Stirlingengineforum.com

Hi, I joined this forum because ringbom engines interested me.

Hi: New here. Also new to Stirling engines. I would like to build a couple of stirling engine wood stove fans as we heat with wood 6-7 months of the year. Then, if I find out it's feasible, I'd like to tackle a bigger stirling engine that would be used as a back up power source for my home.
Thanks for having me! Have a great day!

I am a master student of mechanical engineer.ing I write a thesis about stirling engine. I did some experiments and I am trying to build my own homemade stirling. I always study the old and available projets that are available on internet.

Hi all.
Joined a few days ago and completed a couple of posts but only just seen this thread.
I am a retired aeronautical engineer with some experience of building steam engines, recently a triple expansion engine of about 10 BHP but I am relatively new to sterling engines. Currently building one based on a V twin compressor after much reading of literature by Andy Ross. The design is based David Kirk's engine (see YouTube)

Hello all, I am building a ~1kW Stirling engine and happy to see a community here I can rely on for support and questions!

Hi,

Industrial Engineer looking into high temp Stirling designs, CHP conversion from sustainable biomass clean combustion.

Thank you for the forum and supports to maintain it.

Mike

Hi I'm new here,

We, my friend and I, have just built an Alpha configuration Stirling Engine but without a regenerator plenum/volume just the pipe connecting the hot and cold cylinders. The pistons we made were from cast iron in a steel cylinder (hot side) and aluminium in a steel cylinder (cold side). The tolerance was about 0.05 mm between cylinder and piston and the piston slide smoothly down the cylinder when it is mounted vertically and open to the air so very little friction and a fairly good seal although not perfect.

On assembly the resistance to motion increases dramatically and even turning the flywheel is not finger touch it takes a hand to push it. It appears to us that the movement of air between cylinders is being resisted by the pistons in turn. When the hot piston is TDC the cold piston is moving up towards TDC and is approximately halfway to TDC. This is as shown on many animations on Youtube etc. The problem is that clearly as the cold piston is moving up and compressing the air forcing it out the connecting regenerator tube it meets resistance from the hot piston which is already at TDC and the clearance volume is the only space for the cold piston to push this air too.

Does it sound like we are doing something wrong?

The heater is an electric clamp heater and that gets up to 280 deg C easily and the cold cylinder is typically about 24 or 25 deg C. I'm really hoping for some good tips to help us get this engine running.

Goneroaming

Goneroaming - A temp difference of 25c to 280c is a bit less than a 2/1 absolute temperature ratio. The transfer inside a running engine would be less. So your compression ratio needs to be well under 2/1 to get heat to flow in the right direction - otherwise you’ve built a heat pump. If your engine is 90 degree phased and and same size bore and stroke with only a small tube between cylinders you probably have about a 4/1 compression ratio. The dilution of the power pulse from added dead space of a regenerator is not all bad if it helps get the compression to a workable level. You can also reduce compression with differing displacements or opening the phase angle between the cylinders. Still, I think very few Alphas are made workable without running the hot side glowing red.
Bumpkin

Dear Bumpkin,
Thank you so much for your input to our project. I'll find out a way to get the temperature difference up to a more significant level and let you know what the result is.

Regards Goneroaming

Thank you for creating this website, maintaining it all these years, and activating my account.

I have an engineering background and have investigated what people are doing with heat engines for decades. I have not yet built a Stirling, perhaps I will when I retire in a couple years. There always seems to be something else to do that is more important here on the PNW farm near Tacoma.

I hope I can help others here understand these engines better, and encourage more science, and building.

Good day for all.

Hi,

My engineering dissertation is on designing and building a rapid prototype of a beta-type Stirling engine. My dissertation supervisor recommended I sign up to this forum in case I have any design questions that people here might be able to help with.

Thank you for this forum.

CBloxham

Hello and thank you for letting me join this forum.

I am interested in sterling engines and I am hoping to make one I can run on top of a wood burning stove.

John

Kepp going!!!

DB

New here. Hello to all. Look forward to learning and asking many questions.

Hi Everyone. I was really happy to stumble across this site, forum, and all the information. I am a retired physics/ math educator in the US (MO). Currently I'm spending the most time blacksmithing, but machining and stirling cycle machines are a long time interest. I'm looking forward to learning a lot here. Thanks!