INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH

Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863 } 873 (1999)

OPTIMIZATION OF THE IRREVERSIBLE STIRLING

HEAT ENGINE

L. BERRIN ERBAY AND HASBI YAVUZ*

School of Engineering, Osmangazi University, 26030 Bademlik, Eskisehir, Turkey
Institute for Nuclear Energy, Istanbul Technical University, 80626, Istanbul, Turkey

SUMMARY
The e!ects of ine$ciencies in the compression, expansion and regeneration processes on engine performance have been
evaluated theoretically for a Stirling heat engine operating in a closed regenerative thermodynamic cycle. The irreversible
cycle has been optimized by using the maximum power density technique. Maximized power and maximized power
density are obtained for di!erent n , q, a , a , g , g and g values. The maximum e$ciencies have been found very
close to the values corresponding tothe maximum
   power
  conditions but far from the values at maximum power.
density
It has been found that the engines designed by considering the maximum power density have high e$ciencies and small
sizes under the same prescribed conditions. Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KEY WORDS: Stirling cycle; heat engine; cycle optimization

INTRODUCTION

The Stirling heat engine is a regenerative external combustion engine and has the same thermal e$ciency as
a Carnot engine when it is ideal, lossless and isothermal. Since it can be powered by various heat sources and
can also use waste heat, the Stirling heat engine has gained an interest due to energy and environmental
consideration (Reader and Hooper, 1983; West, 1986; Organ, 1992). This increasing interest is observed easily
in annual and biennial conferences*European Stirling Forum, International Stirling Engine Conference and
Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference (IECEC). In the near future, we will be able to see
various Stirling engines of low noise, long life span, reliability, multi-fuel operation, clean-exhaust, and so on
(El-Genk and Mohamed, 1994).
On the one hand, the designers and manufacturers try to develop existing models; on the other, theoretical
studies continue to supply comparison and design parameters. In the literature of "nite-time thermo-
dynamics (Curzon and Ahlborn, 1975; Andresen, 1977; Rubin, 1979; Ondrechen et al., 1983; De Vos, 1985;
Le!, 1987; Bejan, 1988; Chen and Yan, 1989; Gordon and Huleihil, 1992; Wu and Kiang, 1992; Bejan, 1995),
theoretical Stirling heat engine analyses have been found in a limited way. Petrescu et al. (1993) have studied
a method for optimization of a cavity-type receiver for a solar Stirling engine with losses generated by friction
and internal throttling, "nite speed gas}piston interaction. An optimal power analysis on an endoreversible
Stirling cycle with perfect regeneration has been conducted by Blank et al. (1994). Ladas and Ibrahim (1994)
have presented the e!ects of heat-transfer contact time, engine speed and regeneration on power output and
e$ciency. A regenerative gas Stirling cycle coupled to an in"nite capacity heat source and heat sink by

*Correspondence to: H. Yavuz, Institute for Nuclear Energy, Istanbul Technical University, 80626, Istanbul, Turkey. Email: yavuz@
nukleer.itu.edu.tr

CCC 0363}907X/99/100863}11$17.50 Received 23 September 1998

Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 4 December 1998
864 L. B. ERBAY AND H. YAVUZ

radiant heat transfer has been evaluated by Blank and Wu (1995). Feidt et al. (1995) have investigated the
in#uence of the form of heat transfer law as well as various kinds of irreversibilities on the optimal
temperatures and area distribution of a Stirling engine to optimize the system power. The e!ect of the
regenerator, approached as a classical heat exchanger, on a Stirling engine characteristics and on the
distribution of the heat transfer surface conductances in the machine heat exchangers has been studied by
Feidt et al. (1996). Petrescu et al. (1996) have modi"ed and expanded the heat and work terms in the
expression for the "rst law of thermodynamics by considering the heat and work irreversibilities.
Considering the requirement for the development of external combustion engines due to increasing energy
requirement and environmental aspects, basic theoretical analyses are still necessary for the sake of "nding
new evaluation and/or design decision criteria. In this analysis, the engine under consideration has been
optimized by using the maximum power density (MPD) technique introduced by S,ahin et al. (1996a, b). By
application of the MPD technique, the size of the engine is inserted into the analysis, which is important from
the economic considerations. The e!ects of ine$ciencies due to irreversibilities in the compression, expansion
and regeneration processes on engine performance have been evaluated theoretically for a Stirling heat
engine operating in a closed regenerative thermodynamic cycle. Although the source and the reason of
ine$ciencies, i.e. irreversibilities, are not in the scope of this study, the results of complicated irreversibilities
are examined and represented by individual parameters such as thermal e$ciencies and volumetric inconsist-
encies. The irreversible heat engine model including e$ciencies for compression and expansion processes and
regenerator has been substituted for the endoreversible Stirling heat engine model proposed by Erbay and
Yavuz (1997).

