Output power of alpha stirling.

Discussion on Stirling or "hot air" engines (all types)
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Aviator168
Posts: 308
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:29 pm
Location: Brokeville, NY. USA

Output power of alpha stirling.

Post by Aviator168 »

Is it possible to estimate the power output of an alpha stirling if the following is known?

High, low and average pressure
bore and stroke
rpm

Any input to estimate the power output is appreciated.
Ian S C
Posts: 2218
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:15 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Output power of alpha stirling.

Post by Ian S C »

I suppose you can easily get the pressure/ area measurement, ie., pounds per sq inch, grams per sq cm, that does not take into account friction. To calculate the power of my engines, I fit a brake to measure torque, and a tacho to measure the revs, when I checked my Ross Yoke motor it came to 5 watts. I find that its interesting to test early in the life of the engine, then after its done a good number of hours work, usually by this time the power has risen as the friction reduces. Ian S C
Aviator168
Posts: 308
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:29 pm
Location: Brokeville, NY. USA

Re: Output power of alpha stirling.

Post by Aviator168 »

Ian, I actually want to estimate the potential power output of a design, not an actual engine.
Ian S C
Posts: 2218
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:15 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Output power of alpha stirling.

Post by Ian S C »

Aviator168, there is a site that gives a fomula, it may be on the links section of this site, I'll look around a bit and see what comes up. Any formula will only give a theoretic power reading, but I suppose it gives an idea. I just work on the Idea that if your lucky 1 watt per cc is about what you can get from a unpressurised motor, maybe a formula would help when pressurising a motor.
I'm back, found some bits of interest: Stirling Engine Society USA. www.sesusa.org . Scmidt theory for stirling engines. Stirling engine and hot air engine home page, there is a down load available in DBF (153k zipped archive) or CSV format ( 121k zipped archive) by Josh Myers.
Just went of looking around google. Ian S C
Aviator168
Posts: 308
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:29 pm
Location: Brokeville, NY. USA

Re: Output power of alpha stirling.

Post by Aviator168 »

Thank you so much. That's exactly what I need. Will try it.
Ian S C
Posts: 2218
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:15 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Output power of alpha stirling.

Post by Ian S C »

Hi, found a bit more, go to google and put in Thermodynamic analysis of a stirling engine, theres quite a bit there, all the best Ian S C
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