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Has anybody made an engine before that uses a modest heat source but cools with something along the lines of liquid nitrogen? I'm not sure if it would work out as an energy-efficient exercise (how much energy does it take to liquefy nitrogen?) but it may be useful for compact engines where a high po...

As far as I understand it, a regenerator is a very good idea - the efficiency you will achieve without one will be abysmal. Not sure on the best type but you could either go for something like steel wool or mesh screens inside the displacer itself (ie so the air is forced through holes in the displa...

Also, there is a formula (more of guideline really as are all these formulas) that gives an idea of displacer volume to piston volume based on several engine parameters. If you really want that I can try and dig it up from my pile...

Hi, yes Tmax and Tmin refer to maximum and minimum temperature. This formula I provided is useful for knowing the stroke length (compression ratio) for your power piston. There is also a formula I have called the Schmitt number that gives a good idea of power output based on several factors such as ...

You may find the following formula useful:

Vmax/Vmin = 1 + ((Tmax-Tmin)/1100)

Where Vmax and Vmin indicate the maximum and minimum power piston volumes (ie. at top of stroke and at bottom of stroke).

Oh and for interests sake here is an animation of an early concept of the engine design:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srm7GcaL3DE

Hi everybody, I am 23 years old doing masters of engineering at university of Canterbury in New Zealand. I am building a new type of low temperature difference stirling engine and as part of the requirements I am supposed to model the engine in Sage software. Has anybody here used this software befo...