What is the temperature difference between Stirling engines?
Low-temperature difference Stirling engines can be made to run on temperature differences less than 1 degree C¹. With the right engine, anything from a warm hand to a warm baby’s butt can serve as the heat source as long as the cold side of the engine is just a little bit colder.
What is the thermal efficiency of a Stirling engine?
The thermal efficiency of Stirling engines is 40% while the efficiency of similar Otto and Diesel engines are 25 and 35%, respectively. The Stirling engine cycle is a closed regenerative thermodynamic cycle, with cyclic expansion and compression of the working fluid at various temperatures [7–11].
How much power does a Stirling engine produce?
generating between 200-500 watts of electricity. Several designs were studied before settling on an alpha type configuration based around a two-cylinder air compressor.
How do you calculate Stirling engine power?
Power (W) = Net work/ kg (Work expansion/kg- Work Compression/kg) x mass of gas (kg/s) as discussed previously and not above the two choices mentioned.
Is a Stirling engine adiabatic?
In the previous section we considered an ideal Stirling engine model in which the compression and expansion spaces were maintained at the respective cooler and heater temperatures. However both the compression and expansion spaces are adiabatic, in which no heat is transferred to the surroundings.
How can you make a Stirling engine more efficient?
Heat sink. The larger the temperature difference between the hot and cold sections of a Stirling engine, the greater the engine’s efficiency. The heat sink is typically the environment the engine operates in, at ambient temperature.
How powerful is a Stirling engine?
It was developed and produced by a collaborative effort between NASA and MTI (Mechanical Technology Incorporated). The MOD II engine in particular could reach a thermal efficiency of 38.5% (significantly higher than a spark ignition ICE), and with power comparable to an ICE of the same size (83.5 hp).
How long can a Stirling engine run?
“It can be done, and you can get about 5,000 hours out of that engine. But you have wear mechanisms and you can’t design an engine like that to last forever. If you want long life, on the order of ten years or twenty years continuous operation, then you have to eliminate all mechanisms of wear.”
What should the low temperature of a Stirling engine be?
A low temperature Stirling engine can run using a hot source temperature between, say, 150 degrees Celsius and 300 degrees Celsius. For example, these heat sources can be used to heat the hot fluid flowing through the hot side heat exchanger of the Stirling engine, shown in the figure below.
Why does a Stirling engine run on Ice?
When a Stirling engine appears to be running on ice, it’s actually using the temperature of the room as its heat source and using ice as its heat sink. If both sides of the Stirling engine were at the same temperature (any temperature whether hot or cold), it wouldn’t run.
When did the first Stirling engine come out?
In 1983, Ivo Kolin, a professor of Engineering at the University of Zagreb n Croatia, built the first low-temperature difference Stirling engine that would run on a heat source cooler than the temperature of boiling water ¹. It ran on a 15 degree C temperature difference and is the engine represented by the animation at the top of this page.
Can a Stirling engine be used as a regenerator?
Stirling engines don’t have to have a part inside them labeled “regenerator” to still have something that works in the same way. Air flowing around a displacer can act as a regenerator in engines that don’t have a specifically made regenerator