Abstract
The combustion chamber is an important component for the Stirling engine heated by natural gas. In the paper, we develop a combustion chamber for the Stirling engine which aims to generate 3∼5 kWe electric power. The combustion chamber includes three main components: combustion module, heat exchange cavity and thermal head. Its feature is that the structure can divide “combustion” process and “heat transfer” process into two apparent individual steps and make them happen one by one. Since natural gas can mix with air fully before burning, the combustion process can be easily completed without the second wind. The flame can avoid contacting the thermal head of Stirling engine, and the temperature fields can be easily controlled. The designed combustion chamber is manufactured and its performance is tested by an experiment which includes two steps. The experimental result of the first step proves that the mixture of air and natural gas can be easily ignited and the flame burns stably. In the second step of experiment, the combustion heat flux can reach 20 kW, and the energy utilization efficiency of thermal head has exceeded 0.5. These test results show that the thermal performance of combustion chamber has reached the design goal. The designed combustion chamber can be applied to a real Stirling engine heated by natural gas which is to generate 3∼5 kWe electric power.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Thomas, B. (2008). Benchmark Testing of Micro-CHP Units. Appl. Therm. Eng. 28, 2049–2054
Palsson, M. (2001). Development and Field Test of a SOLO 161 Stirling Engine Based Micro-CHP Unit with Ultra-Low Emissions. A seminar on Micro Combined Heat and Power, Denmark, Europe
Kuhn, V., Klemes, J., Bulatov, I. (2008). Micro CHP: Overview of Selected Technologies, Products and Field Test Results. Appl. Therm. Eng. 28, 2039–2048
Paepe, M.D., D’Herdt, P., Mertens, D. (2006). Micro-CHP Systems for Residential Applications. Energy Convers. Manage, 473435-3446
Reinalter, W., Ulmer, S., Heller, P., Rauch, T. J., Gineste, M., Ferriere, A., Nepveu, F. (2008). Detailed Performance Analysis of a 10 kW Dish/Stirling System. J. Sol. Energy Eng., 130, 011013-1–011013-6
Walker, G. (1980). Stirling Engines. Oxford University Press, Britain
Jin, D.H. (2009). The Technology of Stirling Engines. Harbin Engineering University Press, Harbin, China
Hargreaves, C.M. (1991). The Philips Stirling Engine. Elsevier science publishers, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Carlsen, H., Jones, B. (2000). Progress Report — 35kW Stirling Engine for Biomass. European Stirling, Osnabruck, Germany
Wang, H.G., Zhu, C.Y., Xue, F., Liu, J., Yan, T. (2005). NumericaI Study on Methane-air Flame on Stirling Combustor. Diesel Engine, 27(1), 37–42
Sun, H.Y., Liu, Z.H., Liu, J.B. (2010). Experimental study of the Disk Type Flow Gas Burner for a Hot Air Engine. Journal of Engineering for Thermal Energy and Power, 25(3), 317–320
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51161140332).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, T., Song, X., Gui, X. et al. Development and test of combustion chamber for Stirling engine heated by natural gas. J. Therm. Sci. 23, 196–201 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-014-0695-5
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-014-0695-5