Stirling Engine Concept - Solidworks Animation

This a Stirling engine concept that I am developing as part of my Masters of engineering degree at the university of Canterbury (New Zealand).

The displacer, shown at the right, is a segment of a third of a cylinder, which is rotated back and forth by an electric motor, forcing air through the heat exchangers and regenerator (shown as red for hot exchanger, blue for cold exchanger, and green for regenerator. The heated or cooled air pushes out or sucks in the power piston which turns the crank and flywheel. Estimated power output of 1kW at temperature difference of less than 200 degrees C. It is quite large, about 2m x 1m footprint size.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f35/fokker99/engineimage.jpg

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Stirling
• engine
• LTD
• solidworks
• concept
• renewable
• energy
• Canterbury
• university
• ensoc

[ssnakeydnb]

just 1kW? u need major improvements

[fokker99]

1kW is at a temperature difference of only 60 degrees. That is a lot of power from bugger all heat.

[WarAgainstFutility]

Instead of stopping and reversing your displacer, why don't you simply make it spin all the way around? If the bottom half of the cylinder is hot and the top half is cold, it should work and not waste as much kinetic energy....

[fokker99]

It doesn't really work like that - there are heat exchangers inside the large cylinder so if the displacer just kept going around... then well it would crash into them. And besides the overriding principle of the stirling engine is that the displacer reciprocates the gas between hot and cold areas, if it moved continuously this would not be possible. But thanks for your interest :)

[Gunstick]

I seen somewhere (sorry lost the link) a rotary displacer engine similar to this. The linkage between the cylinders was quite ingenious (using a right angle disposition) and the displacer was 1/2 cylinder. Is the 1/3 cylinder the optimum or will you also experiment with that?

[fokker99]

Any chance you could find the link? The size of the displacer may change slightly from that shown here, but its hard to know the optimum size as it is a tradeoff beween heat exchanger/regenerator effectiveness and dead space within the engine.

[eithanyakobi]

@SurvivalGuide2012 If you want to get the Magnetic-Generator plans

Just search Google for "Best Magnetic Generator"

Click the First result (Skip the Advertisements)

I found it to be a great resource

[bukster1]

I'm from New Zealand too. Jaycar electronics sell a stirling engine, but I would like one as a kit myself. I think we could use these for geothermal power where there is not enough heat to drive anything else. I can't say I understand the principle, but these things are fascinating.

[nandakoryaaa]

Having electric motor to run a Sterling engine, isn't that a bit abundant?

[machacoification]

all clear now



[fsmetal]

very similar to what's called a 'vibration steam engine'

[dvmdragon]

because the expander stops and reverses u loose like 80% of your power input...

[tim777jet]

on top of a large bore piston around 400cc and a liner. Without making the drive mechanism, one side of the outer bucket was heated the other cooled. By holding the piston with your hand and spining the displacer, you could feel a small force, the piston would displace, but really of no usefull power. I abandoned the idea. The buckets would distort if over heated and the clearance between the cylinders needs to be small as possible. An interesting concept that might run fast, but with low power