Pressure can also pull, not just push. The video shows festo pneumatic muscle using compressed air. You could use diaphragm or bellows to push and pneumatic muscle to pull back. I dont know where it could be used ,but does give the stirling an option internal engines cant achieve.
http://youtu.be/1e8z05rDeTc
http://youtu.be/LqAiu943Png
pneumatic muscle stirling
-
MC_Hamster
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2013 4:54 am
Re: pneumatic muscle stirling
Saw something like this a while back with robotics in mind (they were using hydraulics though, I believe) Very cool, and such a simple concept... using that same woven plastic mesh I strangely enough linked just.. yesterday? in another thread!
Not sure exactly how it'd be useful in a stirling application though, to be honest... The stirling cycle works of alternating high and low pressure to push and pull. I guess you potentially could use something like that in conjunction with the expansion to work in a double-acting motion, so that while the hot expansion is pushing the pistons out, something like this is working on the other side of it to aid in pulling it back.. But there's already multiple-cylinder designs that link the hot side of one piston to the cold of the next to gain that same effect.
I'm sure that with some lateral thinking there'd be ways to make use of the concept in certain constraints, possibly even in ways where a more 'traditional' stirling might not be able to be applied.. but whether it would be as effective or efficient in the end, that's the question.
Not sure exactly how it'd be useful in a stirling application though, to be honest... The stirling cycle works of alternating high and low pressure to push and pull. I guess you potentially could use something like that in conjunction with the expansion to work in a double-acting motion, so that while the hot expansion is pushing the pistons out, something like this is working on the other side of it to aid in pulling it back.. But there's already multiple-cylinder designs that link the hot side of one piston to the cold of the next to gain that same effect.
I'm sure that with some lateral thinking there'd be ways to make use of the concept in certain constraints, possibly even in ways where a more 'traditional' stirling might not be able to be applied.. but whether it would be as effective or efficient in the end, that's the question.
Re: pneumatic muscle stirling
with the stirling engine there is internal pressure on the power stroke, then as the pressure drops, the atmospheric air pressure pushes the piston/ diaphram back again. Ian S C