Abstract
As a power source for emergency power supply, a Stirling engine has received a keen interest due to its high thermal efficiency as well as its fuel diversity. In this study, a tubular name burner has been developed for heating the head of a Stirling engine. Results show that stable combustion can be obtained for a wide range in equivalence ratio from stoichiometric to near lean-limit mixtures, and that the head temperature, the electric power generation as well as the thermal efficiency of the Stirling engine are increased with decreasing the equivalence ratio under a constant heat input condition. This seems due to an increase of air now rate, and hence, due to an increase of heat transfer rate. In this study, a self-recirculation type tubular flame burner has been adopted to increase the head temperature, and the maximum thermal efficiency of 12% has been achieved.
