Research On Flow And Heat Transfer Characteristics Of Regenerator In Stirling Engine

The dish solar power generation system is becoming one of the most promising power generation systems due to its advantages of flexible application and high solar-electricity conversion efficiency. The regenerator plays a major energy-saving role in Stirling engine, which is the key power equipment in the solar power generation system and determines the performance of the whole system. Hence, the study about the regenerator is becoming a more and more important subject.The porous medium model is adopted in this paper. Then the heat transfer and flow pattern in regenerator is analyzed numerically. Once the steady state is reached, there is no phase difference between the pressure at the hot and cold end of the regenerator and the pressure drop varies according to the Sine law. The regenerator axial temperature distribution of the matrix is approximately linear and the temperature of both ends changes undulately.The parameters of the regenerator is also changed in this article. Through the numerical simulation, it is concluded that the temperature profile of the regenerator made of copper wire screen is more flat than that of stainless steel and also the temperature of the base shows an overall increase. The pressure drop of both ends increases along with the frequency. The result also shows that the heat transfer effect of the regenerator is much better at lower frequencies.An overall performance factor is proposed in this paper to consider about the effect of filler types on the heat transfer capacity and pressure drop per unit meter, based on which the stratified study of the base is performed. The results show that the hot end with materials of large porosity and high thermal conductivity and cold end with materials of small porosity and low thermal conductivity can be used to reduce the flow resistance loss, thus increasing the efficiency and overall performance of the regenerator. The internal flow resistance loss of this type of regenerator are mainly concentrated in the second half. An approximately linear temperature gradient is formed separately in the first half and the second half of the base after the steady state is reached. The temperature distribution of the first half is quite smooth unlike that of the second half, which is quite large. The regenerator shows the worst performance when the distance of the hierarchical position is about 45 millimeters away from the hot end. The larger of the distance from this region, the better performance the regenerator has.