DESIGN OF A STIRLING

ENGINE AS A PORTABLE
LIGHT RESOURCE
Table of Contents
I. Literature review .......................................................................................................................... 3
I.I Historical background and development of Stirling engines ...................................................... 3
I.II The working methodology of Stirling engines ............................................................................ 4
I.III Designs of Stirling engines ......................................................................................................... 7
I.IV Applications and benefits of Stirling engines ............................................................................ 9
References ..................................................................................................................................... 11

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Table of Figures

Figure 1, The first invented sterling engine (Organ, 2014)............................................................. 4

Figure 2,Philips sterling generator (philps, 1993).......................................................................... 4
Figure 3,schematic diagram of a simple Stirling Beta engine (Mark E. Hofacker, 2014) ............... 5
Figure 4,P-v and T-s diagrams with piston arrangement of Stirling engine (Walker, 1980) ........... 6
Figure 5, A simplified representation of a Gamma engine (Roy Darlington, 2005) ........................ 7
Figure 6, A simplified representation of a Beta engine (Roy Darlington, 2005) ............................. 7
Figure 7, A simplified representation of low differential temperature engine (Senft, 1996) ......... 9
Figure 8,A simplified representation of alpha engine (Walker, 1980) ............................................ 9

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I. Literature review

I.I Historical background and development of Stirling engines

One of the biggest problems facing our society in modern times is the dilemma of finding
energy sources other than traditional resources, such as oil and natural gas. Recently, many
studies have concluded that the utilization of clean energy sources will grow at high rates
reaching about sixty percent of current consumption from total energy sources compared
to future consumption in the next ten years (Albertone, 2018).In the late 20th century;
researches and studies about alternative sources of energy began in order to develop an
energy equipment that can contribute to massive requirements of the industrial revolution
In Europe at that time. One of those energy sources that was invented at this period was
the Stirling engine (Martini, 1971) . In the past, during the industrial revolution at Europe,
the explosion of the steam engines was considered as major problem in many industries
and applications that need a reliable and safe source of energy (Walker, 1980). In the early
1816, Robert Stirling had invented a new type of engines(Figure 1), this equipment was an
innovative masterpiece, since it was the first engine that can produce power with external
combustion process compared to the internal combustion and steam engines; Therefore,
the explosion issue of the traditional engines was solved so far (Sier, 1999).Robert
sterlings first patented hot air engine included the generator, which he called an
economizer (Vineeth, 2011).This is an important part of modern Stirling engines, in which
ultimate heat efficiency is required. Robert Stirling was reported to be concerned about the
death toll of steam engine operators and bystanders, where the boilers on steam engines
sometimes exploded, and he realized that hot air engines could take their place (Stirling
engines), under taking the tasks more safely as hot air engines at the time did not operate
under the same high pressures of steam engines. In 1818 one of Robert Stirlings hot air
engine was used as a quarry pump and ran for two years. When Robert Stilling created his
first engine, cast iron was the most dominant used metal; which was unable to withstand
the high operating temperature, hence cause many of problems such as oxidation and low
output efficiency. In 1824 M. Sadi Carnot published a book with details of thermodynamics
principles that became known as the Carnot cycle, which introduced the idea that the
efficiency of these Stirling engines relies only on the temperature difference and not on the
fuel that powers them. The theory remains the most effective way to convert heat into work
(Roy Darlington, 2005).In 1826 John Ericsson made many experiments on Stirling engines
to be powered by coal that he called a flame engine, but he found it to be unsuccessful
using coal because the heat was too intense, so the experiment was abandoned (Senft,
1996).In 1833 he developed a closed cycle engine with external heating which he called a
Caloric engine, a name by which Stirling engines were known in the nineteenth century,
also sometimes referred to as hot air or Carnot cycle engines. It generated 5bhp with two
double-acting cylinders and a tubular regenerator. Between 1838 and 1850 he designed
many hot air engines with wire gauze regenerators. In 1850 his caloric ship was built which
was a 260ft ship powered by a large version of his caloric engine. It had four cylinders each

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with a stroke of 6ft. During trials the ship never achieved the speeds predicted, making it
unsuitable for commercial purposes (Senft, 1996).With the rapid deployment of electricity
in the early 20th century and the widespread use of gasoline as fuel for most of applications,
therefore Electric and gasoline engines have taken the place of Sterling engines (helal,
2006).Then many of researchers at the early 21th had been worked on the development of
sterling engine. One of those researchers was Philips, who could make a qualitative leap
for the development of sterling engine by introducing a sterling generator(Figure2) that
could produce about 200 watts of energy at 1950 (helal, 2006).

