An Application of the Free-Piston Principle to Steam Powered Air Compression

摘要

The study investigated how the basic principle and methods of analysis of the conventional diesel free-piston engine could be applied to steam powered air compression. A number of possible engine design configurations were discussed to meet the specific requirements of the energy conversion unit of a closed-loop pheumatic servo control system. A mechanically simple, self-contained design configuration was chosen and analyzed in detail. The equations of motion were developed for the piston assembly of the selected design configuration. The solution of these equations was demonstrated by means of an analog computer simulation. A laboratory model was fabricated to provide experimental data for comparison with the theory and all differences between this model and the mathematical model were defined. The steam powered free-piston engine was found to have significant potential and warrants further research and development in this area. (Author)