Stirling Engine

Try using the site search engine (right of the screen) there's been previous posts on this subject.

A while back someone wanted to know about a 5-hp Stirling engine. If you know the approximate hp you want, a Google search on "x-hp Stirling engine" will probably get many hits, but at least narrowed down to your range. There is a lot of hobbyist and do-it-yourself advice out there, some of it from the same folks who do steam engines for model railroading. You might also check out the SES (Stirling Energy Systems) Website for some large-scale examples.

try this site, you may have some trouble navigating it but most of it is available in english it is from the Japanese national marine (or maritime) research institute

http://www.nmri.go.jp/eng/khirata/stirling/index_e.html there is a lot of information here.

What type are you building?

Regardless, I can tell you right off that the power piston must be a very precise fit. Also the lubrication needs close attention, too much or too little is detrimental.

Here's a link where you can buy 3 types, 2 in kit form and 1 pre-built. The pre-built can be reverse engineered and scaled up.

http://www.scientificsonline.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=stirling+engine+

Many people do find lots of difficulty in building working models. These beasts, at least the ones capable of overcoming their own internal friction losses, both mechanical & fluidic, have very narrow "sweet-spot" bands in several key areas.

Things like: amount of regenerator capacity & it's heat transfer rate for the amount of friction it adds to the gas circuit; the heat exchangers (especially the hot one) typically never have enough room to suit the designer's need to get the heat input in the very short residence time that the gas in actually in that portion of the machine.

I would urge you to start by checking your design and its underlying assumptions against the Stirling Engine Design Manual by Martini. http://www.amazon.com/Stirling-Engine-Design-William-Martini/dp/1410216047

Then you can work on improving the performance of your regenerator, and get detailed mechanical and gas circuit specifics for several excellent engines that have overcome their own internal losses to be able to produce excess power, by reviewing The Regenerator & The Stirling Engine by Allan J. Organ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1860580106/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1410216047&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1F32R056Y9AHW03SHQJT

Remember that Mr. Stirling (& Organ) spent years working on just their regenerators before they had a working engine, so don't get discouraged.

Are you aware of Stirling Energy Systems/Tessera Solar's dish-engine & it's successes & issues?

here's some resources

http://www.pdf-freedownload.com/pdf-folder/stirling-engine-design-manual-pdf.php

When you get to dish design, you might look at Scheffler dishes for concentrating the heat on your Stirling engine.

The focus of the scheffler dish does not move and that means that your stirling engine stays in one spot. (Which is way simpler). http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Scheffler_Community_Kitchen

I also have an experimental alternative to the scheffler dish (which is only at model stage)

My models are pretty hokey (However a mathematician at University of British Columbia, Robert Israel, has done the math on best dish size). Anyway Scheffler dishes distort the dish shape to adjust for seasons while my model rotates the dish round to focus to achieve seasonal adjustment.

So, I think from a DIY perspective, the rotating dish is easier. Anyway, a few videos to demonstrate the idea are at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3MbVqExTOQ Really hokey one but it is simpler than the second video.

and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R67f2v4yio4

Thanks

Brian

Hello Anonymous Poster.

I hope this doesn't discourage you too much, but you're late with this idea, although I think it's a good one. A previous employer of mine was involved in building a production line for a similar system a couple of years ago.

Check out this link http://www.stirlingenergy.com/.