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A Stirling engine cannot start instantly; it literally needs to "warm up". This is true of all external combustion engines, but the warm up time may be longer for Stirlings than for others of this type such as steam engines. Stirling engines are best used as constant speed engines.
External combustion engines (steam piston, steam turbine, and the Stirling cycle engine). Each of these engines has thermal efficiency characteristics that are unique to it. Engine efficiency, transmission design, and tire design all contribute to a vehicle's fuel efficiency .
Model Stirling engine, with external heat from a spirit lamp (bottom right) applied to the outside of the glass displacer cylinder. Newcomen's engine, a precursor of the steam engine, with the boiler heated from beneath Sectioned steam locomotive.
There is a potential for nuclear-powered Stirling engines in electric power generation plants. Replacing the steam turbines of nuclear power plants with Stirling engines might simplify the plant, yield greater efficiency, and reduce the radioactive byproducts. A number of breeder reactor designs use liquid sodium as a coolant. If the heat is to ...
Typical horizontal steam engine with double-acting cylinder. A double-acting cylinder is a cylinder in which the working fluid acts alternately on both sides of the piston. . In order to connect the piston in a double-acting cylinder to an external mechanism, such as a crank shaft, a hole must be provided in one end of the cylinder for the piston rod, and this is fitted with a gland or ...
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 .
Ray-traced image of a piston engine. There may be one or more pistons. Each piston is inside a cylinder, into which a gas is introduced, either already under pressure (e.g. steam engine), or heated inside the cylinder either by ignition of a fuel air mixture (internal combustion engine) or by contact with a hot heat exchanger in the cylinder (Stirling engine).
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed by a connecting rod and crank into rotational force for work.