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The Stirling engine was invented in 1816, before the gasoline and Diesel engines. A Stirling engine can use any
type of fuel, as well as solar energy and hot spring heat.
This web site offers Stirling engine information.
Please enjoy these pages.
The Stirling engine's structure and history are examined in this session.
On this page I offer plans for some easy to build Stirling engines.
This web site offers academic information for the Stirling engine.
Here is information about me and an easy questionaire. Please help me make my web site better.
If you have any questions, opinions or comments about Stirling engines, please come here.
INFORMATION
The author has published a web site rerated metal workings. Please
come to my web site!
WebRing is a means of linking web pages with similar content. You may click on the items below and jump to other Stirling sites.
This Stirling and Hot Air Engine Ring site owned by Koichi Hirata.
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Koichi Hirata
e-mail: khirata@gem.bekkoame.ne.jp (Home)
e-mail: khirata@nmri.go.jp (Office)
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Today we have ecology problems and energy problems. The world needs a clean and environmental
power source. Stirling engines are able to use many kinds of fuel and achieve a high theoretical
efficiency.
Koichi Hirata
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Let's fit a rubber to a can like Figure 1. You can understand easily that the rubber expands when the can is
heated (Figure 2), and the rubber contracts when the can is cooled (Figure 3). It is caused that a pressure of
the air in the can works to the rubber when the air is heated, shown in allows of Figure 2. Of course, you
cannot see the pressure by your eyes.
Next, let's put in a piston into the can like Figure 4. A diameter of the piston must be somewhat smaller than
that of the can, because the piston works to move (displace) the air up and down in the can. And, please heat
the bottom side of the can and cool the upper side of the can. After it has enough temperature difference,
move the piston up and down by your hand. When the piston is moved up, the rubber expands because there
is a lot of hot air in the can (Figure 5). It corresponds to Figure 2. When the piston is moved down, the rubber
contracts because there is a lot of cold air in the can. It corresponds to Figure 3.
In the case of the Stirling engine, this piston, which moves (displaces) the air and make the pressure changes
is called a displacer piston.
Do you understand about the characteristics of the air and the work of the displacer piston? They are very
important to understand how does the Stirling engine work.
First, connect from the piston and a bent wire with a thread like Figure 6. When the bent wire is rotated, the
piston is moved up and down. This is called a crank mechanism.
Please heat the bottom side of the can and cool the upper side of the can, similar to above description. When
your hand rotates the bent wire, the piston is moved up and down, and the rubber expands and contracts
repeatedly (Figure 7).
The Stirling engine converts from the motion of the rubber to the rotation of the bent wire. Please connect
from the rubber to the bent wire with a rod. In this time, a force of the rubber (expansion and contraction) has
to be the direction, which rotates the bent wire. In short, you must bend the bent wire the just right angle (90
degrees) from the piston like Figure 8 and 9.
This engine has not worked yet. If you try to work this engine (Figure 8 and 9), the rubber keeps the most
expansion or contraction. In order to rotate smoothly and repeatedly, you must fit a rotated mass with the bent
wire. It is called a flywheel.
Generally, the flywheel is circular like Figure 10. But at this point, please bend the end of the bent wire, and
fit a mass at the edge of the wire like Figure 11. The mass works as the flywheel and to be balanced to the
weight of the piston. So, you must fit the mass against the piston.
Yes.
No.
I have known the principles before seeing this page.
If you have any suggestion about this page, please tell me it.
If you can, please tell me your name, e-mail address and country.
Name:
Country:
E-mail address:
Send Cancel
P.S.: When the Stirling engine is understood, it is important that the knowledge of the characteristics of air
(Thermodynamics), the crank mechanism and the flywheel (Mechanics and Mechanical Vibrations). I have
tried to explain about them as simply as possible. Please contact me if you find incomprehensible contents or
any errors, and have any your opinions. I hope that this description becomes more suitable for every young
student. Permission is hereby granted, by author, to print and distribute this description. Thank you.
Koichi Hirata
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Stirling engines have two pistons that create a 90 degree phase angle and two different temperature
spaces. The working gas in the engine is perfectly sealed, and doesn't go in and out to the atmosphere.
