Stirlingengineforum.com

Whatever the heat source, running a Stirling inside your house during heating season would be 100% efficient and one of the very few practical uses that haven’t been replaced by other technologies. OK Tom, this should be fun. you have a habit of arguing apples against oranges with one extremely fres...

Hey guys; Long time forum member and big Stirling fan here, but dang, there’s no such thing as a good no-compromise plan, and a little credibility might beat a lot of fanatical hype in the long run. I would suspect that the 1,000 degree operating temp of the sand battery might have something to do w...

I wonder if perhaps silver solder would bond to the foamed glass, maybe even into the pores a bit?
Bumpkin

Awesome! can you tell if those bricks are open-cell such as they would flow for a regenerator?
Bumpkin

Well, I “think” the Ross yoke averages about 90 degrees, but it’s less at one end of the respective strokes and more at the other because of what in a conventional crank design is called “rod deflection angle.” There are a few good animations but these graphs helped me see it the most, and I’m still...

Not the same principle but there was the Crookes radiometer: Well shoot I can’t stick the link so you’ll have to look it up.

Bumpkin

“Did some testing on the Ross yoke and it doesn't seem to need to be symmetrical. However, moving the centre pivot or the connecting rod pivots up or down doesn't change the stroke length but moves it forward or backwards.” Well’ that just knocked my blow-hard assumption all to heck. :red: Sorry for...

I agree there must be dilution of the pulse in one direction or the other. It would be the same for Alpha and Beta, but Gamma is easier to see. But remember energy given up to the regenerator is supposed to be given back on the next blow. Where to place the transfer port in a Gamma displacer chamber...

Hey Tom, your mention up-thread of kickstarter reminded me of the Tim Sefton Stirling engine. https://seftonmotors.com/ It looks like they’re producing engines now and backed up on orders, but latest news on their site is about a year ago.
Bumpkin

Does this mean all of the displacer volumes should be excluded? (Example attached below.) Yes subtract the volume of the displacer. I don’t think the Ross yoke has to be symmetrical. As in maybe to change the ratio you could just move the center pivot up or down a bit? Of course one change begets an...

“Could you please explain the compression expansion ratio…” Ok. Let’s call it the expansion/contraction ratio. Compare the total air volume of the engine with the power volume expanded; to the total air volume with the power volume contracted. Don’t count air-tight displacer volume. Do count dead sp...

12345, one thing you you could do for a short test would be to wrap some wet cloth around the cool end of the chamber. It does look like you need better isolation between the hot/less hot zones. I’m sure in your original post you inverted the displacer and displacer chamber diameters. It looks like ...

Yes the Ericson theoretically has a big advantage over the Stirling since the heater surface and volume can be as large as you want without any dead space losses. And in a pressurized closed loop version the same would be true of the cooler. It’s noteworthy though, that Ericson himself was much more...

I’ve never seen a description of the Philips engine that caused their fatal accident, only that the event led to their using other gasses. I suspect the problem has to do with external combustion engine heat exchangers being made as thin as possible for efficiency, compared to more robust internal c...

The Jim Dandy # 6 doesn’t have a crankcase, thus the simple oil cups like the old-timey engines. That’s the point of a double-acting Gamma — it can be pressurized without worrying about crank seals. It still has the piston and it’s rod seal, and the two displacer rod seals though, and I’ve no idea i...