Figure 1, The first invented sterling engine Figure 2,Philips sterling generator
(Organ, 2014) (philps, 1993)

Then, in 1983, Dr. Ivo Kulin (Zagreb University of Croatia) developed a sterling engine
working with a hot source that was less than the boiling point of water, after he printed and
published his research, James Sinft (University of Wisconsin Rivers Falls) was able to
make a sterling engine that could work with a temperature of only 100,and this was The
most distinctive development in sterling engines at that time.This engine had been named
later as low temperature diffrential hot air engine (Roy Darlington, 2005). {to be edited)

I.II The working methodology of Stirling engines

The working principle of the Stirling engine (Figure 3) is that a limited amount of the
operating body (usually air or other gasses as hydrogen or helium) is exposed to
periodically heat and cooling processes. The reciprocating motion of both displacer and
power pistons leads to expansion and contraction of the operating body. The cycle of the
Stirling engine resembles to some extent the Carnot cycle. The plain design of the Stirling
engine consists of a cylinder with two pistons located opposite to each other, and a
regenerator attached between those pistons. The function of the regenerator is to work as a
thermal sponge that can absorb and release the working heat in an alternate way. There are
two volumes exists in between the regenerators and the working pistons. The first volume
is called the space of expansion and it is usually operated at elevated temperature (T max).
The second volume is called the space of compression and it is usually operated at a low
temperature (T min). Hence there is a temperature gradient that exists at the both sides of
regenerators (T max: T min), and it is considered here that the thermal conduction is zero
along the cylinder, also the other assumptions of Carnot cycle is assumed here, the friction
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 Figure 3,schematic diagram of a simple Stirling Beta engine
(Mark E. Hofacker, 2014)

force of piston is eliminated and there is no fluid leakage outward the cylinder (Walker,
1980).In the ideal cycle of Stirling engine (figure 4) it is assumed that the piston of
compression space is at the outer border of the dead point, and the piston of the expansion
space is at the inner border of the dead point approaching the front end of the regenerator
at the starting of the cycle. So, at point 1, the total volume of the working fluid is at the
space of compression with the lowest temperature and pressure (maximum volume). Then
at the compression stroke (from 1 to 2) the piston of the compression space starts to move
to the inner border of the dead point, while as the piston of expansion space remains at its
position. The fluid is compressed in the space of compression, therefore the pressure
increases. during this process, the temperature remains constant since the heat of the
compression space is taken away through the surroundings. Then in the second process
(from 2 to 3) the piston of the compression space move toward the regenerator while as the
piston of the expansion space move outward the regenerator. Therefor the volume within
this process (from 2 to 3) is remaining constant. The working fluid is then go through the
regenerator from the space of compression to the space of expansion. The regenerator is
usually made from porous matrix. During this transfer process of the working fluid, its
temperature is raised from (Tmin) to (Tmax) at the expansion space by the transfer of heat
through the matrix of regenerator. The progressive increase in temperature through the
regenerator causes a pressure increase at constant volume. Then at the third process (from
3 to 4), the expansion process starts. During this process, the piston of the expansion space
starts to move outward the regenerator approaching the outer dead point; while as the piston
of the compression space remains at its position at the inner border of the dead point.
During this process, the volume increases and pressure decreases while as the temperature
remains constant due to the addition of the heat from some external source, which could
be solar energy or any other heating source (Organ, 2014). The final stage of sterling cycle
is the transfer process (from 4 to 1). During this process, the two pistons moves at the same

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time, and the working fluid is transferred from the space of expansion to the space of
compression. The temperature of the working fluid is decreased to (Tmin) at the
compression space by losing heat during the transfer through the matrix of the regenerator,
hence the temperature of the working fluid decreases (Walker, 1980).

