"Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Discussion on Stirling or "hot air" engines (all types)
Tom Booth
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Tom Booth »

Fool wrote: Fri Dec 15, 2023 6:22 am ...
Matt I support your comments here. Thanks.
Just for the sake of clarity, are you referring to this?:
As I've said before, this is a mathematical reduction from some calculus, but this can be derived thru various means. It's just the ratio of expansion to compression work or eff = 1 - Wneg/Wpos expressed via two temperatures. Why you continue to dream that compression work supplied by ambient pressure doesn't 'tax' the cycle demonstrates various misunderstandings
.

Matt appears to be drawing an equivalency between work and temperature, assuming Wneg and Wpos are shorthand for negative work and positive work.

Those terms themselves could perhaps use some clarification.

So, the Carnot efficiency limit formula:

Efficiency = 1 - Tc/Th,

Could be written as:

eff = 1 - Wneg/Wpos

Tc = negative work or "Wneg"
Th = positive work or "Wpos"

To me that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I could see how maybe Th - Tc could represent positive work or some potential for positive work.

Atmosphere is Tc or ambient temperature.

The heat supplied results in expansion work against atmospheric pressure, so for whatever joules of heat are causing expansion at Th there are molecules resisting expansion on the opposite side of the piston at Tc.

So let's say 300k and 400k

You have 400 positive 300 negative so you are left with 100 positive which is the temperature difference.

1 - Tc/Th is also the temperature difference written as a percentage: 25% "efficiency".

Really, 25% "available" heat from our 400K i.e. 100K

100 is 25% of 400

We have already subtracted Wneg to end up with the remainder of just a 100K ∆T

I don't really see the justification for then subtracting another 75% Wneg, it seems to me, Wneg has already been accounted for.
Fool
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Fool »

Tom, your quote of Carnot;
actual consumption of caloric but to its transportation from a warm body to a cold body
Specifically: from warm to cold...

Warm aka high energy
Cold aka low energy

Even water at the top of a water wheel has more energy, potential energy, internal energy, than the water at the bottom of the water wheel. But it's the mass, heigh and gravity combination that represents it. Water is not converted to work. Neither is heat. Pressure and temperature are converted to work by way of volume change. Temperature is an indication of internal energy (bank balance), not heat. Heat is like a paycheck, or bill.

Potential energy is converted to work. And even that is not 100% convertible. Loss of height to drop into the bucket, and loss of height to drop out of the bucket.

You appear to be putting too much literalism into Carnot's analogy. All analogies fall apart when expanded into areas where they are invalid.

Heat is converted to internal energy, similar to raising water to give it more potential. Rasing the temperature of the working fluid by adding heat. To move between adiabatic lines, requires more energy at higher a temperature than at lower a temperature.

I think a better analogy would be gravitational acceleration. Higher temperature higher acceleration. The down side of a water wheel would have a higher potential than the up side. The downside would do more work higher temperature than the work need to raise the water back up, low temperature. Expansion verses compression. The gas stays in the water wheel. But it is still just an absurd comparison, "analogy".

The second law comes from observation and mathematics, and is not arbitrary. I wish it were arbitrary, the law of gravity too.
VincentG wrote:I for one am not trying to beat Carnot, so much as question its meaning, or perhaps just sidestep it all together.
My apologies. Not trying to put you or Matt or Jack into any categories, neither am I trying to speak for you. I'm looking at what people are writing here an complementing them by suggesting that if they indeed knew how to beat Carnot they would certainly do so, even if they understood it's logical impossibility. I would and I see it's mathematical impossibly. Still I'm fascinated by attempts to break it. I see through most of them immediately. Furthermore I see ways of improving Stirlings, potentially, within the Carnot second law rules. I think this website should concentrate in those areas rather than attack ancient scientists merely because we don't like them.

Improved heat exchangers, better material, better regenerators, pressurization, etc... The Stirling brothers, John Ericsson, and the Phillips Company, to name a few have built some very impressive engines. We should start from those and strive to make them affordable.

It's very difficult to do good science, as I can tell you already know. You impress me here.

I commend Tom for his research into materials. Excellent.
Tom Booth
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Tom Booth »

Fool wrote: Fri Dec 15, 2023 2:31 pm Tom, your quote of Carnot;
actual consumption of caloric but to its transportation from a warm body to a cold body
Specifically: from warm to cold...

