A one cylinder Stirling engine

[adyParticipant @ady]

Apparently they don’t even know why it works.

(Not cheap to find out why either)

 

Traveling wave Stirling engine

 

http://www.stirlingengine.com/product/94

[adyParticipant @ady]

[PatParticipant @pat]

Hi Andy

 

At first sight this appears to be a type B Stirling engine which has been made in a rather elegant form. This illustration is from the Wikipedia site. The fingers round the glass tube are the cold end and the heated end IMHO is that nearest the flywheel and this gives the nice pictorial design in the photos posted by Andy.  A first class exhibition model.  However a movie would clinch the identification as being a re-jigged class B Stirling engine design.

 

And in diagrammatic form belowjust reverse the connecting rods to get the configuration shown.

 

However looking at the photos posted the rather thick bar that runs from one end to the other is out of kilter with the rest of the mechanical design so is this type A making use of a heat pipe as I can see the dual connecting rods in the pictures?  

 

The more you look the more fascinating so I hope some one has some ideas or may be purchases one!

 

Regards – Pat

Edited By Pat on 26/08/2011 02:56:20

[Richard ParsonsParticipant @richardparsons61721]

Sometime in the early 90s there was an article published in ME about a Stirling engine which had no displacer. It was written up by a chap from New Zealand.

In the mid 60s there was also a device published in a scientific magazine, which when heated at one end, the other end became cool. The thing made a humming noise and looked like a ‘Yard of Ale’ glass. That is it had a bulb at one the (cool) end and was open at the other. There was a joint in the middle which held a grid of criss-cross paper or shims. It was used by NASA engineers to cool beer when they were holding a beach party.
Rdgs

Dick

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Roy Darlington had one in ME 4203, he called it the “Whatsit” engine. The one designed by a Kiwi was sold with a book as a kit, and known as “The One Piston Engine” by Ted Warbrook. They have a number of names (don’t think anyone can agree what they should be called), Thermo Acoustic, Pulse engines, Laminar Flow, Lag Engines, or as Ted Warbrook calls his , a One Piston Engine.

I built one back in 2005, where some are made with a test tube fr the hot end, mine is stainless steel. Roy made his two different ways as far as the steel wool packing is concerned, I made mine with a tube through the packing to a space at the end away from the piston, this is where the heat is applied. My motor has a bore of 5/8″ and a stroke of 3/4″, it runs well on a small gas flame, or a meths burner. Ian S C

[adyParticipant @ady]

omg I forgot about them.

 

If you look on youtube for “lamina flow stirling engine” there’s about a thousand of them.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjjkj-UGboM

 

Save your munney guys, unless you want it for aesthetic reasons.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

I agree ady, I think that one’s made of gold (well at todays price maybe gold plated). I was offered $NZ 600 for one of mine once. Ian S C

[Author]

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