COMPARISON OF THE OPTIMAL HEAT TRANSFER SURFACE AREA DISTRIBUTION IN A STIRLING ENGINE WITH SOURCE AND SINK OF FINITE THERMAL CAPACITY

摘要

A previously elaborated method for the optimization of a Stirling engine is extended here. The new approach is based on considering the source and the sink as heat reservoirs of finite thermal capacity. The modelling of the Stirling engine cycle accounts for some commonly encountered irreversibilities, such as: finite temperature differences at the source and the sink, heat losses between the source and the sink, partial heat regeneration in the engine regenerator. The optimization criterion is the maximization of the engine power output. The comparison between the optimum state and the optimal distribution of the heat transfer surface area (when the total heat transfer surface area is fixed) for the source with constant temperature, and the source with finite thermal capacity shows significant differences. The influence of the regenerator on this distribution, when the regenerator area is included in the engine total heat transfer area, is also evaluated.