Warm aka high energy
Cold aka low energy

Even water at the top of a water wheel has more energy, potential energy, internal energy, than the water at the bottom of the water wheel. But it's the mass, heigh and gravity combination that represents it. Water is not converted to work. Neither is heat. Pressure and temperature are converted to work by way of volume change. Temperature is an indication of internal energy (bank balance), not heat. Heat is like a paycheck, or bill.

Potential energy is converted to work. And even that is not 100% convertible. Loss of height to drop into the bucket, and loss of height to drop out of the bucket.

You appear to be putting too much literalism into Carnot's analogy. All analogies fall apart when expanded into areas where they are invalid.

Heat is converted to internal energy, similar to raising water to give it more potential. Rasing the temperature of the working fluid by adding heat. To move between adiabatic lines, requires more energy at higher a temperature than at lower a temperature.

I think a better analogy would be gravitational acceleration. Higher temperature higher acceleration. The down side of a water wheel would have a higher potential than the up side. The downside would do more work higher temperature than the work need to raise the water back up, low temperature. Expansion verses compression. The gas stays in the water wheel. But it is still just an absurd comparison, "analogy".

The second law comes from observation and mathematics, and is not arbitrary. I wish it were arbitrary, the law of gravity too.
...
First of all you misquoted Carnot by way of omission. It isnn't "actual consumption of caloric" but 'The production of motive power is therefore due in steam engines NOT to actual consumption of caloric but to its transportation from a warm body to a cold body".

You also misrepresent his position by saying: "Carnot's analogy".

He makes clear, IMO, that he is not making an analogy, but states: "the motive power of heat depends also on the quantity of caloric used, and on what may be termed, on what in fact we will call, the height of its fall,
that is to say, the difference of temperature
of the
bodies between which the exchange of caloric is
made"

The carnot efficiency equation results are "in fact" nothing more or less than the difference in temperature. How could any statement be framed more literally?

You make metion of "gravity".a couple times, highlighted above.

Things fall, not as a consequence of their own internal energy, do they? But as a consequence of an external force; gravity?

What is the force akin to gravity that compels heat to "flow" or to use your "analogy" accelerate towards cold?

I my observations of various thermal phenomena, no such force exists.

Heat from my wood stove, warming the air around it, results in the hot air rising to the ceiling where it pretty much stays without calling upon the agency of a ceiling fan to drive it down. Warm water stays near the surface of the water. I've been swimming many times. The surface is warmer by the sun but the depths remain frigid, even through the night, while the water stays warm on the surface.

In my experience heat can be quite unruly and stubborn keeping to itself rather than rushing to some cold I might be attempting to heat up.

The force of gravity on the other hand is swift, acts quickly and predictably in one direction: down.

Heat does not fall straight down to a lower colder level. The random motion and collisions of gas particles, hot, cold or whatever travel willy nilly in any and all directions, no force compels them to travel one way or another like water is compelled by gravity to flow downward.
Water is not converted to work. Neither is heat.
Are you contradicting yourself now?

Earlier, not too much earlier, but just recently you wrote:
"The caloric/heat coming out of the bottom of a Carnot Engine contains less energy than that going in the top, as depicted by a change in temperature, as Carnot plainly explained in his papers. This is a result of being converted to work, and corresponding temperature drop. Lower entropy."
Now I'm confused, was that you expressing your own viewpoint or were you paraphrasing Carnot's plain explanation.

Or maybe just a case of whatever Tom says, say the opposite, because we don't really care about getting to the truth so much as just proving Tom wrong, or proving Carnot right.

At any rate the "clear explanation" seems a bit muddled IMO, a shifting sand of contradictions.

An engine is at best 20% efficient, whatever heat is supplied in Joules, only 20% can be converted, or, well, now no heat is converted, temperature is converted. Don't ask me how that works.

Anyway, 80% of the heat is "rejected" to the "cold reservoir". This is supposed to be an absolute, a LAW.

Heat cannot transfer between two things that are the same temperature and certainly not from colder to hotter, "spontaneously". So, logically for any heat to be "rejected" the cold side of the engine must always be at a higher temperature than the surroundings, if the engine is running.

Theories, opinions and absurd analogies and comparisons aside, how do we explain a heat engine that continues to run with absolutely no temperature increase on the cold side at all, with the path of the heat assumed to be leaving the cold side blocked by the best NASA type silicon aerogel, thermocouple, infrared readings ad so forth, sometimes showing instead a slight lowering of the temperature at the cold side.

