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Video of a bench top stirling engine demonstrating the speed and power. The gas used should have a low heat capacity, so that a given amount of transferred heat leads to a large increase in pressure. Considering this issue, helium would be the best gas because of its very low heat capacity.
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 .
A Stirling engine eliminates the need for water anywhere in the cycle. This would have advantages for nuclear installations in dry regions. United States government labs have developed a modern Stirling engine design known as the Stirling radioisotope generator for use in space exploration. It is designed to generate electricity for deep space ...
An external combustion engine (EC engine) is a reciprocating heat engine where a working fluid, contained internally, is heated by combustion in an external source, through the engine wall or a heat exchanger. The fluid then, by expanding and acting on the mechanism of the engine, produces motion and usable work. [1]
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.
NASA patented a type of solar-powered Stirling engine on August 3, 1976. It used solar energy to pump water from a river, lake, or stream. [1] The purpose of this apparatus is to “provide a low-cost, low-technology pump having particular utility in irrigation systems employed in underdeveloped arid regions of the earth…[using] the basic principles of the Stirling heat engine“.
A concentric-cylinder Fluidyne pumping engine. Topologically equivalent to a U-tube design. A Fluidyne engine is an alpha or gamma type Stirling engine with one or more liquid pistons. It contains a working gas (often air), and either two liquid pistons or one liquid piston and a displacer. [1] The engine was invented in 1969. [2]
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 ...