INVESTIGATION ON VOLUME VARIATION FOR ALPHA STIRLING ENGINES ON ISOTHERMAL MODEL

Abstract

The usage of renewable energies is approximately 11% of the matrix energy worldwide. In countries known for its renewable sources, such as Brazil, the percentage is close to 38%. The importance to study Stirling engines and propose a prototype is that they are a feasible alternative for generation of power and electricity when considering low quality sources such as solar and waste energy. This paper will compare two different approaches of the volume variation, sinusoidal and kinematic, using an isothermal model that represents the Stirling engines. The comparison is made for an a type engine. Such approaches are capable of representing an estimative of work and power output for Stirling engines since the difference of results for these approaches are 8.07% for power output. As both approaches are a valid choice for analyzing the Stirling engine cycle, the availability of the data determines which approach is the most suitable for characterizing the engine performance.