One person in here, goofy, a guy with pretty impressive credentials says he has carried out some such experiments as well, and has encouraged others to do the same.

I guess that's something for all my years in here ranting and raving.

Do an actual experiment?

Nope, never, a waste of time.

You say:
The second law comes from observation and mathematics, and is not arbitrary
Really?

What observation?

This?:

try asking yourself, "why, in 200 years, no one has come even close to the efficiency of (Th -Tc)/Tc, let alone ne beat it?"

How can you beat a dictum? As VincentG wrote: "You can't beat a mathematical formula using the same formula"

If the ∆T is X then the Carnot efficiency is Y.

To make that assertion that "in 200 years, no one has come even close to the efficiency of (Th -Tc)/Tc, let alone ne beat it" you would need not only an iron clad reliable means of measuring the efficiency of any engine, it would also require that every engine ever built actually have its efficiency accurately measure by some alternative means.

Efficiency aside, where might the heat actually be going if such a large percentage most absolutely be "rejected". How does this "waste heat" manage to hide so well, remaining undetectable? How does it manage to penetrate any and all forms of insulation with no rise in temperature at the cold side of the engine?
It's very difficult to do good science
Oh how often I've head that on the physics forums.

Any REAL phenomenon is the stuff of high school demonstrations.

Water boils in a vacuum.

Easy peasy

https://youtu.be/I5mkf066p-U?si=r14vz2ypBgebyy2Q

Who has ever demonstrated the validity of the Carnot equation.

Not necessary, it's like a perfect circle! Just obvious, or science is really really hard.

No, actually, it's not that hard. It does take SOME actual effort though.
Tom Booth
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Tom Booth »

Fool wrote: Fri Dec 15, 2023 2:31 pm
... I think this website should concentrate in those areas rather than attack ancient scientists merely because we don't like them. ...
Maybe you could point out an example of anyone here "attacking ancient scientists merely because we don't like them".

Frankly the "let's beat up Carnot" thread title makes me a bit uncomfortable, but personally I have considerable admiration for Carnot. Carnot did not invent caloric theory, actually he dismantled it. Destroyed it. Not in his published book, but soon after in what survives of his personal journals, but the journals went unpublished for some time and when they finally were published nobody paid any mind.

When I point out, or quote Carnot from those Journals, some on the science forums dismiss it on the grounds that Carnot died of cholera so that's just the rantings of a fevered brain.

Someone else accused me of hating the French people:

https://www.scienceforums.net/topic/128 ... nt=1227426

I may vigorously argue against some theory or scientific principles that has actually been falsely attributed to Carnot in most cases i.e. "so-called" Carnot efficiency formula, I have clarified before, I say "so-called Carnot..." Because it quite obviously did not originate with Carnot as it uses the Kelvin temperature scale which did not exist in Carnot's lifetime. Carnot died of cholera in 1832. Kelvin did not define his absolute temperature scale until 1848.

I heartily agree with Carnot when he wrote as a general principle of good science": "When a hypothesis no longer suffices to explain phenomena, it should be abandoned".

https://carnotcycle.wordpress.com/2012/ ... s-dilemma/

My only gripe is with the so-called "Carnot" so-called "efficiency limit equation" that has been falsy attributed to Carnot.
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by VincentG »

Darn no edits, I should not have titled the thread like that. I did mean the equation though, and not the man. I'm not looking to attack anyone, just make some progress.
Tom Booth
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Tom Booth »

VincentG wrote: Sat Dec 16, 2023 7:30 pm Darn no edits, I should not have titled the thread like that. I did mean the equation though, and not the man. I'm not looking to attack anyone, just make some progress.
Well, it only "makes me uncomfortable" because of the double standards of the Carnot efficiency limit and second law adherents who put Carnot on this high pedestal and ruthlessly attack anyone who challenges or disagrees with their unsupportable theories. Question the second law or Carnot theorem and you become the immediate subject of a concerted smear campaign. You will be labeled a "perpetual motion" crackpot, a fraud, someone who can't perform a simple experiment, etc etc relentless attack and censorship. I've already been banned and or muzzled on every science and physics forum I know of on the internet for the crime of publishing the results of experiments that seem difficult to explain, or contrary to expectations.

