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Discussion on Stirling or "hot air" engines (all types)
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Jason Dansie
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:06 am

New member

Post by Jason Dansie »

Hey fellow enthusiasts just posting this so my account doesn't get deactivated "re the three day thing" while I'm here I was just wondering, it seems not alot of attention is put towards the cooling side of most the engines I've seen, as in water cooling, internal heat sinks say on the head , fan cooling, etc etc, isn't it that important? Also insulating the hot from the cool side? I have alot more queries but I'll leave them until I see if I get any responses to this. My first post, thank you. Ps the grammar leaves alot to be desired on quite a few posts, just saying ha ha
Ian S C
Posts: 2218
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:15 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: New member

Post by Ian S C »

Jason, I agree, the cooling of these motors is just as important as the heating side of things, about half of my motors are water cooled, most with radiators, one also has an electrically driven fan.
I don't actually insulate the hot and cold ends, but rely on the low conductivity of Stainless steel in the hot cap, and displacer.
Sometimes the grammar is not so good because English is not the first language of quite a few of the posters.
Ian S C
Jason Dansie
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:06 am

Re: New member

Post by Jason Dansie »

Hey thanks for the quick reply, very good grammar then I guess,for a second language! Your information helped me at just the right time, I'm putting large led light fitting heatsinks inside and outside of both the top and bottom of the displacement chamber and using a cup head displacer, it's my first sterling build and now known I'm kind of the right track as that is as far as I've got so far.
Thanks for info
Jason Dansie
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:06 am

Re: New member

Post by Jason Dansie »

Hey thanks for the quick reply, very good grammar then I guess,for a second language! Your information helped me at just the right time, I'm putting large led light fitting heatsinks inside and outside of both the top and bottom of the displacement chamber and using a cup head displacer, it's my first sterling build and now known I'm kind of the right track as that is as far as I've got so far.
Thanks for info
Ian S C
Posts: 2218
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:15 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: New member

Post by Ian S C »

What are the heat sinks made of? If aluminium they won't be much use at the hot end if you are planning on using much more than a candle. If you can, make the heat exchanger for the hot cap from the same material as the hot cap, If you can carve the hot cap out of a piece of stainless steel, you can at least incorporate some fins in the heated end. See if you can down load Andy Ross's book "Making Stirling Engines", it's free. It will give you some idea as to what's needed, (unless you all ready have).
Ian S C
Ian S C
Posts: 2218
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:15 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: New member

Post by Ian S C »

Here's the cooling system on one of my most successful engines, it drives a generator that supplies enough power to run the fan on the radiator, plus enough left over to run a radio. This motor has probably run for about 1200 hours, it was overhauled and strengthened at 1000 hr, and is not run so much now, but the first bit I ran it until the crankshaft was almost worn out.
Ian S C
Test 005 (640x480).jpg
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