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Energies 2012, 5(9), 3573-3585; doi:10.3390/en5093573

Article

Performance Analysis and Optimization of a Solar Powered Stirling Engine with Heat Transfer Considerations

Chieh-Li Chen ¹ , Chia-En Ho ¹  and Her-Terng Yau ^2,*

¹ Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, No.1, University Road, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan ² Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung City 41170, Taiwan

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 23 July 2012; in revised form: 13 August 2012 / Accepted: 4 September 2012 / Published: 17 September 2012

Download PDF Full-Text [417 KB, uploaded 17 September 2012 09:48 CEST]

Abstract: This paper investigates the optimization of the performance of a solar powered Stirling engine based on finite-time thermodynamics. Heat transference in the heat exchangers between a concentrating solar collector and the Stirling engine is studied. The irreversibility of a Stirling engine is considered with the heat transfer following Newton's law. The power generated by a Stirling engine is used as an objective function for maximum power output design with the concentrating solar collector temperature and the engine thermal efficiency as the optimization parameters. The maximum output power of engine and its corresponding system parameters are determined using a genetic algorithm.

Keywords: heat transfer; irreversibility; optimization; maximum power output; genetic algorithms; Stirling engine

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