Pulsed Micro Catalytic Combustor for Use in a Solid Piston Microengine

In an effort to develop a novel micro power source, the design of a solid piston microengine is introduced. The operational principle of the Penn State Solid Piston (PSSP) is to employ a pulsed catalytic combustion reaction to thermally expand and contract a solid piston connected to a piezoelectric transducer, and in turn use the piezoelectric transducer to convert the mechanical energy of the periodic expansion and contraction of the solid piston (thermal actuator) into electrical energy. The existence of controlled temperature fluctuations within the combustion chamber is critical to the solid piston microengine design. Therefore, the focus of the microcombustor research presented herein is to obtain a consistent and predictable cyclical process leading to predictable temperature fluctuations within the solid piston. Experiments have been conducted using hydrogen gas in a catalytic combustion test rig to quantify the effect of changes in pulse frequency, pulse duty cycle, and equivalence ratio on overall temperature fluctuation and average temperature within the combustion chamber. The percentage of hydrogen consumed within the reaction is also measured.