DIY engine test bench with Arduino for my thermoacoustic Stirling to produce energy and go off grid
My engines 5:12
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In this video I show you the development of the test bench for my new thermoacoustic Stirling engine.
The engine is built after the book "Introduction to thermoacoustic Stirling engines" and the ideas of Jaime Gros et al. from Nebrija University.
A test bench is essential to know the operating conditions and to improve the performance of the engine.
I have built several test stands for my various Stirling engines with many sensors and actuators.
Including a real time pressure and volume diagram of the Stirling cycle and remote control over the net.
Now I want to build a test bench for my new thermoacoustic Stirling engine.
The new concept of the thermoacoustic Stirling engine has the potential to finally meet our electricity needs reliably and sustainably.
With the self-built micro biogas digester or other renewable resources such as firewood, we could do without a supply from the electricity grid even during periods of low sunshine.
All of the Stirling engine concepts I had previously tried presented me with more or less unsolvable technical problems, which led me to the ingeniously simple principle of the Thermoacoustic Stirling.
The aim is to achieve an electrical output of 100 to 500 watts in order to heat and cover our electricity requirements with this combined heat and power plant.
To achieve this, I want to build an engine test bench to measure the exact performance parameters.
I hope to use these results to improve the performance of the Thermoacoustic Stirling and to learn how the engine reacts to modifications.
In an earlier video, I showed you how to prepare the Arduino microcontroller for the most reliable measurements.
This includes calibrating the microcontroller and enabling the fastest and most accurate measurements possible with different settings.
The test bench consists of an Arduino UNO,
a screw shield for secure and convenient screwing of cables,
a data logging shield with real-time clock and SD card slot,
several cable distributors with pluggable connections
and a display to show the measurement results.
First, I prepared the Arduino sketch with the calibration and other optimisations.
This is time-consuming and inconvenient at first, but it is essential to obtain accurate and, above all, comparable results that can stand up to serious verification.
This is especially important when sharing, comparing or publishing your results.
No one trusts uncalibrated measurements.
At first I only want to measure the frequency of the thermoacoustic oscillations and the maximum pressure.
For this I have written a peak detection algorithm that finds and analyses the local maximum pressures in real time.
Its advantage is the lean code with very low memory requirements.
The code is absolutely not perfect and under certain conditions it sometimes fails to find the local pressure maximum.
A running median filter removes these wrong values and I get good results.
I am always grateful for suggestions for improvement, and if anyone has tips and hints for my peak detection algorithm, I would be very happy if you write them in the comments..
With my small engine test bench, I can now start to carry out serious tests to increase performance.
Hopefully I will learn more about how the thermoacoustic Stirling engine reacts to changes in the operating parameters and how I can gradually boost the power.
For instance, a higher heat input from a modified three-flame alcohol burner is expected to result in a higher maximum pressure at an unchanged frequency.
Many enhancements and improvements are already under construction or planned and will hopefully be implemented soon.
I will be carrying out intensive performance tests with various modifications in the near future and will then report back to you here.
Do you have any suggestions, tips or other ideas?
How do you like my next attempt to harness your own energy with simple means?
Please let me know in the comments!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the background music:
Song: Jim Yosef - Eclipse [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/eclispe Watch: • Jim Yosef - Eclipse | House | NCS
The engine is built after the book "Introduction to thermoacoustic Stirling engines" and the ideas of Jaime Gros et al. from Nebrija University.
A test bench is essential to know the operating conditions and to improve the performance of the engine.
I have built several test stands for my various Stirling engines with many sensors and actuators.
Including a real time pressure and volume diagram of the Stirling cycle and remote control over the net.
Now I want to build a test bench for my new thermoacoustic Stirling engine.
The new concept of the thermoacoustic Stirling engine has the potential to finally meet our electricity needs reliably and sustainably.
With the self-built micro biogas digester or other renewable resources such as firewood, we could do without a supply from the electricity grid even during periods of low sunshine.
All of the Stirling engine concepts I had previously tried presented me with more or less unsolvable technical problems, which led me to the ingeniously simple principle of the Thermoacoustic Stirling.
The aim is to achieve an electrical output of 100 to 500 watts in order to heat and cover our electricity requirements with this combined heat and power plant.
To achieve this, I want to build an engine test bench to measure the exact performance parameters.
I hope to use these results to improve the performance of the Thermoacoustic Stirling and to learn how the engine reacts to modifications.
In an earlier video, I showed you how to prepare the Arduino microcontroller for the most reliable measurements.
This includes calibrating the microcontroller and enabling the fastest and most accurate measurements possible with different settings.
The test bench consists of an Arduino UNO,
a screw shield for secure and convenient screwing of cables,
a data logging shield with real-time clock and SD card slot,
several cable distributors with pluggable connections
and a display to show the measurement results.
First, I prepared the Arduino sketch with the calibration and other optimisations.
This is time-consuming and inconvenient at first, but it is essential to obtain accurate and, above all, comparable results that can stand up to serious verification.
This is especially important when sharing, comparing or publishing your results.
No one trusts uncalibrated measurements.
At first I only want to measure the frequency of the thermoacoustic oscillations and the maximum pressure.
For this I have written a peak detection algorithm that finds and analyses the local maximum pressures in real time.
Its advantage is the lean code with very low memory requirements.
The code is absolutely not perfect and under certain conditions it sometimes fails to find the local pressure maximum.
A running median filter removes these wrong values and I get good results.
I am always grateful for suggestions for improvement, and if anyone has tips and hints for my peak detection algorithm, I would be very happy if you write them in the comments..
With my small engine test bench, I can now start to carry out serious tests to increase performance.
Hopefully I will learn more about how the thermoacoustic Stirling engine reacts to changes in the operating parameters and how I can gradually boost the power.
For instance, a higher heat input from a modified three-flame alcohol burner is expected to result in a higher maximum pressure at an unchanged frequency.
Many enhancements and improvements are already under construction or planned and will hopefully be implemented soon.
I will be carrying out intensive performance tests with various modifications in the near future and will then report back to you here.
Do you have any suggestions, tips or other ideas?
How do you like my next attempt to harness your own energy with simple means?
Please let me know in the comments!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the background music:
Song: Jim Yosef - Eclipse [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/eclispe Watch: • Jim Yosef - Eclipse | House | NCS
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