An experimental study of a single-piston free piston linear generator

Free piston linear generator (FPLG) is a promising range extender for the electrical vehicle with unparallel advantages, such as compact structure, higher system efficiency, and reduced maintenance cost. However, due to the lack of the mechanic crankshaft, the related piston motion control is a challenge for the FPLG which causes problems such as misfire and crash and limits its widespread commercialization. Aimed at resolving the problems as misfire, a single-piston FPLG prototype has been designed and manufactured at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). In this paper, the development process and experimental validation of the related control strategies were detailed. From the experimental studies, significant misfires were observed at first, while the FPLG operated in natural-aspiration conditions. The root cause of this misfire was then identified as the poor scavenging process, and a compressed air source was leveraged to enhance the related scavenging pressure. Afterward, optimal control parameters, in terms of scavenging pressure, air-fuel equivalence ratio, and ignition position, were then calibrated in this charged-scavenging condition. Eventually, the FPLG prototype has achieved a continuous stable operation of over 1000 cycles with an ignition rate of 100% and a cycle-to-cycle variation of less than 0.8%, produced an indicated power of 2.8 kW with an indicated thermal efficiency of 26% and an electrical power of 2.5 kW with an overall efficiency of 23.2%.