Stm Power, Inc.

Stm, Inc.

Stephen C Matthews

Lennart N Johansson

Benjamin Ziph

William H Houtman

Nicholas R Marchionna

Amedee Roy

A heater head assembly for a multi-cylinder heat engine the stirling engine, such as a multi-cylinder Stirling engine, having a plurality of regenerators and cylinders. Each regenerator has a regenerator manifold and each cylinder has a cylinder manifold. First identical cast heater tubes connect the regenerator manifold to first heater tube openings in a heater head manifold. Second identical cast heater tubes connect second heater tube openings in the heater head manifold to the cylinder manifold. The first and second heater tubes are parallel with respect to each other and form a pair of partial concentric staggered arrays. The heater tubes are rotationally asymmetric, having fin sections with less surface area upstream than downstream and thicknesses which decrease radially away from the central passageways of said heater tubes.

Heat engine heater head assembly

A heater assembly for a heat engine designed to utilize solar energy and heat produced by combustion of a fuel such as natural gas. A receiver housing allows concentrated solar energy to be directed through a receiver aperture into a receiver chamber. Inner and outer arrays of heater tubes within the receiver chamber absorb the solar energy and transfer heat to working fluid in the heater tubes. A burner within the housing produces combustion gases which circulate past the heater tubes and transfer heat to the working fluid. The heater tubes form an opaque surface to solar energy and have uniform gaps which allow heated fluid to be passed between adjacent heater tubes. A precise three-dimensional mathematical description for the centerlines of the heater tubes which maintains uniform gaps between adjacent heater tubes is disclosed.

Heat engine heater assembly

Growing community of inventors

Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Stephen C Matthews