Published on Jun 05, 2023
The quest of human beings to develop engines with high power, high torque, less vibration and most essentially with no pollution is on since the discovery and development of engine. Stirling engine is just one step forward towards the creation of a noise free and pollution less engine.
The Stirling engine is the engine, which uses a fixed amount of gas sealed inside a cylinder. The expansion and contraction of the gas, using heat from external source, creates the useful work. The main advantage of this engine is its capability to use any type of fuel and the emission of no exhaust gases.
Due to this pollution free and use of any type of fuel characteristics the Stirling engine shows a greater potential over any other type of engine existing today. To consolidate this claim an effort has been made to develop a working model of Stirling engine.
Stirling Engine
The Stirling engine is a heat engine that is vastly different from an internal combustion engine. 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. The Stirling engine uses a Stirling cycle, which is unlike the cycles used in normal internal combustion engines.
Parts Of A Stirling Engine
Main chamber: It is the chamber where a fixed amount of gas is sealed initially. Inside this chamber only expansion and compression of gas takes place.
Output Shaft: It is horizontal and mounted several inches above the main chamber. The end of shaft centered over the main chamber has a crank and connecting rod, which drives the displacer.
Displacer: This is the large piston in the drawing. This piston is very loose in its cylinder, so air can move easily between the heated and cooled sections of the engine as the piston moves up and down.
Power piston: This is the smaller piston at the top of the engine. It is a tightly sealed piston that moves up as the gas inside the engine expands.
Crankshaft: The crankshaft is made up of steel, which passes through the bearing and receives the crank disc .the crank disc forms mount for flywheel.
Regenerator: The regenerator is constructed of material that readily conducts heat and has a high surface area. When hot gas is transferred to the cool cylinder, it is first driven through the regenerator, where a portion of the heat is deposited. When the cool gas is transferred back, this heat is reclaimed; thus the regenerator "pre heats" and "pre cools" the working gas, dramatically improving efficiency.