If I started a thread titled "let's beat up Einstein" who would care?
matt brown
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by matt brown »

matt brown wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:01 pm
VincentG wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:47 am Kinetic energy goes up with velocity squared...
Yep, kinetic energy (KE) varies by velocity squared, so my 'suggestion' that gas moves twice as fast at 400k than 100k can be easily surmised without a calculator, online search, or trip to the unicorn forest. Simply consider my premise where KE varies by v^2 and a constant volume heating process between 100k and 400k. If I'm correct, then KE at 400k is 4x KE at 100k, so fill in the blanks...

100k KE = 1x
200k KE = ?
300k KE = ?
400k KE = 4x

Looks good to me, and looks like KE parallels another common value here.

This 'velocity' is technically called the translational speed and this ain't rocket science.

Maybe Tom can explain why Einstein's famous E=mc^2 is not E=(mc^2)/2 similar KE=(mv^2)/2
There's something buried in this innocent post. Vincent quickly nailed that fact that KE is linear temp (deg K), but once you realize that 400k gas speed is 2x faster than 100k gas speed, it should become apparent that 1200k gas speed is 2x faster than 300k gas speed. Soooo, since the speed of sound at STP is 1100 ft/sec and approximates 1 bar air at 300k, then 1 bar air at 1200k is moving at 2200 ft/sec.

Now, if we consider a piston engine with 4" stroke (100mm), 1100 ft/sec piston motion (the speed of sound at STP) is 99,000 rpm as in 1100 x 3 x 60 / 2 = 99,000. Just so everyone gets this, that's 1100 ft/sec x 3 strokes/ft x 60 sec/min and divided by 2 strokes/rpm equals 99,000rpm.

I used 4" stroke since it's close to a common metric value, but 2" stroke (50mm) would double this rpm. However, the elephant in the room is that increasing temp from 300k to 1200k also doubles this "rpm". If everyone hasn't got it by now...isn't it possible that these "thermoacoustic" engines are little more than the variation of gas speed between 2 temperatures where the 'speed' of the piston approaches the difference between the gas speed of these 2 temperatures.
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by matt brown »

Here's a couple videos I thought you guys might find interesting...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRMMSyCcTDI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG_Eh0J_4_s
Tom Booth
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Tom Booth »

matt brown wrote: Sun Dec 17, 2023 6:38 pm
matt brown wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:01 pm
VincentG wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:47 am Kinetic energy goes up with velocity squared...
Yep, kinetic energy (KE) varies by velocity squared, so my 'suggestion' that gas moves twice as fast at 400k than 100k can be easily surmised without a calculator, online search, or trip to the unicorn forest. Simply consider my premise where KE varies by v^2 and a constant volume heating process between 100k and 400k. If I'm correct, then KE at 400k is 4x KE at 100k, so fill in the blanks...

100k KE = 1x
200k KE = ?
300k KE = ?
400k KE = 4x

Looks good to me, and looks like KE parallels another common value here.

This 'velocity' is technically called the translational speed and this ain't rocket science.

Maybe Tom can explain why Einstein's famous E=mc^2 is not E=(mc^2)/2 similar KE=(mv^2)/2
There's something buried in this innocent post. Vincent quickly nailed that fact that KE is linear temp (deg K), but once you realize that 400k gas speed is 2x faster than 100k gas speed, it should become apparent that 1200k gas speed is 2x faster than 300k gas speed. Soooo, since the speed of sound at STP is 1100 ft/sec and approximates 1 bar air at 300k, then 1 bar air at 1200k is moving at 2200 ft/sec.

Now, if we consider a piston engine with 4" stroke (100mm), 1100 ft/sec piston motion (the speed of sound at STP) is 99,000 rpm as in 1100 x 3 x 60 / 2 = 99,000. Just so everyone gets this, that's 1100 ft/sec x 3 strokes/ft x 60 sec/min and divided by 2 strokes/rpm equals 99,000rpm.

I used 4" stroke since it's close to a common metric value, but 2" stroke (50mm) would double this rpm. However, the elephant in the room is that increasing temp from 300k to 1200k also doubles this "rpm". If everyone hasn't got it by now...isn't it possible that these "thermoacoustic" engines are little more than the variation of gas speed between 2 temperatures where the 'speed' of the piston approaches the difference between the gas speed of these 2 temperatures.
Not sure what your getting at here, but I think relating the molecular "speed" of a gas to RPM of an engine is, well, how to say it?

Nuts?

99,000 RPM????

