An overview is presented of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Lewis Research Center free-piston Stirling engine activities directed toward space power. NASA Lewis serves as the Project Office to manage the NASA SP-100 Advanced Technology Program. One of the major elements of the Advanced Technology Program is the technology development of advanced power conversion concepts of which the Stirling cycle is an attractive growth candidate. Discussed in this paper is the completion of the Space Power Demonstrator Engine (SPDE) testing - terminating with the generation of 25 kW of engine power from a dynamically-balanced opposed-piston Stirling engine at a temperature ratio of 2.0. Engine efficiency was greater than 22 percent. The SPDE recently has been divided into two separate single-cylinder engines. Space Power Research Engine (SPRE), that now serve as test beds for the evaluation of key technology disciplines. These disciplines include hydrodynamic gas bearings, high-efficiency linear alternators, space qualified heat pipe heat exchangers, oscillating flow code validation, and engine loss understanding. The success of the SPDE at 650 K has resulted in a more ambitious Strling endeavor - the design, fabrication, test, and evaluation of a designed-for-space 25 kW per cylinder Stirling Space Engine (SSE) to operate at a hot metal temperature of 1050 K using superalloy materials. This design is a low temperature confirmation of the 1300 K design. It is the 1300 K free-piston Stirling power conversion system that is the ultimate goal. The approach to this goal is in the temperature steps. However, this paper concentrates on the first two phases of this program - the 650 K SPDE and the 1050 K SSE.


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    Title :

    1988 overview of free-piston Stirling technology for space power at the NASA Lewis Research Center


    Additional title:

    1988 Ueberblick ueber die Freikolben-Stirlingtechnologie fuer die Raumfahrt im NASA Lewis Forschungszentrum


    Contributors:
    Slaby, J.G. (author)


    Publication date :

    1988


    Size :

    6 Seiten, 6 Bilder, 5 Quellen


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English







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