An Analytical and Experimental Evaluation of the Pressure-Drop Losses in the Stirling Cycle

Abstract

An analysis of the effects of pressure drop in the heat-exchange components of a Stirling cycle has been made and successfully applied to an experimental refrigerator. Data are presented for the indicated work per cycle for each cylinder of the machine. Two successive approximations to the real cycle are used. The first approximation is a Stirling cycle with two adiabatic cylinders and is used to compute the mass flow rates at each location. The second approximation uses these flow rates to obtain the pressure-drop losses in the heat-exchange components. The correlation between measured and calculated pressure-drop losses and individual cylinder work substantiates the validity of the analysis.