The effects of the various factors and the engine size on micro internal combustion swing engine (MICSE)

Miniature engines are competitive devices for portable energy consumption. Experiments reveal that the thermal efficiency of a micro internal combustion swing engine (MICSE) is much poorer in comparing with other conventional-scale counterparts. In this work, we study the size effect and the various factors, such as the combustion rate, mass leakage, friction and heat dissipation, affecting the performance of MICSE. The results indicate that the combustion rate mainly distorts thermodynamic process path while the others, including mass leakage, friction and heat dissipation, mainly reduce the compression ratio of the engine. It is also found that these factors tangle with each other in a nonlinear and complex manner through compression ratio. With the reduction of the engine size, this influence of factors on MICSE become more critical and the efficiency drops dramatically as a result.