SGER: Green Energy via Control-Based Design of Free-Piston Stirling Engines

这项工作的研究目标是应用线性和非线性动力系统和控制设计工具，制定一个系统的设计方法，自由活塞斯特林发动机，这是传统的设计从纯粹的热力学的角度来看。从历史上看，斯特林发动机的设计已经从其最初的纯粹的运动学布置（其中置换器和活塞的运动受到运动学约束）发展到纯粹的动态布置。这种发动机叫做？自由活塞？斯特林发动机。不幸的是，这种向动态引擎的转变并没有看到实现其设计所需的工具的相应发展。在这项研究中，自由活塞斯特林发动机重铸和重新解释从动态系统和控制的角度来看，通过查看相互作用的动态系统元素的背景下，设计一个反馈回路。设计方法是双重的：1）应用线性控制设计工具来设计系统的参数组作为反馈增益，2）应用非线性动态系统分析工具来验证和完善整个非线性系统的设计。在智力水平上，建议的动态设计方法是适用于动力生产占主导地位的设备比自由活塞斯特林为基础的设计更一般，并有可能形成的基础和框架的设计，所有这样的？有活力？机.在社会层面上，作为世界的可用性？随着传统化石燃料的不断减少，开发一种可行的替代发动机，使社会向可再生的、环境友好的燃料和能源过渡，成为此类研究的首要任务。由于只需要一个热源，斯特林发动机提供了利用非精炼和/或非石油为基础的能源，如传统的内燃机的优势：生物质，太阳能，地热，和其他？绿色？热源。

The research objective of this work is to apply linear and nonlinear dynamical systems and control design tools to formulate a systematic design methodology for free-piston Stirling engines, which have been traditionally designed from a purely thermodynamic point of view. Historically, the design of Stirling engines has progressed from its original purely kinematic arrangement, where the motion of the displacer and the piston are kinematically constrained, toward a purely dynamic arrangement ? such engines are called ?free-piston? Stirling engines. Unfortunately, this shift toward a dynamic engine has not seen a commensurate development in the tools needed to realize their design. In this research, free-piston Stirling engines are recast and reinterpreted from a dynamic systems and controls perspective by viewing the interacting dynamic system elements in the context of designing a feedback loop. The design methodology is twofold: 1) apply linear control design tools to design parameter groups of the system as feedback gains, and 2) apply nonlinear dynamical systems analysis tools to verify and refine the design with regard to the full nonlinear system.The broader impacts of this research will be both intellectual and societal. On an intellectual level, the proposed dynamic design methodology is applicable to power production from dynamically dominant devices more general than free-piston Stirling-based designs, and has the potential to form the basis and framework for the design of all such ?dynamic? engines. On a societal level, as the availability of the world?s traditional fossil fuels continues to decline, the development of a viable alternative engine capable of transitioning society toward renewable, environmentally friendly fuels and energy sources becomes a paramount call to such research. Given the need only for a heat source, Stirling engines offer the advantage over conventional internal combustion engines of utilizing non-refined and/or non-petroleum-based energy sources such as: biomass, solar, geothermal, and other ?green? sources of heat.