I love building DIY engineering projects in my garage at home. I have a passion for all things mechanical and like to solve problems using the simplest solutions to build projects for reasonable money with basic tools!
Recently, I've built a large stirling engine generator and am developing it to generate electricity and plan to build a improved engine with the lessons learned.
Your enthusiasm, advice and suggestions for improvements are greatly received and drives me to continue building even when things are not always going to plan! Thank you.
Who knows, we might even come up with something genuinely useful that could be produced as a kit / plans for off grid power or something?
I'll publish an update depending on how much time is left after family, work & DIY commitments!
The original rider used stationary leather piston seals, what seals are you using?. It also used an air-pump and relief valve to maintain two atmospheres inside the engine.
AMR 500 sup[er charger on a Yan Clone diesel? would love to know more about this set up. Need a little more oomph in my diesel bike so speed of traffic on USA roads does not make driving it so risky
you should make a SMALL gamma or alpha stirling engine, while following the advice that i have offered, below. as seen on some small stirling engines, a vertically oriented loop in the duct forms a simple and effective regenerator. convective heat trap. d
Hi Shane Congratulations, very good work. With my experience, I think of 2 modifications to try; 1) Your unidirectional valve increases the pressure in the engine but in a dissymmetric way. If you replace this valve with a very small air inlet to balance the average air pressure inside the engine with the atmospheric pressure you no longer have these disadvantages. On the contrary, you have two cycles of motor work per turn instead of one. A pression cycle and a suction cycle. The engine thus has a much smoother operation between a pressure of 0.7 to 1.3 bar for example (instead of 0 to 1.6 bar). 2) As already indicated, separate the cooling zone from the regenerative zone to increase yield. Simply isolate part of the chiller from the hot side. This has the consequence of having a regenerative effect by retaining heat in this area.
Hi, thank you for your advice. I will do some experiments with the snifter valve setup to see if removing it helps things. Regenerator isolation could be incorporated into the next engine. I just don't understand so much! Many thanks
Hi, thank you for your advice. I will do some experiments with the snifter valve setup to see if removing it helps things. Regenerator isolation could be incorporated into the next engine. I just don't understand so much! Many thanks
You have inspired me immensely, I too am on a super limited budget and I really appreciate you posting this, would you happen to have a link to your rail bender plans, I have scoured the internet but haven't been able to find any plans. Thank you.
For the rail bender I kind of built various versions until it worked. Now you can get benders at very reasonable cost www.amazon.co.uk/MSW-Bending-Machine-MSW-SRM-32-7-7-140cm/dp/B08GQ7X6T8/ref=asc_df_B08GQ7X6T8/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=686257752698&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4150234967813995562&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9180977&hvtargid=pla-951918311951&psc=1&mcid=67c85192dec436ccb864b780fdf63798&gad_source=1
Nice work ! Sound is really impressive ! I would replace the alternator with a wind turbine generator given the low rpm of the stirling engine. Also would use closed circuit with a higher pressure working agent in order to maximise the power.
In order to minimise the vibration, I guess a boxer type configuration would balance the engine and make it work smoothly. Anyway is a nice machine I am going to build one myself soon!
Great to see you are still at it! Couple of thoughts... 1. The pipe between your hot end piston and cool end is a huge dead space. This messes with compression ratio hence power. This needs to be reduced to minimum (balancing mass flow vs friction). 2. Adding a true regenerator section (in its simplest form a mass of wire wool) will double output. 3. The use of a displacer adds greatly to the ability of the system to shove the hot expanded air down to the cold power piston end. That way at the end of the stroke the volume of the heated cylinder is close to zero, the air is all shoved thru the regenerator section and the total volume is just that of the interconnecting pipe + regen section + cold power cylinder at its point in the 90-degre offset stroke. Then its ditto for minimising the volume of the cold cylinder when the gas is displaced into the hot end. As your plan shows you are just kinda wobbling a long pipe full of warm air too and fro, without any decent either/or its being heated or/either cooled. So tis all mushy, IMHO. But do carry on as I am just a table top 'expert' with bits of a possible Stirling engine languishing on my bench, awaiting a coincidence of materials and skills to advance!
because a diaphragm acts as a spring, ANY use of a diaphragm in a heat engine is less-than ideal. the use of a spring to 'compensate for' poor linkage design is sad. when making a prime mover, it should be understood that the nominal operating speed of the engine WILL be Determined by the way it is loaded; via the crankshaft. if part of the system (say, the dum spring) seems to smooth operation, that smoothness is (probably) coming at a cost. that spring is also flailing around, ABSORBING energy. d
Yes, the design is compromised and not ideal but I'm trying to keep construction extremely basic. Springs not great but I believe a much smaller flywheel can be used. Cheers
@@ShanePomeroy honestly, I don't know how it would scale up. Although I've seen some larger than your typical glass tube engine. But a really big one? Don't know. That would be the experiment. 😅
ever consider a Chevy one wire car alternator? Its simple as it gets used to be common in the US now can be found in speed shops mostly . w proper rpm ,14 volts is easy plus it has an internal regulator . Keeps things simple ,Best wishes sry. I'm new probably sounding like a broken record w old news
I think that chrome-nickel steel for the regenerator is not the best material. Because it has low thermal penetration. Steel wool would be much better. Carbon steel has three times greater thermal transmittance and copper has over twenty times greater thermal transmittance
I am so impressed with this design. There are other designs on UT and one in particular uses a large diameter piston with diaphragm and very slow rpm with high torque. Yours is so compact and neat. I must go back and follow the Mk4 to see how it has been developed. The guy mentioning parallelogram motion might help against fatigue damage. Take a look at steam train engines. They have linear motion conrods. So do ship steam engines like the Wavely. Hope this helps.
Alternators need high rpms to work. Like 6000 to be their best efficiency Your best bet is to go buy or salvage from a scrap yard a 120v 1-2hp eletric motor that operates around 1800rpm, Alternators are around 70% efficient Motors used as generators can be 90-95% efficient, and the lower rpm will make the belt losses far less and greatly improve your output, But it will put out ac current, and you will etheir need a bridge rectifiers, or to get the rpm really close to 1800 to output 60hzs Although you sound like your from the uk, so it might be 1500 rpm to get you 50 hz
I have an old huskie generator with a 1500w motor on it. An if I spin it by hand I can eletricute people with the prongs. It would be far better, its rated for 1800rpm 60hz But at 1500rpm it would give 50hz Its 120vs though, I know in England they use 220v so 🤷♂️ I'm Canadian so we have different standards But if you can find an old eletric motor its your best bet. Their easier to spin, require lower rpm and generate better efficiencys
Hello Shane. I think that your stirling is not that disappointing. The best performing stirling generator I found on youtube was able to produce 150W of electricity. The stirling was quiet a smaller but it also had a lot larger furnace running on a lot more wood than yours. I think that your design is really nice. It just need a little redesign of sizes of the parts. (heater, heat exchanges, levers etc.) I wish you the best and I am looking forward to your future designs 💪
