Stirlingengineforum.com

Very neat!!

what are you using for a shaft seal?

sam

thanks!

I will probably just experiment with the spring rate to see if there is any change.

sam

I am in the process of building a pressurized alpha style stirling engine. I plan on putting a snifter valve in the cold piston to equalize the pressure between the crank case and the cylinders. My question is this. I was just figuring on using a valve that had very little spring pressure - so if th...

I wonder if the 10kw rating is strictly the alternator rating. I wonder if they ever generated 10kw from the 400cc engine. Seems a stretch.

asm

Ian:

To clarify my question.. Is that 1w/cc for an unpressurized engine?

Thanks again
sam

ian:

When you say 'atmospheric engine' - what does that mean? Does that mean 'unpressurized'?

Thanks
sam

would it not be better to put a snifter valve into the cold side of the piston? Then the equalization will be almost instant?

sam

Interesting. Well - I have started building a pressurizable model so I hope to have some info soon. :) BTW - the actual engine runs around 120rpm at the moment. The flywheel on the engine was too small (as big as I could fit into what materials I was using to build it) - 70 tooth cast iron gear. So ...

correction - the flywheel is running about 360rpm.

sam

btw - this is running a 16 inch cast iron pully as a flywheel at around 120rpm max. (with this goofy setup) With water/air mixture and a max hot side temp at 300 deg. Cooling the cold side heat sink with water externally.

I have been goofing around some more. added a snifter. Unpressurized though the temp is just too high. So - I did what any good experimenter does - I added water to the chamber. The thing started running around 200 degrees. My next model will be pressurized. 100-200psi. I will see if that will lower...

thanks for all the replys. To clarify - I was saying 450 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit is the point at which my engine overcomes it own friction and runs by itself. I am hoping to lower that to 300ish F. (because of the design limitations of the engine (ptfe)) I would like the upper limit to be 500F. (p...

one more thing..

about all I have for a regenerator right now is a coil of copper wire between the hot and cold. How much more would a decent sized regenerator help - even though it adds dead space?

thanks again
sam

I have started to experiment with stirling engines and have built a alpha stirling engine. The hot and cold are the same - 1" stroke 2.3" diameter. The engine overcomes its own friction and runs at around 450 - 500F. I am wondering how would I go about (other than building one) calculating...