Title :
The Thermodynamics Analysis of Thermal Efficiency of the Minto Engine
Author :
He, Wei ; Hou, Jingxin ; Zhang, Yongxu ; Ji, Jie
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Thermal Sci. & Energy Eng., Univ. of Sci. & Technol. of China, Hefei, China
Abstract :
As a liquid piston heat engine, Minto engine converts low-grade heat energy into mechanical energy. In this paper, the basic equation of thermal efficiency of Minto engine is modified. And a new design is proposed to improve the original Minto engine. With the modified equation, 9 different materials are chosen to estimate the two kinds of Minto engine. Simulation results show that the thermal efficiency of original Minto engine strongly depends on the material properties. While for the improved Minto engine, the thermal efficiency of different materials does not differ greatly about 6%~7%, (the Carnot efficiency is 17%) operating between 293.15 K and 353.15 K. Use liquid of high density under this condition, and the size of the engine will be reduced to 1/10 compared with pure liquid.
Keywords :
heat engines; thermodynamics; Minto engine; liquid piston heat engine; low grade heat energy; mechanical energy; thermal efficiency; thermodynamics analysis; Containers; Equations; Heat engines; Mechanical energy; Solar energy; Solar heating; Thermal engineering; Thermodynamics; Waste heat; Wheels;
Conference_Titel :
Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), 2010 Asia-Pacific
Conference_Location :
Chengdu
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4812-8
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4813-5
DOI :
10.1109/APPEEC.2010.5449244
