Development of Stirnol Engine for Efficiency Enhancement; A Hybrid of Nitinol and Stirling Engine

Abstract

Global energy requirement is accelerating on daily basis resulting in energy void which leads to human quest to find simple and cost-effective solutions. A promising resolution is the application of renewable energy with thermo-mechanical conversion systems such as Stirling engines. Considerable effort is in hand at industry and academia domains to stimulate the development of Stirling technology. In this work two dimensions of engineering i.e. Stirling engine and Shape Memory Alloy were studied. An encouraging answer for this global pursuit for energy demand is the revival of Stirling engines with the modification of Shape Memory Alloy Nitinol. The name of newly modified engine was coined as STIRNOL ENGINE and results reveal that addition of Nitinol spring enhances the overall efficiency of engine demonstrating affirmative impact of shape memory alloy towards performance output of Stirling engine. Moreover, the metallurgy of Stirnol engine was also studied and its performance was investigated after integration of Nitinol spring. A minimum of four types of materials were utilized in the research namely Aluminum, Copper, Brass and Bronze. In this regard four output parameters were compared and graphically represented. These parameters are engine efficiency, brake power, RPM and temperature difference. During the conduct of experimentation, Stirnol and Stirling engines were modelled in ANSYS Software and computational analysis was conducted. Moreover, mathematical equations were generated for the model and run in MATLAB software.