can be directly and efficiently modulated by controlling the power into the initiating compressor 110. If the power into the initiating compressor 110 is reduced then the powerflow through all the other Stirling cycle and power transmitter components will also be reduced. With no power into the exciter compressor 110 there will be no power flow at all and the engine will be stopped.
Continuous Loop Arrangements
If the sequence of Stirling cycle and transmitter components is arranged in a loop it can be seen that provided the total phase change around the loop is a multiple of a then there is a continuous process of an expansion volume providing the work for the next compression volume. The extra initiating and terminator components 110 and 112 are not required. Such an arrangement is shown in
For an engine this closed loop design also has the advantage of self-sustaining operation—a power input is not necessary at any stage (though clearly a heat input, such as by burning fuel, is required into the heat exchange assemblies).
It is noted that in order to have a completely balanced system it is necessary to have two complete cycles in the loop. For example if there are three Stirling cycle/transmitter components aligned coaxially then ignoring the exciter 110 and terminator 112 it is a completely balanced system. If these three units are formed into a loop such that they are coplanar they will not be balanced. For complete balance two sets of three Stirling/transmitter units are needed giving a minimum of six units. This hexagonal arrangement is therefore not suited to small engines where low cost and simplicity are important factors.
The invention described here can be implemented in a whole range of ways. A number of examples will be briefly described here demonstrate some of the possibilities. The emphasis will be on engine operation but it will be understood that the same principles allow similar operation for heat pumps and coolers.
The cooler C and transmitter 13 both operate at roughly ambient temperature so there is no need to provide a thermal insulation between them. The heater H operates at a high temperature so it is necessary to provide a heat break between the heater H and the transmitter 13. In
The transmitter 13 can use one of a number of linear transducer/compressor designs such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,127,750 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,247,957.
There are a number of ways of achieving good balance but typically the transmitter units 13 can be aligned to be coaxial.
A preferred embodiment has units arranged in sets of three operating so as to give three-phase outputs. This can be achieved by having a 60 or 120 degree phase angle between the compression and expansion spaces. For the 120 degree volume phase angle it will be necessary to invert one of the transducer outputs to obtain three 120 degree electrical outputs. Several sets may be connected together so that there may be 3, 6, 9 and so on, units in total controlled by a single initiating compressor 110 and giving a combined three phase output.
The advantage of this arrangement for large installations can be demonstrated by considering how the compressor/expander loss varies as a proportion of the total power output. Making the following assumptions
The net power developed per unit is
Wn=We−Wc=Wc
The total power output from the generators 13 will be
Wout=η·N·Wc
The power lost in the initiating and terminating components 110, 112 is
Wloss=(1−η2)·Wc
The ratio of loss to net output is given by
Rloss+Wloss/Wout=(1−η2)·Wc/η·N·Wc=(1−η2)/η·N
For a small machine let N=3 and η=0.8, Rloss˜0.15 i.e. 15%
For a larger machine let N=12 and η=0.95, Rloss˜0.086 i.e. 0.86%
The relative loss in the larger machine is nearly twenty times less and at 0.86% is quite acceptable.
Each set of three units will be perfectly balanced so overall the balance will generally be fairly good. The initiating compressor 110 and terminating expander 112 will not be balanced by themselves but an additional balancer can easily be used to correct this.
In a closed loop arrangement it is necessary to incorporate the changes of direction without detriment to operating efficiency. In a Stirling engine the heater H often has an extended tubular construction and this type of heat exchanger provides a convenient way connecting the six units 131 to 136 together to form the complete hexagonal arrangement.
The heater H also needs to be thermally insulated from the power transmitter 13 and in this example this is achieved through the use of a thermal buffer tube 145 as is shown in
The use of the heater tubes H as connectors allows a modular construction for the Stirling machine, either in open series or closed loop configuration. Thus each module consists of the following components, in order, already assembled together: the expansion cylinder 6 housing its expansion piston 5, the moving assembly 10, including the linear power transmitter 13, in its housing 14, the compression cylinder 2 housing the compression piston 1 and the cooler C and regenerator R in their housing 16 (which can be integral with compression cylinder 2). These pre-assembled modules can be connected together easily in a chain by heater tubes H supplied with their ends in a variety of orientations to allow the modules to be connected coaxially for a straight chain (open series) or at various angles to form loops of different numbers of modules. Of course the modules can also be supplied with their components disassembled.
