Investigation of Heat Transfer Losses to the Combustion Chamber Wall of a Linear Generator Engine

Intensive researches are being carried out on the main power generator for free piston linear generator(FPLG) by both the academic and industrial research group due to its potential as a high fuel efficiency and low emission engine. The linear generator, which is a coil and a translator positioned to move linearly back and forth relative to each other. This paper investigates the heat transfer rate within free piston engine combustion chamber wall and with the assistance of thermodynamic simulation model and the results are compared with conventional engine. The simulation is expected to assist in the comparison of engine performance between two distinct engines through analysing the results recorded.
Both conventional and free piston engine models are built, simulation settings are set up, and simulations are launched in GT-ISE. Once simulation is done, results are viewed in GT-POST, the data collected was analysed and compared. The overall trend shows that free piston engine have a lower heat transfer rate throughout majority of the cycle. This findings agree that due to less time of piston near top dead centre area, heat transfer losses to the wall per cycle are reduced.