F103 熱音響変換装置:新しい方式の膜を利用した発電用熱機関(OS10 外燃機関・廃熱利用技術)

抄録

A diaphragm heat engine operating at high frequency and high pressure efficiently converts high temperature heat energy into acoustic power. An integrated generator converts the acoustic power to electric power. The engine is a hybrid of a Stirling engine and a thermoacoustic engine. The engine should achieve high reliability and maintenance-free life since the only moving parts are steel flexures in fatigue-free configurations. Future designs of the engine may allow for low cost manufacturing of higher temperature, and hence more efficient, heat engines. Such an engine could be used for the low cost conversion of heat into electricity in applications such as micro-CHP (cogeneration), waste heat recovery or solar power. To date, engine prototypes have achieved mechanical efficiency of 21% at an operating temperature of 500 ℃. The 2012 target performance is 38% efficiency at 700 ℃.