Free Piston Stirling Converter
The regenerator is made of fine wire mesh that is intertwined creating some voids. The regenerator must be very uniform and have a specific porosity for optimal performance.
The Free Piston Stirling Engine (FPSE) will operate continuously for thousands of hours and has no frictional losses. The working fluid is maintained at a high pressure which allows the piston to be ‘free' and not touching the cylinder wall. Refer to the figure above.
The Stirling engine works as a closed system,
which means there is no gas exchange with its environment. Furthermore, since it is a closed system a Stirling engine has
a wide range of applications
from
power systems to terrestrial
auxiliary power systems. Although Stirling technology has been around centuries it has become especially attractive in recent years because it does not rely on fossil fuels. The heat for the hot end of the engine can be produced via solar or nuclear which make this engine a good candidate for clean power generation. By design Stirling converters have
fewer moving parts than
conventional internal combustion engines. This results in
unmatched reliability, efficiency, and quiet operation.
SRI is a leader in the areas of FPSE convertor control, system integration, and balance of facility design. SRI has successfully demonstrated several FPSE based systems for military and space applications with systems ranging from 35 to 10 kilowatts. Currently SRI is developing a 40 kilowatt system for the next lunar mission as well as a 160 watt soldier power system for the U.S. Army.
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