Animated Engines, Single Cylinder Stirling http://www.keveney.com/Stirling.html
Single Cylinder Stirling Engine
This type of Stirling engine, known as the beta configuration3, features just one cylinder with a hot end
and a cool end. The working gas is transferred from one end of the cylinder to the other by a device
called a displacer (here illustrated in blue). The displacer resembles a large piston, except that it has a
smaller diameter than the cylinder, thus its motion does not change the volume of gas in the cylinder - it
merely transfers the gas around within the cylinder.
The same four phases of the Stirling cycle are at work here:
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Expansion. At this point, most of the gas in the
system has just been driven to the hot end of the
cylinder. The gas heats and expands driving the
piston outward.
Transfer. At this point, the gas has expanded. Most
of the gas is still located in the hot end of the
cylinder. Flywheel momentum carries the
crankshaft the next quarter turn. The bulk of the
gas is transferred around the displacer to the cool
end of the cylinder.
Contraction. Now the majority of the expanded gas
has been shifted to the cool end. It contracts,
drawing the piston inward.
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Transfer. The contracted gas is still located near the
cool end of the cylinder. Flywheel momentum
carries the crank another quarter turn, moving the
displacer and transferring the bulk of the gas back to
the hot end of the cylinder.
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Copyright 2000, Matt Keveney. All rights reserved.
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