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Stirling Engine
Heat engine · 1816 · Stirling cycle
- Year
- 1816
- Kind
- Heat engine
- Materials
- Stainless steel and Inconel hot ends, aluminium cold ends, helium or hydrogen as the working gas.
- Efficiency
- Up to 40 % in modern engines; the ideal cycle equals Carnot's limit.
- Used In
- Solar dishes, submarine air-independent propulsion, and, run backwards, cryocoolers.
- Power Density
- Low: sealed, slow to respond, and heavy for its output.
- Cycle
- Stirling
How It Works
A fixed charge of gas is shuttled between a hot end and a cold end by a displacer, expanding when hot and contracting when cold to drive a power piston. A regenerator — a wad of wire mesh — stores heat on the way to the cold side and gives it back on the return, which is what lets the ideal cycle match Carnot.
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