Development of the BS-STIRLING 5.0 software package for modelling operating processes in Stirling engines

The article presents the development of the BS-STIRLING 5.0 software package designed for computational modelling of operating processes in Stirling engines. The new version, developed on the basis of the methodological framework of BS-STIRLING 4.2, includes a number of significant improvements aimed at increasing physical detail and calculation accuracy while maintaining the high computational efficiency typical of second-order methods. The key innovation is the transition from a functional diagram representation of the engine to discretisation of the internal circuit into 44 control volumes, which makes it possible to analyse local thermodynamic, hydrodynamic, and heat-transfer processes during the operating cycle. Additional improvements include a globally coupled iterative scheme, explicit modelling of heat transfer in the cylinders, updated correlations for oscillatory flows at low Reynolds numbers, a heat-transfer model taking into account wall temperature gradients, and the introduction of two new input parameters: adiabatic control temperatures in the hot and cold cylinders. These changes significantly improve the accuracy of calculating indicator diagrams, heat losses, and effective cycle parameters. Validation against experimental data from 29 Stirling engines of various types showed that the discrepancy between calculated and experimental values of effective power and efficiency does not exceed 5 %. Compared with version 4.2, the average error in power prediction was reduced from 5.2 % to 4.9 %, while the efficiency error decreased from 13.6 % to 4.1 %. The software package has a user-friendly graphical interface, short calculation time, and extensive visualisation capabilities, which makes BS-STIRLING 5.0 an effective tool for engineering calculations, scientific research, and educational purposes.

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