Design, Manufacture and Measurements of Beta-Type Stirling Engine with Rhombic Drive Mechanism

The purpose of carrying out present work is to design, build and test a rhombic drive Stirling engine with a β-type configuration consisting of two dynamic pistons (displacer and power) reciprocates in the in-line concentric cylinder arrangement. The displacement rod is assembled concentrically inside the power piston rod. The rhombic drive mechanism is proposed in such a way that, by using a pair of gear wheels the sliding motion of both piston rods is controlled and thus, an engine is balanced. The developed prototype has a swept volume of 75 cm3 with the displacer piston and power piston cylinder hot ends heated by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) burner and cooled water, respectively. It uses air as the working gas at atmospheric pressure for initial charging of the engine. Several designs were studied before settling on a β-type configuration. The LPG gas burner was considered as a potential heat source. The various elements of an engine (heater, cooler, re-generator, flywheel and piping systems) were designed, constructed and analyzed. The testing results revealed that the engine at initial atmospheric air filling started working in only about 120 seconds at an LPG heater temperature of 400℃ (824°F) with 280 rpm. At a heater temperature of 550℃ (1022°F), the engine speed was 630 rpm. At the engine speed of 245 rpm, the maximum torque was 0.215 Nm, while the maximum power was 8 Watts at 355 rpm. Engine speed increased with the increase of flame temperature. Several tests were performed on the engine to improve its running efficiency and critical problem areas were isolated and addressed. Moreover, results revealed that Stirling engines working with relatively low-temperature air are potentially attractive engines of the future, especially LPG powered low temperature differential Stirling engines. The Stirling engine was capable of generating between 50 to 100 Watts of electricity.