Design and heat transfer optimization of a 1 kW free-piston stirling engine for space reactor power system

Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Dalin Zhang¹  Suizheng Qiu¹  Chenglong Wang²  Wenxi Tian²  G.H. Su³  Zhiwen Dai³ 

[1] School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Shanxi Engineering Research Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China;Corresponding author.;School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Shanxi Engineering Research Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China;

关键词: Space reactor power system;    Simple adiabatic analysis;    Design and analysis;    Free-piston stirling engine;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The Free-Piston Stirling engine (FPSE) is of interest for many research in aerospace due to its advantages of long operating life, higher efficiency, and zero maintenance. In this study, a 1-kW FPSE was proposed by analyzing the requirements of Space Reactor Power Systems (SRPS), of which performance was evaluated by developing a code through the Simple Analysis Method. The results of SAM showed that the critical parameters of FPSE could satisfy the designed requirements. The heater of the FPSE was designed with the copper rectangular fins to enhance heat transfer, and the parametric study of the heater was performed with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software STAR-CCM+. The Performance Evaluation Criteria (PEC) was used to evaluate the heat transfer enhancement of the fins in the heater. The numerical results of the CFD program showed that pressure drop and Nusselt number ratio had a linear growth with the height of fins, and PEC number decreased as the height of fins increased, and the optimum height of the fin was set as 4 mm according to the minimum heat exchange surface area. This paper can provide theoretical supports for the design and numerical analysis of an FPSE for SRPSs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown