Stirling engine

Details Stirling engine Stirling engine

1992-02-03

1994-08-16

Husar, Stephen F.

Power plants

Motor operated by expansion and/or contraction of a unit of...

Unit of mass is a gas which is heated or cooled in one of a...

60525, 60526, 606418, F02G 104

Patent

active

053375629

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a Stirling engine having a housing chamber which is divided by a reciprocating gas-permeable regenerator plate into two part chambers, of which one can be heated and the second is provided with cooling, the second part chamber communicating with a working cylinder which acts on a working shaft via a first drive device and on the regenerator plate via a second drive device. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for operating Stirling engines.
In a known Stirling engine of this type (publication "19th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference", August 1984, pages 1807-1812), the heat-releasing sheet metal wall and the heat-absorbing sheet metal wall are each designed in the shape of flat plates. The rim edges are Joined via an allround side wall, so that a rectangular housing is present. The regenerator plate is a rigid solid body, whose rim edges likewise reciprocate between the sheet metal walls. The connection of the working cylinder to the housing chamber is provided in the region of the side wall. The known Stirling engine is a small laboratory model. With a larger type of construction, for use in practice, considerable difficulties arise. Since, even at a sheet metal size of 1 m.sup.2 and a compression of 1:1.05, a force of 500 kp presses the sheet metal walls apart, an expensive heavy support structure for the flat, rigid sheet metal walls is necessary- The guidance of the regenerator plate serving as a displacement piston also proves to be relatively expensive and leads to a significant increase in the cost of such a Stirling engine which, in fact, is intended to be distinguished by simplicity and hence by inexpensive manufacture even in relatively large numbers.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is the object of the invention to develop a Stirling engine of the type described at the outset, which is distinguished by a high pressure stability, by easy mobility of the regenerator plate working as a displacement piston and thus by particularly inexpensive manufacture coupled with long service lives.
According to the invention, this object is achieved when the housing chamber is of wedge-shaped design and the regenerator plate is mounted pivotably in the tip of the housing chamber.
As a result of the geometrical design, according to the invention, of the housing chamber with the pivotable fixing of the regenerator plate in the tip of the housing chamber, problems with the guidance and mounting of the moving regenerator plate can be simply and completely prevented. The regenerator plate pivots with little wear about a single pivoting axis and thus moves the working gas, which as a rule is air, present in the housing chamber to and fro between the two part chambers, depending on the corresponding working phase.
A particularly stable engine configuration, which is particularly important in the case of units of higher power, can be obtained when, according to a further feature of the invention, the regenerator plate itself and the two boundary walls of the housing chamber, which are located opposite the former, are designed in the shape of cylinder segments, the curvatures of the boundary walls and of the regenerator plate being mutually matched. As has been found in a first prototype, this geometry allows relatively large pressure differences between the housing chamber and the surroundings, with a relatively small cost of material.
By means of the invention, it is thus possible to produce a Stirling engine which is distinguished by being simple to manufacture, by low maintenance and, relative to the achievable power, by a low materials cost. Such an engine, in which the heat required for operation, that is to say for heating the working gas, can be coupled directly or else indirectly into the corresponding part chamber of the housing chamber, is particularly suitable in non-industrialised regions of high insolation, for example as a drive for water pumps, compressed-air generators for divers, pressure-driven boats on inla

REFERENCES:
patent: 4312181 (1982-01-01), Clark
patent: 4444011 (1984-04-01), Kolin

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