Stirling engine design feasibility

[Christina]

I am a final year Instrumentation and Control Engineering student in National Institute of Technology, India.
I am doing a project with 4 of my classmates. We plan to fabricate a stirling engine which works with solar energy.
We have a design in mind, where heating is done in both the sides.. The heating is by placing a parabolic solar concentrator which focuses the heat on both the sides. The cooling is done when the working gas is transported from one side to the other in tubes shown in the figure.The stirling engine is horizontal.
The movement is converted directly to electrical energy by placing a magnet in the moving rod and power windings in the cylinder.
The design and the cycle would work if equilibrium is achieved as a simple harmonic motion but we are not sure about it. If the piston attains stand still position the engine would not work..
most of the designs were vertical, we would like to do something horizontal.
I have attached the design. It would help us a lot if you could see it and comment.Your comments would help us greatly.
Thanking you
Christina

[Cartech]

I have lookded at your design diagrams and don't see how it could work. As I see it, you are making (designing) an "Alpha" type Stirling without a crankshaft and the tubing ports are trying to act as "phase". I have not seen or heard of a "free piston" alpha, so you might have something new here. I'm still trying to understand how you will be able to heat both ends and yet cool the gas (working fluid) between them. If that is the "cold" side, you expansion cycle will contract before it reaches the other side to "push" the opposite piston. Maybe if you make one side hot and one cold or rework it into a two cylinder / two displacer. "free piston" gamma type engine? Good luck with your idea. It does have a low friction and simple construction design.

[Deferr]

I agree with the previous post that this engine design is not feasible as drawn; however, with a few modifications it may be possible to run a free piston ringbom stirling engine similarly. I have attached a depiction of such an engine. I hope this may help.

[lstdavid]

It can be a Stirling refrigerator, as http://www.logicsys.com.tw/refg1.htm