Study of Gas Flow Through a Stirling Engine Regenerator
In the present work, a three dimensional (3D) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is applied to a designed small compact regenerator with specific porosity and wire diameter. The regenerator was studied as a part of a Stirling Engine designed in a simple way. The gas temperature along the regenerator followed an approximately linear profile, while the metal temperature showed a small deviation during the engine cycle. The heat transfer coefficient between the gas and the matrix of the regenerator, along with the associate heat transferred were also derived. The heat exchanged in the regenerator is significantly higher to the respective heat in the engine’s heater and cooler. Additionally, the pressure drop and the related energy dissipation are studied. Their variation is largely dependent on both mass flow-rate and working gas velocity. The friction factor coefficient for the designed regenerator is correlated with Reynolds number and an equation of two variables is derived. Finally, the results of the CFD simulation are compared to those produced by a one-dimensional numerical model. These results include gas mass, mass flow-rate and Reynolds number, as well as the heat transferred between the gas and the regenerator matrix. Except for the case of the exchanged heat, the deviation between the two approaches is very small.