Mod I Automotive Stirling Engine System Performance

The Automotive Stirling Engine Development Program was awarded to Mechanical Technology Incorporated (MTI) in March 1978 for the purposes of developing automotive Stirling engines and for transferring Stirling engine technology to the United States. The program has made extensive use of the background in Stirling engine development at United Stirling of Sweden (USSw). Within this development program, the Mod I Stirling engine is the first engine specifically designed and built for the automotive application. During 1981, the first Mod I Stirling engine system successfully completed acceptance testing at USSw.

This describes the Mod I Stirling engine system and evaluates data from the acceptance test of this first Mod I engine. Measured power, efficiency and emissions maps are presented and comparisons are made with computer code predictions. The Mod I engine demonstrated a peak power of 53.9 kW and maximum efficiency of 37.4%. The fuel consumption characteristics are compared with those of current conventional automotive engines. Measured exhaust emissions are shown to be consistent with meeting the most stringent federal emissions goals.