The cylinder bore is not sliced in half - that is the inlet port. The piston sucks in the flame on the backstroke - then the valve closes & atmospheric pressure "sucks" the piston back to top dead centre & the flywheel than takes the piston over top dead centre where the process repeats. etc etc. As the cylinder becomes hot, the engine gets less efficient - larger ones have a water cooled cylinder jacket to keep the cylinder cool.
Jeffrey314159 External. All the engine needs is hot gas. Temperature differentials inside the engine drive the mechanism as temperature equalizes. You could make this run using a ball of platinum black or really black anodized aluminum and a solar mirror.
Joseph Perkins I disagree on that last part, for I don't think Solar Heating would be effective in starting this Vacuum Engine unless it was superhot. These other methods might work but a burning flame will work the best..
If I've got this right - the engine sucks in hot air through the open port. The port closes, the air cools in the cylinder pulling the piston back and giving momentum to the fly-wheel which then opens the port just before TDC and continues to push the piston back expelling the cooled air. Then as the piston passes TDC it sucks in new hot air and the port is then closed once more just before BDC again allowing the air to cool etc.
I changed my mind. This is clearly an external combustion engine, but is it more efficient than a Stirling? Does the intake of the flames on the upstroke make it more powerful? It certainly starts faster than a Stirlig, for the latter needs a warm up time.
When I first saw this video i was new to these engines, but now know more about them and can now see that the cylender is clossed it looked open to the untrained eye, Good video I am now going to try my hand at a cheeper vertion of flame licker. Cheers pete
Beautiful engineering sir! Question(s) just for the fun of it: How much power does this external combustion engine have compared to the sterling engine for example? Would it be powerful enough to power a .5 W LED or an incandescent lightbulb. Just how much power (joules) would you be able to get out of that beautiful machine?
would it be possible to put an exhaust gas vaccume cooler on a regular 4 stroke engine?... so on every other exhaust stroke the piston is pulled upwards by a cooling vaccume chamber?
I'm in a machining class, and we are about to start making our "fire eater" engines, like this one. With me going up and beyond, I want to be able to make a "throttle body" for this, so I can get a variation of RPMs on the fly. Is it possible to do that?
Adjust RPM with cooling of the cylinder. When you first start it the engine runs at its highest rpm but when it heats up it slows down so just controll temp and you controll the rpm
Hot gasses are sucked in as the piston moves to the bottom of the stroke, valve closes, gasses cool rapidly creating a vacuum, this vacuum pulls the piston up towards the cylinder head, cycle then repeats.
IDK why but the term "Flame Licker Engine" does not sit right, its always as far as I know that they were called "Vacuum Engines" on account of how they work, the flame intake cools when the piston has completed its cycle, the intake when sealed results in the hot gas cooling and contracting to pull the piston back to repeat the cycle. While it may appear to be licking the flame, the proper name describes what the engine does. Well thats my tuppence worth :D Keep up the good work with your other engineering videos. I just wish my mum hadn't sold of the fully working steam engines (3 of them) at nothing near their worth, my grandfather (an engineer) built everything in his shed on his lathe and drill press and the level of craftsmanship was obvious by the way this collector was pouring over the attention to detail and workmanship. He made 3 scale models of engines that you could sit on and pull carriages, one of the engines was a scale model of the Flying Scotsman, the other two were more conventional locomotives, no idea what class they were.
can i hook it up to the hot exhaust from a propane generator if the flame licker has a big enough displacement to leave the exhaust from the generator under vacuum? adding power to the generator by adding a smaller second power stroke(when the piston gets sucked up) and then having a small generator attached to the fly wheel of the flame licker
hi has he tried a magneto non regulated just attached to the engine case.it should with cold water vapour negatively charged act as an implosion engine like a ligthening bolt is made in nature.
if anyone wants to make one on a low budget im using a mandarin orange can( smooth walls for they cylinder ) and a 710ml can of monster energy for the piston it fits perfectally. also getting alot of tinfoil and compressing it in the can will also work for the piston but the monster can is smoother and is more air tight. for the flywheel im going to use a electric motor for bearings and mount a flywheel from a broken two stroke engine onto it. for the flap.. ill figure that out later lol
Keith Appleton You're right, I looked it up after asking the question. I just remember making one with my grandfather as a kid. These vacuum engines are very cool though!
Im puzzled by this. Hot gasses cool, causing a vacum. Where is the vacum ? I would have expected it to be behind the piston. This engine has a piston but the cylinder bore is sliced in half so I cant see where the gas expansion / vacum process takes place.
hello I'm from Brazil, How does the cycle of this engine, I'm wanting to make this mechanism and present how school work in my university. anyone have a detailed explanation of the operation. Thank you. Lucas
Stirling engines keep a body of air trapped inside more or less permanently (closed cycle). This engine breathes breathes hot air in, cools it a bit, then breathes it out. So no, it's not a Stirling engine. Hope that helps.
+Jeffrey314159 hi jeffry. Yep you can have any gas in a stirling, I think helium is better than air for example. The power stroke of the flame gulper is *not* caused by air expanding in the cylinder and pushing the piston away from the flame. It's when the piston is returning towards the flame. At that point the cylinder is closed off, the gas cools and drops below atmospheric pressure sucking the piston back (or more properly: the atmosphere outside is pushing the piston back). So it operates at and below atmospheric pressure, as the early atmospheric steam engines did. It would be classified as external combustion, but in fact you don't need combustion at all if you have some other way of supplying hot air, eg an electric heater. It is very, very, very inefficient. Nowhere near as good as a decent Stirling. But fun to watch!
Ray Kent I disagree, a burning flame would be more effective in starting this engine from a cold start than the other methods mentioned here. Or at least more expedient?
Since the flame is constant and the power cycle is not, this is a very inefficient engine. Improve efficiency by having 2 or more pistons lick the same flame.