Stirling engines can be classified as two pistons type Stirling engines and displacer type Stirling
engines. The two pistons type Stirling engine consists of two power pistons. The displacer type
Stirling engine consists of one power piston and a displacer piston.
Stillness
Animation
(Netscape2.0 is demanded.)
Stillness
Animation
(Netscape2.0 is demanded.)
Koichi Hirata
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The Stirling engine was invented by Robert Stirling in 1816. He was a Scottish minister. At that time,
Stirling engines were recognized as a safe engine that could not explode like steam engines of that era
often did.
Go to Next Page
Koichi Hirata
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The web site named '50 W class Stirling engine, Mini-Ecoboy' has been moved to 'Stirling Engine Home Page at Ship
Research Institute' which is author's official site.
Koichi Hirata
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This engine is a two piston type Stirling engine with a cap type heater made of stainless steel and it
does not have a regenerator. Its cooling system is a natural convection cooling by air. The pistons and
cylinders use medical syringes made of glass, so the engine has few leakage of the working gas and
small friction. To minimize the friction loss, at most of drive parts are used ball bearings. This engine
has high speed performance. It can rotate about 3000 rpm.
Koichi Hirata
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Koichi Hirata
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This amphibian ship is powered by the 5W class Stirling Engine "MSE-02". Running Speed of this
ship is about 2 km/hour on the land and on the water.
Koichi Hirata
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This engine is used the variable phase angle mechanism with four bebel gears. In running the engine,
the engine is been able to change the phase angle between two pistons, and controlled the output
power and the engine speed easily.
Performance of MSE-03
Koichi Hirata
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In running the engine, this engine is been able to change the piston strokes by the special linkage
mechanism, and controlled the output power and the engine speed. This engine is utilized the working
space effectively, because the top dead center of the pistons is always the same point.
Koichi Hirata
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This model boat is powered by the MSE-05. The engine is compact and light weight.
Koichi Hirata
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Rotary Displacer Type Stirling Engine is new type engine. This engine drive 600rpm when it is heated
by gas burner.
Koichi Hirata
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If you have some machine tools and know how to use them, you can easily build model Stirling
engines. Here are links to other pages with plans for easily constructed Stirling engines and the
instructions for their assembly.
This engine can be built with very simple materials--no machine tools required.
This engine is a two-piston type Stirling engine. Its top speed is about 3000 rpm.
You must make a few parts for this engine. If you know machine tools well, you can make this engine
in about 1 hour.
Sorry, but I am still preparing the figures that show the plans for this engine.
This page shows several photographs how to cut the glass syringe.
Where can you get the glass syringe? This page answers this question.
A Can Stirling Engine , GIF format data, English version with a text and html file for a local
computer, 122 kB
If you had downloaded an old version of this file (no text file), please download this file, cantxte.zip
(4 kB).
A Model Stirling Engine "LSE-01" , GIF format data, Japanese version, 175 kB
A Model Stirling Engine "LSE-01" , GIF format data, English version, 117 kB
A Model Stirling Engine "TSE-03" , GIF format data, Japanese version, 131 kB
A Model Stirling Engine "ESE-10" , JSH format data, Only Japanese, 174 kB
Koichi Hirata
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The Can Stirling engine can rotate using a candle as the heat source. This engine is constructed with
very simple materials. There are a can, a balloon, a wood board and others.
Koichi Hirata
To Japanese Page
This engine is a two piston type Stirling engine with a cap type heater made of stainless steel and it
does not have a regenerator. Its cooling system is a natural convection cooling by air. The pistons and
cylinders use medical syringes made of glass, so the engine has few leakage of the working gas and
small friction. To minimize the friction loss, at most of drive parts are used ball bearings. This engine
has high speed performance. It can rotate about 3000 rpm.
Section of LSE-01
Koichi Hirata
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You can make a model Stirling engine TSE-03 in a short time, because TSE-03 has a few parts. If you
can use machine tools very well, you can make this engine about 1 hour.
Section of TSE-03
Koichi Hirata
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This rotary displacer type Stirling engine has very unique feature. I introduce the plans of the
prototype engine in this site. Thare is more information about this engine in "View of model Stirling
engines" site.
