Stirlingengineforum.com

Here it goes! If a standard alpha engine was refitted with a larger regenerator and heat was applied to the regenerator instead of one of the compression cylinders, would it possibly function like a lamina flow? I ask this because of the sealing and friction issues at the hot cylinder. Be gentle!

derwood, you should'nt have too much problem heating the hot cylinder a long as you have a suitable Heylandt crown on the hot piston, this is a light weight (preferably thin stainless steel) bit similar of similar construction to a displacer in other engines, this keeps the bulk of the heat away from the bottom compression part of the piston. It has clearance from the cylinder wall, and stands (I'm not sure of the correct dimention), about 2 diameters on top of the hot piston. To get as near as possible to balance, make the hot piston as light as possible, and the cold one a little heavier, thats what I did with the Ross Yoke engine i built earlier in the year, and it runs up to about 2000rpm without very much vibration.
I don't think you would have much success just heating the regenorator, but if times no worry you could try it, but get it working first. Ian S C
ps., see your other site, your diagram helped me understand your problem