Abstract:
The current proliferation of portable electronic devices for personal
communication, business and entertainment has created a demand for high energy density
power supplies. A hydrocarbon fuel with a conversion efficiency of over
15% can provide greater energy density than current battery technology for these
applications. Current micro-scale heat engines do not operate at an efficiency great
enough to displace the current electrochemical battery. The MACE concept was
developed to address the key issues limiting the current micro-scale heat engines: heat
losses to the surroundings, leakage, friction and combustion. This thesis covers the
development of a concept micro-scale engine which consists of two pistons,
connected by a regenerator. The pistons are driven by a specific motion linkage to
produce the desired flow patterns and to isolate heat to one region in the engine to
reduce losses. The engine utilizes catalytic combustion which was characterized
using a test apparatus to determine the effects of the equivalence ratio, volumetric
flow rates and volume amounts on the combustion temperature of propane-air on a
platinum catalyst under various flow conditions.