Koichi Hirata
To Japanese Page
This engine is a two piston type Stirling engine with a cap type heater made of stainless steel and it
does not have a regenerator. Its cooling system is a natural convection cooling by air. The pistons and
cylinders use medical syringes made of glass, so the engine has few leakage of the working gas and
small friction. To minimize the friction loss, at all of drive parts are used ball bearings. This engine
has high speed performance. It can rotate about 4000 rpm.
Section of ESE-10
Koichi Hirata
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Almost of my model Stirling engines use medical syringes as pistons and cylinders. The syringe has
performances of few gas leakage and low friction loss.
The syringe is cut using a grinder with a blue grindstone like below photographs.
Koichi Hirata
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I have often received the question, that is "Where can I get the glass syringe?"
The glass syringe is sold at a science goods shop which sells a test tube, flask and etc. Its price is
about 3 to 5 US dollars per one syringe.
You can get it at following shops.
UK
Fisher Scientific UK
Bishop Meadow Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 5RG
Telephone: +44(1509)231166, Fax: +44(1509)231893
e-mail: info@fisher.co.uk
Web site (catalogue) at http://www.fisher.co.uk
Canada
Japan
If you know other shops which sell the glass syringe, please tell me information.
Koichi Hirata
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Koichi Hirata
e-mail: khirata@gem.bekkoame.or.jp (Home)
e-mail: khirata@mech.saitama-u.ac.jp (Office)
To Japanese Page
Exergia, Germany
This site introduces and sells several model Stirling engines. They use the low temperature heat
source.
Regenerative Thermal Machines (Stirling and Vuilleumier Cycle Machines•jfor Heating and
Cooling, JAPAN
This book shows vapour compression systems using Stirling cycles, heat pumps and chillers using
Stirling cycles, Vuilleumier machines, thermoacoustic machines and pulse-tube refrigerators.
Other information
Koichi Hirata
Completed so far:-
FIZGIG
Return to Index
Index of /~sylvestris/fizgign/vectors
Name Last modified Size Description
chamber/heater
is made of
0.008" tinplate,
as is the
displacer. (and
its too heavy!)
The heat
baffles in the
displacer are of
0.004" shim
steel and are
held squarely
by tubes of the
same material
rolled to
approx 3/8"
diameter, (not
shown in the
drawing) the
whole stack
being held
together by a
light spring at
the cold end.
(not shown)
A new
pedestal was
made to
accommodate
ball races for
the crankshaft
and almost all
other bearings
and pivots are
also fitted with
ball races.
The cylinder
is fitted with a
cast iron liner,
highly
polished, and
the lightweight
cast iron piston
runs in it
without oil.
Since there is
no side loading
on it, the silver
steel displacer
rod also runs
without oil in a
very long brass
bush,
extending right
down inside
the displacer to
avoid air
leakage.
The flywheel
is by Stuart
Turner.
The overall
effect of the
ball races and
the oil-less
piston is to
give extremely
low friction
and, running
on a 'nite-lite'
candle the
engine
develops just
over 0.6 watt,
ie 25
ft/lbs/min.
Note - The
sketch is not to
scale.
Return
to Index
Phoelix
'Rose from the ashes and keeps on walking'
When the, low friction, loaded PTFE materials first became available to amateurs it was decided to
try them out for the piston of a small hot air engine. The material I had was a very small piece of
'Rulon', a plastic with both a lower coefficient of expansion (c of e) and lower friction than ordinary
PTFE, and this was made into a 'cup washer' seal - similar to a leather cycle pump washer.
The rest of the piston was made of unloaded PTFE and to overcome its high c of e the skirt was split
and bound with brass wire before turning it to fit the cylinder.
The cylinder was drawn brass tube and to assess the durability of this unlikely combination of
materials it was decided to give it an extended life test. So the remainder of the engine is conventional
and kept as simple as possible with the exception of the electric heater which was wound on the hot
end of the air chamber to permit long periods of unattended running and the mechanically operated
snifter which can be seen just above the displacer rod bush.
To provide cross-head loading on the piston the engine needed to drive a load and several small
electric motors were tried as dynamos. Unfortunately these wore out very quickly and were replaced
by a cycle dyno' and this was loaded by a 3.5v 0.3a bulb.