Figure 4,P-v and T-s diagrams with piston arrangement of Stirling engine (Walker, 1980)

So, the cycle of the Stirling engine would be summarized in four processes:
Process (1-2):
Through which heat is transferred from the working fluid to the surroundings by an
isothermal compression operation.
Process (2-3):
Through which heat is transferred to the working fluid from the pours matrix of the
regenerator by a constant volume heat addition operation.
Process (3-4):
Through which heat is transferred to the working fluid from the external source by an
isothermal expansion operation.
Process (4-1):
Through which heat is transferred from the working fluid to the matrix of the regenerator
by a constant volume heat subtraction operation.
If the heat added in process (2-3) is equal to heat rejected in process (4-1), then the second
law of thermodynamics is satisfied to obtain the maximum thermal efficiency from the
Stirling engine. Moreover. There is an advantage of the sterling engine at this point over
the Carnot engine, which is the replacement of the two isentropic operations in Carnot
cycle by two constant volume heat addition and rejection operations (Finkelstein, 2010).
Hence, the area of the P-V diagram increases and thus more work is obtained by using low
pressures compared to high pressures required to obtain a useful work by the Carnot cycles
(Cheng, 2012).

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I.III Designs of Stirling engines
According to the design of Stirling engine, there are many variations as Gamma, Beta,
Alpha (or Rider), Low differential temperature, Fluidyne, marble, lag(thermos-acoustic),
cryocooler and martini. For Gamma design (Figure 5), this type has two separate cylinders,
a displacer cylinder, and a power cylinder, joined together by a pipe or slot in casting. The
two cylinders can be bolted to a base or frame and can be connected to a single crank and
flywheel. It is very simple engine. The disadvantages of this type of engine is that the
connecting pipe is dead space, which leads to inefficiency. A typical Gamma engine has
two pistons, one power piston and one displacer piston. These two pistons are usually
coupled to a common crankshaft with a crank disk and a flywheel. Where the displacer
piston is connected to the fly wheel and it is typically attached 90 degrees in advance of
the power piston attachment. This may be varied by a few degrees advance or retreated,
but 90 degrees is easy and works well. There should be a passage for the air or gas to move
from one-cylinder chamber to the other. Gamma engines can be air-cooled or water-cooled
(IWAMOTO, 2010). For Beta designs (Figure 6), the Beta engine, sometime referred to as
concentric, is the most efficient. One of Robert Stirlings first engines was a Beta engine.
The displacer piston and power piston are both in the same cylinder. The displacer piston
is operated by the displacer rod, which runs through a gland or bush right through the
middle of the power piston. The displacer piston runs at the hot cap end of the cylinder and
the power piston runs at or beyond the cold end (Shahed Md. Abu Sufian, 2014), (helal,
2006).

Figure 5, A simplified representation of a Figure 6, A simplified representation of a Beta

Gamma engine (Roy Darlington, 2005) engine (Roy Darlington, 2005)

Beta engines are characterized by its high efficiency. There are two reasons for its high
efficiency. Firstly, there is very little dead space since no connecting pipe is needed as with
separate cylinders. Secondly, at one stage of the cycle the two pistons come very close

