04-10-2014, 09:37 AM
Abstracts: The stock of conventional fuel is limited and also the cost is high. The use of conventional fuel also increases. Hence we have to find another source of energy. The solar energy is renewable energy and also the low running and maintenance cost and also pollution free. In India 300 clear sunny days in every year is available. India has a potential to produce 30 MW of energy per sq.km.Hence it is better to use solar energy as a fuel. A Stirling engine is a heat engine that operates by cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gases(working fluid) at different temperature levels such that there is net conversion of heat. The general cycle of Stirling engine consist of compressing cool gas, heating the gas, and finally cooling the gas before repeating the cycle. The working fluid inside the Stirling engine in this case is heated gas which is to be heated using solar energy from the Sun. The Main components of this project are: Stirling Engine, Parabolic Dish, Alternator. The Parabolic dish which act as a solar concentrator, concentrates heat of the Sun on the receiver of the Stirling engine which causes the expansion of the gas contained in it. It is the receiver end of the Stirling engine, which contain the working fluid. The receiver end of the engine is placed at the focus of the parabolic dish so that it can receive the maximum amount of energy that is concentrated by the dish. The expansion movement of the working fluid inside the engine causes crank to rotate. The crank is coupled with an alternator which will generate power. This engine is tested with air at atmospheric pressure by using solar simulators with different solar intensities as a heat source. Then we have to calculated variation in torque, shaft power and brake thermal efficiency with engine speed and engine performance at various heat inputs.