Testing could now begin and, following a disastrous melt down due to the wrong tapping on an
oversized transformer and requiring a complete rebuild of the air chamber assembly, the engine was
Return to Index
Whippet
Whippet was built for the new Class B introduced in the 1980 Hot Air Engine Competition , to be judged
on power to weight ratio, and weight was eventually reduced to 11ozs - the massive looking bed is
actually a very light tinplate shell.
However, in the Competition it developed 4.7 watts (207 ft/lbs/min) and with a swept volume of 5cc, it
actually won the award for specific power. It is thought that this is still the record for a non pressurised
air engine of this size. (?)
The design is really only a 'sports' version of Phoelix, my 6cc dynamo driving engine, the proportions of
which had been very loosely based on a design in a schools metalwork handbook. The principal changes
were the fitting of ball races throughout, a reduction in wall chamber thickness of both air chamber and
displacer together with an increase in length of both. A direct port between chamber and cylinder
replaced the sharp angled passage in Phoelix, piston stroke was reduced to reduce swept volume to 5cc
and the piston was machined from a single piece of Rulon. The displacer rod bushes are 'sintered' from
some of the swarf produced when machining the piston. Reciprocating masses were reduced to the
minimum and the structural design improved to give greater stiffness.
To ensure consistent performance electric heating was used and my previous experience with Phoelix
enabled me to wind a nichrome coil drawing almost exactly 100watts (when hot) from a 24volt
transformer. (thereby ruling it out of Class B with a total weight of 11 ozs + transformer + the National
Grid!)
In an attempt to
increase power to 5
watts the electric heater was removed and the hot cap run at bright red using a ring type gas burner.
However it stubbornly refused to go beyond its previous best and we must therefore assume that the
100watt electric heater was running it at a similar temperature..
Following all this excitement the engine was stripped and the cause of a light rustling sound coming
from the air chamber found to be due to the mild steel displacer scaling. Since the displacer had
originally been made with a wall thickness of only 0.004" this was deemed to be sufficient cause for
retirement; a small firebox was fitted to take a nite-lite candle for demonstration runs and Whippet was
put out to grass.
Return to Index
--------------
TURNING
In addition to normal turning the removal of
the radial gib key (Brit. Pat. No. 696773)
locating the bed enables the latter to be set-
over for taper turning and reclamped solidly at
the required angle.
DIVIDING
The main driving pulley has 60 equally spaced
and numbered holes. Any of these holes can
be picked up and the mandrel locked by
means of a link rod. The link rod itself has six
divisions, thus giving a range through 360
degrees.
KEYWAY CUTTING
For this purpose a hand lever can easily be attached for racking the saddle along the bed. The leadscrew
nut can be released, giving the saddle a free sliding action.
BORING
A small boring head with radial feed,
operated by star wheel and trip pin, is
supplied, thus at once converting the
machine into a miniature horizontal borer.
MILLING
With a crossfeed of 7" and the 10" x 4
1/2" slotted table, quite large workpieces
can be milled. A machine vice mounted
on the table enables end mills, slitting
saws and cutters to be used for a variety
of work,
GEAR CUTTING
If a dividing head is available, gears of 18 D.P. upwards can readily be cut on blanks up to 5" diameter.
TOPSLIDE
The machine is supplied with a four-way tool post. A small topslide is, however, available, and is
intended mainly for turning short tapers and screwcutting.
TAILSTOCK
The tailstock is provided with rack feed to the barrel and has a graduated dial. The barrel is locked by
means of a radial gib key as used on the main column.
LARGE WORK
With the Tee bed in position work up to 8" diameter can be handled. With the tailstock and Tee bed
removed, work up to 14" diameter can be swung, the toolpost being suitably blocked up from the cross-
slide.
1. A miniature Flame-gulper
5 The 'Nutator'
Siemens Engine
This two cylindered engine is based on a design for a four cylindered (steam?) engine patented by William
Siemens in 1863 in which a nutating plate driven by a ball ended rod fitting into a socketed disc crank,
interconnects a circle of axial pistons - the phase relationships between the pistons being the same as their
angular position in the circle.
Thus two cylinders 90 degs apart can be used as the power cylinder and the air chamber of a Stirling engine.
Less frictional losses than a swashplate drive but at the expense of far greater complexity, with ball and
socket joints throughout..
(See also the Nutator)
The Nutator
David's name for his ingenious alternative to a Siemens drive.
(It is hoped to replace this with a better quality print.)