In a typical Stirling engine the heater tubes may be at a temperature of ˜700 deg C and it is undesirable to have joints at this temperature because flanges have to be more massive; bolts and seals are more specialized and expensive. For a modular Stirling engine therefore the heater module is likely to include the any components that are subject to the high temperature. This is illustrated in
Having connected the modules together using the heater tubes H, the system is pressurised with working fluid, e.g. helium, via one or more ports 209, 211 and a system valve 213 as is shown in
If a valve is used that has a fast response then it is also possible to use it to control the mean pressure in the working volume (and hence offset) during engine operation. If the valve is opened whilst the cycle pressure is high the gas will flow out of the working volume and vice versa. The power input/output leads for the linear power transmitter 13 are connected, and the heating (e.g. from a burner) and, if necessary, cooling, connections are made to the heat exchanger C and heater tubes H.
A problem with self-sustaining engines of this sort is the control of power and the need to prevent damage from over-stroking in the event of load reduction. Various ways have been proposed for achieving this in the electrical load but they do not avoid the problem of severe over-stroking if the generator 13 itself fails. In a large machine this could have serious consequences and the only real option has been to rapidly depressurise the system.
The open nature of the engine described here allows a different approach which could not easily be used in previous designs. The basic need is to have some mechanism in the engine where by a significant loss can be varied to control the engine power. It is important that the loss that the mechanism introduces can be reduced to a low value for normal operation so that efficiency is not badly affected. The method shown in
A conventional butterfly valve is one possibility but takes up significant axial volume. Another design is shown in
The preferred site for the exergy throttle 150 will generally be in the compression space C as the temperature gradient is small and any additional mixing of the gas will not create an extra heat leak.
As an example assuming that the compression power required by the engine units is Wc1=400 W to give an expansion power of We1=800 W and that the compression power for the heat pump is Wc2=600 W for an expansion power of We2=400 W. It can then be seen that the net power developed by the Stirling engine components can be efficiently used to both generate electricity (200 W) and also drive a heat pump. A similar arrangement could be used for providing cooling by replacing the heat pump with a refrigerator.
It is noted that in this arrangement two different transmitter units 13 are used that will transfer different amounts of power and which will also have different dynamics in order to achieve the required phase relationships. The two transmitters can have different strokes so the heat pump compressor piston does not necessarily have to have a larger diameter than its corresponding expansion piston in order to fulfil the condition:
Vca/Tc>Vea/Te
It was shown above that for the required phase relationships the resonant frequency of the transmitter assembly 13 had to have a certain value depending on the intended operating frequency. In larger machines it generally proves more difficult to provide sufficient spring rate using flexures alone. One method for increasing the spring rate is to incorporate gas springs into the transmitter assembly 13. This requires additional piston/cylinder components.
The other way to provide additional spring rate is to use a stepped piston 192. The inner piston area 192a acts as a compression or expansion piston for a Stirling cycle unit while the outer area 192b acts on a simple gas volume 193 and behaves as a gas spring.
The stepped piston in
While
In
Another closed loop arrangement is possible in which the Stirling units are aligned along a common axis with heater tubes H making the necessary connection between the units at both ends.
It is noted that in the above examples, reference has been made to extended tubular heat exchangers and the ability to accommodate curvature within an expansion space heat exchanger. A wide range of alternative heat exchanger geometries is possible for all the heat exchangers as is known to someone skilled in the art. Also curvature may be accommodated in the compression or regenerator heat exchangers although this may not be preferred.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0803021.5 | Feb 2008 | GB | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/GB2009/000241 | 2/17/2009 | WO | 00 | 10/7/2010 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2009/103943 | 8/27/2009 | WO | A |
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| 5th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference and Exhibit, Jun. 25-27, 2007. Multiphase Free-Piston Stirling Engine for Solar-Thermal-Electric Power Generation Applications. Artin Der Minassians and Seth R. Sanders. Power Electronics Research Group. University of California, Berkeley. |
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| 20110030367 A1 | Feb 2011 | US |
