28 Facts About Stirling engine

Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas between different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work.

Similarly, the cooler part of the Stirling engine can be maintained by an external heat sink, such as running water or air flow.

The gas is permanently retained in the Stirling engine, allowing a gas with the most-suitable properties to be used, such as helium or hydrogen.

Stirling engine was invented by Scotsman Robert Stirling in 1816 as an industrial prime mover to rival the steam engine, and its practical use was largely confined to low-power domestic applications for over a century.

Robert Stirling is considered one of the fathers of hot air engines, notwithstanding some earlier predecessors—notably Guillaume Amontons, who succeeded in building, in 1699, the first working hot air engine.

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James Stirling followed this same idea when he built the famous Dundee engine.

James Stirling presented his engine to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1845.

When this Stirling engine had been in continual operation for upwards of two years, it had not only performed the work of the foundry in the most satisfactory manner, but had been tested to the extent of lifting nearly 687 tonnes, a power of approximately 34 kilowatts .

The main subject of Stirling engine's original patent was a heat exchanger, which he called an "economiser" for its enhancement of fuel economy in a variety of applications.

The Dundee foundry Stirling engine was replaced by a steam Stirling engine after three hot cylinder failures in four years.

However, when submerged, they use a Stirling engine-driven generator developed by Swedish shipbuilder Kockums to recharge batteries and provide electrical power for propulsion.

Engine is designed so the working gas is generally compressed in the colder portion of the Stirling engine and expanded in the hotter portion resulting in a net conversion of heat into work.

Stirling engine uses the temperature difference between its hot end and cold end to establish a cycle of a fixed mass of gas, heated and expanded, and cooled and compressed, thus converting thermal energy into mechanical energy.

Since the Stirling engine is a closed cycle, it contains a fixed mass of gas called the "working fluid", most commonly air, hydrogen or helium.

Primary effect of regeneration in a Stirling engine is to increase the thermal efficiency by 'recycling' internal heat which would otherwise pass through the engine irreversibly.

Design challenge for a Stirling engine regenerator is to provide sufficient heat transfer capacity without introducing too much additional internal volume or flow resistance.

The Alpha type Stirling engine has a high stress on the hot side, that's why so few inventors started to use a hybrid piston for that side.

An alpha Stirling engine contains two power pistons in separate cylinders, one hot and one cold.

Beta Stirling engine has a single power piston arranged within the same cylinder on the same shaft as a displacer piston.

Gamma Stirling engine is simply a beta Stirling engine with the power piston mounted in a separate cylinder alongside the displacer piston cylinder, but still connected to the same flywheel.

The first consumer product to utilize a free piston Stirling engine device was a portable refrigerator manufactured by Twinbird Corporation of Japan and offered in the US by Coleman in 2004.

Design of the flat double-acting Stirling engine solves the drive of a displacer with the help of the fact that areas of the hot and cold pistons of the displacer are different.

The power piston in the displacer-type Stirling engine is tightly sealed and is controlled to move up and down as the gas inside expands.

Stirling engine cannot start instantly; it literally needs to "warm up".

Power output of a Stirling engine tends to be constant and to adjust it can sometimes require careful design and additional mechanisms.

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Stirling engine called this cycle the 'pseudo-Stirling cycle' or 'ideal adiabatic Stirling cycle'.

Ideal Stirling cycle is unattainable in the real world, as with any heat engine.

The efficiency of Stirling machines is linked to the environmental temperature: higher efficiency is obtained when the weather is cooler, thus making this type of engine less attractive in places with warmer climates.