GENERAL THEORY AND MODEL

For an ideal-gas working #uid, the irreversible Stirling cycle under consideration is represented by the
processes; irreversible polytropic compression (1}2), irreversible constant volume heat absorption (2}3),
irreversible polytropic expansion (3}4) and irreversible constant volume heat rejection (4}1).
The re#ection of the irreversibilities, i.e. entropy generation during heat transfer in the regenerator (for 4}1
heat rejection and 2}3 heat absorption processes) is given simply by using a regenerator e$ciency and
volumetric inconstancy parameters. The thermal e$ciency of the regenerator is
!
g "   (1)
 !
 
The two isochores have been assumed irreversible as considered by Feidt et al. (1995). The irreversible
isochoric processes are expressed explicitly by a parameters. Owing to the irreversibilities, these parameters
a , for cooling of hot working #uid and a , for heating of cold one, are de"ned as
 
v v
a " :1, a " :1 (2)
 v  v
 
respectively. The equality to unity corresponds to the reversible case.
During compression (1}2) and expansion (3}4) in connection with the external heat transfer processes,
irreversible polytropic processes are assumed instead of isotherms. Thermal e$ciencies for compression and
expansion are used to substitute the irreversibilities into the analysis, which are de"ned as
=Q
g "   (3)
 = Q

= Q
g "  (4)
 = Q

Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)
 STIRLING HEAT ENGINE 865

respectively. The exponents of the polytropic processes are n for compression and n for expansion with the
 
values of 0(n (1 and 0(n (1. From the ratio of heat sink temperature to heat source temperature
  *
, q and the compression ratio r ("< /< "v /v ). The temperature ratios of the end points of each
& T    
process become

"(a r )\L (5)
 T



r L\
" T (6)
a
 

"q(a r )\L (7)
 T



1 r L\
" T (8)
q a
 
The regeneration process is one of the most important aspects of the Stirling cycle. In the ideal regenerator,
the heat rejected from the hot working #uid is equal to heat absorbed by the cold one. In the irreversible
regenerator, by using equations (5)}(8), equation (1) takes the following form:


 
1 r L\
q T !1 "g [1!q(a r )\L ] (9)
q a   T

After some manipulations,

 
 
1 1 r L\
n "1!ln 1! T !q ln(a r ) (10)
 q g a  T
 
or
n "n [a , a , r , n , q, g ] (11)
    T  
is obtained. Equation (11) yields a restrictive relation between a , a , r , n , q, g and n . The net power of
  T   
the irreversible Stirling cycle is

 
q
Q "mR R u g h !u
= h (12)
     g 

where
n
u " 
 1!n



r L\
h "1! T
 a

n [a , a , r , n , q, g ]
u "    T  
 1!n [a , a , r , n , q, g ]
   T  
h "(a r )\L ? ? PT L OE
!1
  T
The heat transferred from the external heat source to the ideal-gas working #uid is
(k!n )
QQ "mR R  g h (13)
&  (k!1)(1!n )  

Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)
866 L. B. ERBAY AND H. YAVUZ

where k is the ratio of the speci"c heats, c /c . The thermal e$ciency of the cycle is obtained by using
N T
equations (12) and (13), as
= Q
g"  (14)
QQ
&
Q ) de"ned as the power output of the heat engine per maximum volume
In this study, the power density (=

becomes
=Q
=Q "  (15)
 <


Figure 1. The variations of (a) normalized power and (b) normalized power density with respect to thermal e$ciency by considering the
temperature ratio of the heat sink to heat source for the reversible cycle (n "0)75, k"1)4)


Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)
 STIRLING HEAT ENGINE 867

Q , QQ and =
= Q are studied by using dimensionless forms de"ned as
 & 
= Q QQ =
="  , Q " & , =" (16)
mR R & mR R  r
  T

RESULTS
The power output and the power density of the irreversible Stirling heat engine are maximized numerically
with respect to the volumetric compression value, r . Maximized values of power (= ) and power density
T 
(= ) are obtained for di!erent q, a , a , g , g and g values. The variations of normalized power
      

Figure 2. The comparison of normalized power and normalized power density at di!erent irreversibility values of (a) g and

(b) g , g and g (a "a "1)0, q"0)4, n "0)78, k"1)4)
     

Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)
868 L. B. ERBAY AND H. YAVUZ

(=/= ) and normalized power density (= /= ) are used to present the results in "gures. The thermal
   
e$ciencies obtained at = and = conditions are called g and g . The maximum thermal e$ciency
   5  5 
g is also investigated.

The reversible Stirling cycle is obtained when thermal e$ciencies g , g and g and a and a are taken as
    
unity. Figures 1(a) and 1(b) are drawn for the reversible cycle to compare the g and g values before
5  5 
discussing the e!ect of irreversibilities. The increase in q decreases e$ciency. The e!ect is similar at = and

= conditions. In Figure 1, the apparent di!erence between g and g is observed. The values
  5  5 
g are greater than those at = . By considering q"0)2 the r values corresponding to g and g are
5   T 5  5 
obtained as 14)4233 and 2)14515, respectively. It is striking that the size of an engine designed according to
= conditions will be about seven times larger than one designed by = .
  

Figure 3. The e!ect of the regenerator e$ciency on (a) normalized power and (b) normalized power density vs. thermal e$ciency
(a "a "1)0, g "g "0)95, q"0)4, n "0)78, k"1)4)
    

Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)
 STIRLING HEAT ENGINE 869

Figures 2(a) and 2(b) are drawn for comparing the g and g and also for obtaining the e!ect of
5  5 
irreversibilities represented generally by a , a , g , g and g on the performance of the cycle designed by
    
considering = and = . In Figure 2 it is seen that g is always greater than g . The values of
   5  5 
g and g are very close which means that when an engine designed by considering the power density
5  
works at = conditions, it will have g as well. The values of g are the same at = and = . In
      
Figure 2(a), the r value at = , 2)165836 is smaller than r at = (6)61542). Under the conditions
T   T 
summarized in Figure 2(b), r is 2)11873 at = and 5)34236 at = .
T   
For investigating the e!ect of g on the performance of the engine, Figure 3 is drawn. Obviously,

increasing g gives higher g values. As observed in Figure 3(a), g values are nearly the same while the
  5 
e!ect of g is realized at = conditions, in a regular manner. The values of g are greater than that of
   5 
g values while r values obtained at = are smaller than r at = . For g "0)95r at = is 2)14415
5  T   T   T  

Figure 4. The variations of (a) normalized power and (b) normalized power density vs. thermal e$ciency under various g and g values
 
(a "a "1)0, g "0)96, q"0)4, n "0)78, k"1)4)
   

Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)
870 L. B. ERBAY AND H. YAVUZ

while 5)38755 at = . The curves of = /= are not obtained in parallel changes which implies that there
   
is a need for further evaluation of the irreversibilities in the regenerator and also indicates that the condition
of g (0)90 is not appropriate in practice.

