Stirlingengineforum.com

I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge regarding the use of Alpha type configuration for heating and cooling.
I know philips and other companies use the Beta format, very successfully, for their cryogenerators and you can mechanically rotate all forms of stirling/heat engines to generate hot and cold sides.
Are there any successful, commercially available, Alpha configuration heat pumps/cryogenerators on the market? If so I’d like to know a bit about them, (I’m assuming they might use a 1:1 piston displacement ratio...maybe).

Any feedback is appreciated...

vamoose


Also here are some interesting links for understanding stirling engines. I've put them in the links area also (for those who go there).

Philips stirling engine technology videos...

Really good explanation about stirling engine processes strait from the Guru's, Philips...
Starts slow, but is really worth the 15 minutes of your time in my opinion.
(there's even a 30hp stirling powered boat)

The Stirling Cycle part 1 (Stirling Cryogenics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqIapDKtvzc

Stirling Cycle Part 2 (Stirling Cryogenics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFfMruoR ... ure=relmfu


Animated Engines 

Really helpful website for understanding stirling and other type engines.
You can slow stop, reverse and manually rotate engines by using slider bar. 
I came across it a couple of years ago and spent much time looking at it and playing with the animations.
It helped me get my head around stirling cycles........ i think??

http://www.animatedengines.com/

scroll to bottom of page for stirling type engines

note- to manually rotate engines first press pause and then use slider...

Vamoose, any type of Stirling Engine can be run as a refrigerator. The Ross Yoke motor in my gallery has been driven by the motor shown as my second one. At about 600 to 700 rpm it took about 10 miniutes to get to -20*C, and the frost built up, the ambient temperature was around +20*C. This would be a good class room demonstration.
If you were building an engine for cooling, you should make such parts as the crankshaft, and con-rods a bit heavier than if making irt to run just as a motor, and it still should have a flywheel to smooth out the rotation, and if properly designed, ithink running at 2000 to 3000rpm would work more efficiently than mine at 600rpm. Ian S C

Thanks Ian,
As always really great information. I'm trying to get my my head around (at least on very old napkins) A multi-directional stirling engine that can produce heating or cooling, or work off a hot/cold drive source.

I think the problem is designing an engine that functions with parameters that can work efficiently off a 'possibly' low delta T (hot or cold driven) and also be, an efficient heater/cooler generator.
I'm guessing its extremely hard to make a system that can handle (efficiency wise) temperature variations in all different directions for all 4 different applications.....

vamoose

Vamoose, If you drive the motor in reverse, the hot end heats, and the cold end cools.
If you want a motor that run either way, try a Ringbom Engine. All three of mine work OK, the last one a stove top fan is quie powerful, when its sitting on the electric stove, the gyroscopic force of the fan causes the whole motor to rotate. That idea of a fan failed only because of the noise, the gyro effect could be reduced with a lighter fan (the origional fan is sheet metal). The final vertion of a stove top is the BETTA type one in my gallery. Ian S C