The family of hot
air engines with external heat
input
is divided in two subgroups: the Stirling engines, invented in 1816, have no
valves whereas Ericsson engines, invented in 1833, have valves in order to
isolate the cylinders. The
valves give some advantages to the Ericsson engine. Amongst them, the most important
one is that the heat exchangers are not to be considered as unswept dead
volumes whereas the Stirling engine designer is faced to the difficult
compromise between heat exchanger transfer area maximization and heat exchanger
volume minimization.
However, the distribution system of the
Ericsson engine introduces some complexity and a non-negligible mechanical
energy consumption in order to actuate them.
An original and very simple system called
"bash-valve" is proposed to provide answers to the difficulties
related to the distribution system of the Ericsson engine. The
"bash-valve" technology has been used in steam piston engines and
pneumatic piston engines. In this system, the piston itself actuates the
opening of the valves when being around the top dead center. When its moves to
the bottom dead center, the piston loses contact with the valves and it closes
under the effect of the return spring. Three different valves command laws of
the expansion cylinder of the proposed hot air engine are studied. A comparison
between energy performance of the engine with the expansion cylinder equipped
with two kinds of bash valve technology and the energy performance of the
expansion cylinder of an incomplete expansion Joule Ericsson cycle engine is presented as well as their influence on
the design of the system.
Primary Language | English |
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Subjects | Engineering |
Journal Section | Regular Original Research Article |
Authors | |
Publication Date | May 23, 2019 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 Volume: 22 Issue: 2 |