The "speed" of gas on a molecular level, I dare say has nothing whatsoever to do with RPM or the speed of travel of a piston down an engine cylinder (stroke).
Now, if we consider a piston engine with 4" stroke (100mm), 1100 ft/sec piston motion (the speed of sound at STP) is 99,000 rpm as in 1100 x 3 x 60 / 2 = 99,000. Just so everyone gets this, that's 1100 ft/sec x 3 strokes/ft x 60 sec/min and divided by 2 strokes/rpm equals 99,000rpm.
In the above (highlighted) are you actually trying to equate the speed of a piston with the speed of sound????

To arrive at this astronomical number 99,000 RPM?????

I think you need to realize, molecular gas "speed" at an atomic level is not a whole lot different from the "vibrations" of molecules in a solid. The gas isn't actually going anywhere, or, maybe it moves the distance of the width of a few gas molecules before it collides with another gas molecule and ricochets back in the opposite direction.

Sound is like a wave on the ocean, the wave travels, the water molecules do not, at least not very far and hardly at all in relation to adjacent water molecules.

Not only that but this "vibration" is not linear, in one direction, every gas molecules is traveling or vibrating , something like the sand on a vibrating table, or the balls in the bottom of the box in this animation, in different directions.

https://youtu.be/oq6yZbhHagE?si=cWOcCzKdOiKKJ3lK

The motion/collisions cancel out. The actual linear velocity is near zero.

The actual speed of travel of a gas in the macro world is more related to the speed of diffusion rather than the speed of sound waves.

Speed of sound: as you say, about 1100 feet/seconds or over 750 miles per hour.

Speed of diffusion in still air: about 2 feet per hour

Think of a drop of ink slowly spreading out in a glass of water from Brownian motion. Or to put it in perspective, how long does it take to smell it when somebody farts a few meters away. Maybe a little faster than ink spreads out in a glass of water but not by much.

Pistons don't travel at 99,000 RPM.
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Tom Booth »

For the sake of clarity, I mentioned "velocity" early on in the discussion here about the so-called "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation; here for example:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5594#p20720

Just in case it wasn't obvious, I was talking about mass air flow through the narrow passage in a common "thermoacoustic' engine, and emphatically NOT molecular motion according to kinetic theory, which I don't think has any relationship to mass air flow in an engine cylinder.

The passage through a nozzle is a means for getting the otherwise static molecular motion of a gas, or "pressure", as in air sitting motionless (on average) in an air tank, to transform into velocity, as when air is let out of the tank through a nozzle.
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by VincentG »

I think the point may be that the speed of the molecules, regardless of the absolute distance they travel, is the speed at which they can translate information.
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Tom Booth »

I'm stealing this post from another thread
Fool wrote: Fri Nov 24, 2023 3:25 pm I think they work with a similar principal to the jam jar jet engine, and a put put boat.
Yes, I very much tend to agree, but what is that "similar principal" exactly?

It is very very interesting to put these items in the search bar and review how many times this same observation has been made, and how far back in time it actually goes.

That includes also in relation to; not just so-called "thermoacoustic", but also "thermo-lag", and "lamina flow".

Here is a good concise explanation of the principle IMO.
Alphax wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 8:31 am The jam jar pulse engine pulses (rather dramatically!) because as soon as you light it, it starts to run out of oxygen to burn the fuel. So it immediately begins to cool and in doing so the gas volume contracts and in doing so sucks in fresh air through the hole. This charge of fresh air refreshes the flames (which have subsided but not gone out) which gratefully spring back into life, only to rapidly use all that nice fresh oxygen and cool down once more. An so the cycle repeats, rapidly alternating between "suck" and "blow" to breath in fresh O2 and breath out stale CO2 at a steady oscillating frequency (well, for as long as the fuel lasts...)

A Thermal Lag engine is - to me - more impressive in the way it is able to manage a similar steady state oscillation by itself. What I keep asking here, though, is what others think that a scaled up version might do...... better?......worse?...... and (hardest of all).....why?
Very early on, there was this amazing thread titled Thermo-lag pulse tube design

Discussing this video:

https://youtu.be/OLWmAE0FZJg?si=sDvWo6P1iyGs4-JM

Engine built, and video posted by Geoff V all the way back in 2012

The discussion on that thread is interesting.

This pulse-tube thermal lag (is pulse-tube same as pulse-jet?, anyway) seems to have ran fantastic.

