Development of New Matrix Material for Stirling Engine Regenerator

In order to develop Stirling cycle machines with high efficiency, suitable regenerator for each machine must be designed. To realize the flexibility of design and to improve the performance of regenerator, a new matrix, mesh sheet was proposed. It is a plate type with electrically etched holes. Each small hole is connected with neighboring holes by grooves on the plate. Three types of the mesh sheet were developed and were respectively stacked to install in a 3-kW Stirling engine. The performance test was carried out and the regenerator losses were compared with conventional stacked wire gauze. From the results, it was clarified that the engine performance was improved about 5 to 10% by the mesh sheet. In this paper, the relation between the dimensions of the mesh sheet and the regenerator losses were also clarified.