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together. In Stirling Beta engine, the two pistons come to within a few thou of each other
(J.R.Senft, 1985). This causes a lot of turbulence, which is one of the things that makes the
Stirling cycle work well at this design; the greater the turbulence the better the results. In
Beta design, a connecting rod to a crankpin is needed to drive each piston. To get
symmetrical thrust on the power piston, two con-rods are required and pass either side of
the displacer con -rod. This extra linkage in a Beta engine causes some more friction, but
he overall efficiency of the engine more than compensates for this. Some Beta engines use
one rod for the power piston, but this is not ideal as it puts unequal pressures on the piston
and causes more wear and more friction (Organ, 2014). There is a disadvantage when
running a Beta engine horizontally due to the load of the displacer bearing down through
the power piston guide. This transfers to the walls of the cylinder via the power piston
creating drag. Despite this, it is still very efficient. One solution is to run the engine
vertically, so that the weight of the displacer transfers on to the crankpin and the problem
of the drag is not so marked. In the vertical position, a ring-type burner is required (Roy
Darlington, 2005). Usually in Beta designs, the cylinder housing the displacer, and the
power pistons, are the same internal bore throughout their length. In a lot of other engines,
the power piston is a smaller diameter with a longer stroke to achieve the capacity or
required swept volume. A shorter stroke means that the engine will complete the cycle
quicker and consequently will rev more easily (Hargreaves, 1991). Beta engines are named
also the linear engines, as they have no linkage. The displacer and power piston are
suspended by springs and the pressure variation operates the engine. The balance of the
springs needs care to set up. A linear alternator is connected to the piston which produces
alternating current (Hasci, 2014).For alpha designs (Figure 8). This type of sterlings
engines has a different configuration. This configuration has two separate cylinders. One
is the hot cylinder and the other is the cold cylinder. There is a power piston in the cold
side. In the hot side, there also a power piston, which has a displacer mounted on to the
crown of it. The two pistons have an adjoining tube. Cooling fins will usually be found on
the cold cylinder. One advantage is that the engine lends itself to regeneration. The two
cylinders can be mounted in a V shape at 90 degrees to each other (Rizzo, 1995). Each con
rod is coupled to a single crankshaft. The connecting pipe, although dead space, can be
filled with regenerative material such as stainless-steel gauze or ceramic beads, creating an
external regenerator built between the two cylinders. The dead space can be successfully
reduced by using this technique (Gingery, 1991). The alpha design can make a compact
four-cylinder engine in which each piston has a principle and diaphragm moves with the
reciprocation set up by the heat differential. There are very few moving parts in the engine
and subsequently it is a design that has the potential to be reliable in service (LockWood,
2010). For the Low differential temperature designs (Figure 7), the displacer piston is
suspended in the cylinder halfway up the stroke by a spring attached in the center. The
other end of the spring is connected to a chamber above the displacer cylinder. For the Low
differential temperature designs (Figure 7), the displacer piston is suspended in the cylinder
halfway up the stroke by a spring attached in the center. The other end of the spring is
connected to a chamber above the displacer cylinder.

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Figure 8,A simplified representation of Figure 7, A simplified representation of low
alpha engine (Walker, 1980) differential temperature engine (Senft, 1996)

There is a weight on the cylinder at the front, which acts not only as a handle to pick up,
but also keeps the whole mass of the engine symmetrical. This helps to keep it balanced
when operating on a frame and has the advantage of providing additional cooling (Senft,
1996). The power piston is usually made of graphite running in glass cylinder. The glass
cylinder was cut from a hypodermic syringe originally used by a vet (Sier, 1999). Two
round plates on the top and bottom of the engine are the hot and the cold side. Nylon screws
together hold these. There is O-ring material placed in a groove turned into the two plates
so that the Perspex displacer sidewall tube sits on this O-ring top and bottom to seal it.
When the nylon screws are tightened, they help to make displacer chamber airtight. The
nylon screws stretch when tightened and any excess that protrudes is cut off (Roy
Darlington, 2005).

I.IV Applications and benefits of Stirling engines

Probably the major factor that will ensure an exponetial growth in the mainstream use of
strling engines will be the need to maximize the use of our existing energy reserves such
as oil and gas.The basic effeciency of the sterling engine approaches nearly twice that of
an internal combustion engine (Organ, 1997) and can be up to 15 percent more efficient
than a jet or CI (compustion ignition) engine. In the short term, this will return a 25 percent
fuel saving in areas such as CHP(Compined heat and power), where the energy used to
heat domestic hot water can be used to generate electricity instead of wasted.Any excess
electricity can be returned to the national Grid and such the stirling engine is placed to meet
polices to decentralize power generation.And as our reliance on fossil feuls diminshes m
the abillity of the stirling engine to run efficiently on any fuel that is capable of producing
heat such as mthane, hydrogen or renewable fuels such as chippings or straw will go along
way to ensuring its continued development and success (Roy Darlington, 2005). Generally,
there is a wide rang of applications that can utilize Stirling engine either small or large-scale
applications from pump engines passing through marine engines and even medical applications as
there was many researches to use it in artificial heart implant (Pettingill, 1977). For automotive

