THEORETICAL LIMITS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF STIRLING ENGINES

This paper describes a mathematical model of engines operating with an ideal Stirling cycle and subject to limited heat transfer, internal t hermal losses, and mechanical friction losses. The goal of the paper i s to describe the fundamental effects of these imperfections on the pe rformance of an otherwise ideal Stirling engine. These are defects suf fered by all real Stirling engines, but the intent here is not to pred ict the actual performance of specific engines. Rather, the aim is to obtain some mathematical insight into the nature of the theoretical de pendence of engine performance upon these imperfections. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.