Synchronization of coupled Stirling engines

Abstract

Because of an increasing demand on electric power and limited resources for conventional fuels, highly efficient engine that is capable of converting energy resource to electric power with a small loss is awaited. In this respect, Stirling engine provides a strong potential because of its efficient thermodynamic cycle, which is ideally close to the theoretical limit of the Carnot cycle. Practical use of the Stirling engine, however, has been limited because of its low output power. Towards its wider applicability, simultaneous operation of many individual Stirling engines is indispensable to increase the output power. This paper presents an experimental study of synchronized dynamics of two coupled Stirling engines. It is shown that the synchronized operation of the population of engines provides a key technology to extend the system size so as to produce a large-scale electric energy.