Parametric study on beta-type Stirling engine

In this work, a parametric study on a beta-type Stirling engine with no regenerator was conducted numerically using ANSYS fluent 14.5 software. The three parameters that were studied are; initial charge pressure, thermal boundary condition; and three different types of working fluids (Air, He and H-2). Variable thermal properties of these gases were adopted to get more realistic results. The results include a comparison of the amount of heat transfer, power output, and thermal efficiency. It was found that the best engine performance is achieved when H-2 gas is used as working fluid. Moreover, results revealed that each of the power output and the efficiency has different optimum charge pressure. Additionally, it was found that there is a small variation in the pressure across the engine chambers, which results in miss matching between the net heat transfer rates and power output calculated from PV-diagram. This error is higher when the air is used as working fluid, especially at high charge pressure. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.