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 applications, Stirling engines had showed many disadvantages, as too long startup time of the
automotive engine, low response of acceleration, too long shutdown time and of course the high
weight that the engine will add to the vehicle. For air craft engines, Stirling engines had showed
also a major problem which is the low density of power compared to the power produced by the
Brayton cycle. Stirling engines showed a superior performance when they utilized in solar energy
applications as it converts the solar energy to electrical energy using the intensive solar energy
generated from parabolic mirror (Hasci, 2014) as showed in (Figure 9). Also, Stirling is succeeded
in generate power form just the temperature of the humans (Figure 10) using low temperature
difference Stirling engine, where the difference between the humans hand and surrounding
temperature is enough to start up this kind of Stirling engine (Roy Darlington, 2005).

Figure 9,Parabolic mirror for Stirling engine(WIKIPEDIA) Figure 10,low differential temperature Stirling engine
which powered by human temperature(WEKIPEDIA)

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References
Albertone, 2018. Renewable energy statistics. europa, June.

Cheng, C.-H., 2012. Optimization of geometrical parameters for Stirling engines based. Issue
Applied Energy.

Finkelstein, T., 2010. Thermodynamics and Gas Dynamics of the Stirling Cycle Machine. First
Edition ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gingery, D. J., 1991. Build a Two Cylinder Stirling Cycle Engine. First Edition ed. s.l.:Pearson.

Hargreaves, C., 1991. The Philips Stirling Engine. Elsevier .

Hasci, J., 2014. Modified Stirling Engine With Greater Power Density. National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, November.

helal, M., 2006. A research study for sterling engine, s.l.: Damascus university.

IWAMOTO, S., 2010. COMPARISON OF LOW- AND HIGH TEMPERATURE. Department of

Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Saitama University, Japan.

J.R.Senft, 1985. Free Piston Stirling Engines. 1ed ed. Verlag Berlin ,: Springer.

LockWood, M., 2010. How I Built a 5 Hp stirling Engine. First edition ed. s.l.:American stirling.

Mark E. Hofacker, J. K. K., 2014. A Lumped-Parameter Dynamic Model of a Thermal Regenerator

for Free-Piston Stirling Engines. Resarch Gate.

Martini, W., 1971. Stirling Cycle Type Thermal Device. s.l.:Granted to Research Corp US patent.

Organ, A., 1997. The Regenerator and the Stirling Engine. s.l.:Wiley.

Organ, A. J., 2014. Stirling Cycle Engines,WIKIPEDIA. [Online].

philps, 1993. sixth conference of sterling engine at philps company. Eindhoven,Netherlands, s.n.

Rizzo, J. G., 1995. Stirling Engine Manual. 3rd edition edition ed. s.l.:Camden Miniature Steam
Service.

Roy Darlington, K. S., 2005. Stirling and Hot Air Engines. [1st edition] ed. s.l.:Crowood Press.

Senft, J., 1996. An Introduction to Low Temperature Differential Stirling Engines. s.l.:Moriya
Press.

Shahed Md. Abu Sufian, K. A. S., 2014. Harvesting Electrical Power from Waste Heat Using. The
9th International Forum on Strategic Technology (IFOST), October.

Sier, R., 1999. Hot Air Caloric and Stirling Engines. L.A. Mair: s.n.

Vineeth, 2011. Stirling Engine : A Beginners Guide. first edition ed. s.l.:Vineeth CS.

Walker, G., 1980. Stirling Engines. Oxford: Clarenden Press.

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