The e!ect of irreversibilities during polytropic compression and expansion processes are introduced into
the analysis by the use of g and g . The regular changes are observed in both =/= and = /= curves
     
given in Figures 4(a) and 4(b), respectively. The extensive di!erence between g and g values for
5  
= working conditions are found, whereas g and g are very close as in the previous cases. For
 5  
g "g "0)95, r "2)11873 and 5)34236 are obtained at = and = conditions, respectively.
  T   
The consequences of the changes in a and a parameters due to irreversibilities during isochoric processes
 
are investigated in this study. At prescribed values of g , g , g and a , the e!ects of a are observed in
    
Figures 5(a) and 5(b). The = /= curves are very sensitive to a . The values of r for a "1)015 at = is
    T  
5)33928 and at = is 2)12707. Especially, for a '1)1, cycle permanance is disturbed. Therefore, the values
  

Figure 5. The comparison of thermal e$ciencies at (a) normalized power and (b) normalized power density by considering a (a "1)01,
 
g "g "0)95, g "0)96, q"0)4, n "0)78, k"1)4)
   

Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)
 STIRLING HEAT ENGINE 871

Figure 6. The e!ect of a on at (a) normalized power and (b) normalized power density with respect to thermal e$ciency (a "1)01,
 
g "g "0)95, g "0)96, q"0)4, n "0)78, k"1)4)
   

of a '1)05 may not be valid cases assumed. The e!ects of a are summarized in Figures 6(a) and 6(b). For the
 
cold leg it is observed that a must not be greater than 1)05 otherwise volumetric buckling and instabilities

will occur. By starting from a "1)01 and going upto a "1)20, r calculated at = is found to be 2)11873
  T  
and 2)83267, respectively, whereas the r values for the = conditions changes between 5)34236 and
T 
6)04856. In fact, the values '1)01 do not correspond to real cases, but they are considered to express how
irreversibilities would e!ect the =/= and = /= , by exaggeration.
   

CONCLUSION

In the present study, the irreversible Stirling heat engine operating in a closed regenerative thermodynamic
cycle has been optimized by using the maximum power density technique impressing the importance of

Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)
872 L. B. ERBAY AND H. YAVUZ

volume on the engine performance. The results of complicated irreversibilities due to complicated ine$cien-
cies and losses are examined and treated as individual parameters. The e!ects of irreversibilities during
polytropic compression and expansion processes have been introduced into the analysis by the use of thermal
e$ciencies g and g , respectively.
 
The thermal e$ciency of the regenerator, g and volumetric inconstancies, a and a have been presumed
  
for constant volume heat transfers in the regenerator. The power output and the power density of the
irreversible Stirling heat engine are maximized numerically with respect to the volumetric compression ratio,
r . Maximized values of power (= ) and power density (= ) are obtained at di!erent n , q, a , a , g ,
T       
g and g values. When = Q has been used for optimization, the results obtained have included dimensional
  
considerations. After evaluating the r values, it is seen obviously that a heat engine working at = condi-
T  
tion has a small size.
The normalized power vs. e$ciency characteristic of the irreversible Stirling engine has been obtained and
the results have been summarized in the "gures. In all cases, the maximum e$ciency g has been found

to be very close to the e$ciency at maximum power density conditions but far from the values at
maximum power. As a conclusion, an engine working at the = condition has also g , so using
  
= Q enables designers a tool for the determination of the thermal design bounds of the heat engine with small

sizes.

NOMENCLATURE
a "volumetric ratio
c "constant-volume speci"c heat
T
k "ratio of speci"c heats (c /c )
N T
mR "mass-#ow rate
n "polytropic exponent
QQ "rate of polytropic heat transfer from the high-temperature heat source to the working #uid
&
QQ "rate of polytropic heat transfer from the working #uid to the heat sink
*
R "universal gas constant
r "compression ratio (< /< )
T  
"heat source temperature
&
"heat sink temperature
*
= Q "cycle power output

= Q "cycle power density (= Q /< )
  
= Q "net cycle-power output

v "speci"c volume
q "temperature ratio /
 
g "thermal e$ciency of the cycle

Subscripts
c "compression
ex "expansion
h "heating
max "maximum
reg "regenerator
rev "reversible
= Q "maximum cycle-power density conditions
 
= Q "maximum cycle-power output conditions

Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)
 STIRLING HEAT ENGINE 873

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Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res., 23, 863}873 (1999)