However, Geoff V wrote "The cooler/cylinder head gets quite hot, very quickly," which was apparently considered a major issue and various means were tried to increase the rate of cooling, the fan, water jacket...

IMO this might be a case where a promising design was abandoned due to Carnot theory misinformation.

So what happened? I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the engine "overheated" and seized up.

Well, just like gas expands, so does metal, at high enough temperature, but IMO that is a material issue, not a thermodynamics issue. Instead of trying to cool the engine, use a ceramic piston/cylinder and let it run hot if necessary, or perhaps better, increase the power output for more work. Higher conversion rate, explore some other options besides the knee-jerk response of more and more cooling until the engine has been cooled to death.

Anyway, another thought I wanted to share now is what I was writing about earlier in regards to shaping the orifice into more of a real high velocity nozzle.

For Geoff V's GV-TL1 there is a breakdown in the video showing the internal nozzle-like modification to the thermo-lag engine, along with other changes.

I tend to think this jet-engine-like cone/nozzle design is highly significant in terms of what was responsible for the unusually high RPM and power output, as thermal-lag engines go. Especially at that time. Just barely able to run at all I think, probably, but don't quote me on that, but this high RPM pulse-tube, thermal-lag design sparked some excitement it seems, which apparently fizzled due to the cooling issue. Maybe.

My thoughts on this is Maxwell's demon again.

I think the nozzle is literally a Maxwell's demon.

You have the random motion of gas molecules in the heat chamber all moving in different directions and at varying velocities. The piston is close to the orifice at TDC keeping the passage blocked.

By rapidly drawing the piston out, the "doorway" opens briefly and the highest velocity molecules all traveling in the same direction as the piston, the only molecules able to immediately navigate through the narrow passageway rush out and strike the piston like the blast from a jet engine.

Just like a jam-jar/pulse jet with a small hole in the lid, the heat is quickly used up creating a vacuum that "sucks" the air back into the heat/combustion chamber.

Think of this in terms of thermodynamics expansion and contraction rather than a burning of and/or lack of oxygen.
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Tom Booth »

A modification of what Alphax wrote:
The (thermoacoustic/thermal lag//lamina flow/pulse jet/jam jar) pulse engine pulses (rather dramatically!) because as soon as you light it, it starts to run out of oxygen to burn the fuel (and releasing heat, causing the air to expand) So it immediately begins to (work against atmospheric pressure with expansion and...) cool and in doing so the gas volume contracts and in doing so sucks in fresh air through the hole. This charge of fresh air refreshes the flames (which have subsided but not gone out) which gratefully spring back into life, (in an external combustion engine, the inrushing air is reheated while the piston returns to TDC) only to (in an internal combustion, pulse jet, to ...) rapidly use all that nice fresh oxygen (in burning the fuel, releasing heat and then) cool down once more. An so the cycle repeats, rapidly alternating between "suck" and "blow" to breath in fresh O2 (cool air) and breath out stale CO2 (hot expanding air) at a steady oscillating frequency
In other words, virtually the same cycle of events, but the heat to drive each "pulse" generated internally in the pulse jet/jam jar engine but supplied externally in the thermal lag/accoustic/lamina flow.

Yes, burning oxygen does help reduce the air volume, but let's not forget also cooling due to work output. The gas expanding from the heat, however generated, internally or externally, and cooling as a result of expansion work.

The above altered description I mangled pretty badly could use some work to clarify things a bit more but hopefully the connection or "common denominator" of all these variously named engines is clear, theoretically anyway.
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by Tom Booth »

VincentG wrote: Mon Dec 18, 2023 7:42 am I think the point may be that the speed of the molecules, regardless of the absolute distance they travel, is the speed at which they can translate information.
Huh?

Translate information?

You'll have to explain or elaborate on that, because I have no clue whatsoever what you might be talking about.

"... the speed of the molecules, ... , is the speed at which they can translate information. "

What????
matt brown
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Re: "Thermoacoustic" Stirling - theory of operation

Post by matt brown »

Consider "translate information" modern buzz for effect change. Note in the following that the translational speed for pure hydrogen or pure nitrogen is ~1.5x the speed of sound for each.

gas speed.png
gas speed.png (50.28 KiB) Viewed 20003 times

Also note the last line: "When we measure the temperature of a gas, we are measuring the average translational kinetic energy of its molecules."

original article: http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/phy121 ... ter18.html
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