2016 Volume 51 Issue 8 Pages 398-402
We introduce the basic characteristics of a high-porosity sintered metal fiber (SMF) matrix for the regenerator that plays a key role as a thermal storage regenerative heat exchanger in Stirling cycle machines. We measured the basic characteristics of flow resistance and heat transfer in a comparison with a stacked wire-mesh matrix. The results of our experiment show that the heat transfer characteristics of a SMF matrix is equivalent to that of a stacked wire-mesh matrix, whereas the pressure drop in a SMF matrix is lower than that in a stacked wire-mesh matrix under the condition of equivalent specific surface area. Using the measurement data, we obtained the relational expression between the Nusselt and Reynolds numbers, and between the friction factor and Reynolds number for each porosity level of the SMF matrix. The estimation of COP using a simple Schmidt model shows the positive performance of the SMF matrix.
