Thoughts on a Stirling engine

[Whittey]

OK, in looking up some facts about the Miller Cycle, I came up with some info on the Stirling engine. Forgive me if I sound like an idiot but i'm very tired and this stuff is just sounding entirely too cool.....

Just look at this page. Is awesome!

http://www.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine2.htm

Look at that little machine spinng like mad.

My first thoughts were to take that displacer style stirling engine and run a circular peltier-type heat exchanger and get the power from a small engine attached to this. Then I realised that is a dumb idea because you're piling inefficiency on top of inefficiency!

Then I thought, what if you were to take a small motor (oooh oooh, what about a super-high compression miller-style n/a engine with 10:1 compression and 12+:1 expansion and direct injection) to run an a/c-style pump (or some higher-efficiency cooling pump) and use the exhaust from the IC pumping engine to heat the warm side. A way to re-use the exhaust of the terribly inefficient 4-stroke IC engine.... Build the little IC engine for one rpm that is as efficient as you an make it. Or even use a turbine engine at its peak efficiency and just let it run like that. Use the Ford-patented hydraulic reservior to store the energy when your power requirements are less than peak and just shut off the whole shebang (like the insight does at stops with the tranny out of gear) when the reservior reaches peak capacity.....

I'm going to bed.


-=Whittey=-

 

[Whittey]

Oh, one last thing...

If you have a clutch-like mechanism that attaches the pump engine and the stirling engine all together to help with initial startup, or run a smaller clutch-driven hydraulic pump to get the vehicle going initially while the stirling heats up.... Or use the initial exhaust gasses of the pumping motor(certainly warm even on initial firing) to charge the Stirling with its required gasses (perhaps using a clean burning fuel would be good in this case so you don't coke up the stirling).


-=Whittey=-

 

[mnam]

The problem with using the stirling engine, is controling its speed, so it would not be make a good car around town. It was tried out by Philips in Germany in a bus and some other company near by.
It is used though quite sucessfully by a submarine company (

http://www.kockums.se/)

as the stirling engine is a very quite engine (no explosions going off like a typical disel sub).
I like your ideas, they could be used though to power the internal electrics in a car (now that we have in car cinemas!)and it would be away of removing the heat from the engine.

John

 

[carnage]

the company that makes the segway human transporter has plans to power them with generators powered by sterling cycle motors. They seem to have prototypes built and running.