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While the invention of the basic free piston Stirling engine is generally attributed to Beale, independent inventions of similar types of engines were made by E.H. Cooke-Yarborough and C. West at the Harwell Laboratories of the UK AERE. [60] G.M. Benson also made important early contributions and patented many novel free-piston configurations ...
Free-piston engine used as a gas generator to drive a turbine. A free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless' internal combustion engine, in which the piston motion is not controlled by a crankshaft but determined by the interaction of forces from the combustion chamber gases, a rebound device (e.g., a piston in a closed cylinder) and a load device (e.g. a gas compressor or a linear alternator).
A free-piston variant of the Stirling engine can be built, which can be completely hermetically sealed, reducing friction losses and completely eliminating refrigerant leakage. For example, a free-piston Stirling cooler (FPSC) can convert an electrical energy input into a practical heat pump effect, used for high-efficiency portable ...
The engine is a "free-cylinder" design, in which the entire engine is mounted on springs and allowed to vibrate slightly. This allows the displacer to be driven by positive feedback from the motion of the power piston and the magnets in the linear-alternator magnets, which have a combined weight of 10 kg.
The free-piston engine linear generators can be divided in 3 subsystems: [1] [2] One (or more) reaction section with a single or two opposite pistons; One (or more) linear electric generator, which is composed of a static part (the stator) and a moving part (the magnets) connected to the connection rod.
It was originally developed around 1900 for the twin-cylinder Lanchester car engine where it allowed perfect balancing of the inertial forces on both pistons. A current example of its use is on beta type-Stirling engines; the drive's complexity and tight tolerances, causing a high cost of manufacture, is a hurdle for the widespread usage of this drive.
The Stirling cycle is a thermodynamic cycle that describes the general class of Stirling devices. This includes the original Stirling engine that was invented, developed and patented in 1816 by Robert Stirling with help from his brother, an engineer .
In mechanical engineering, the Beale number is a parameter that characterizes the performance of Stirling engines. [1] It is often used to estimate the power output of a Stirling engine design. For engines operating with a high temperature differential, typical values for the Beale number are in the range 0.11−0.15; where a larger number ...