Simulation of a Two-Stroke Free Piston Energy Converter

Other conference contribution, 2003

In a free piston engine, the piston motion is not prescribed by a crank mechanism, but is the result of the equilibrium of forces acting on the piston. The linear motion of the pistons is directly converted to electricity in an alternator and a compact energy converter is the result. The lack of a crank mechanism gives means to easily vary the compression ratio, and it is possible to run the engine on a multitude of fuels in HCCI combustion mode. In this paper the effect of different fuels on the performance of the free piston engine has been studied. It is shown that both efficiency and power increase, but not dramatically, with higher octane rating.