Fluidyne (and solar powered!) Engines - Page 7

 
http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/hero/

  Curbie wrote:


It allows adjusting how much expansion takes place before the
contraction takes place.


That helps.


I'm using bundles of thin brass tubes.


Yes - we're trying to extract heat from the hot air as it moves from hot
head to cold head during expansion, and return that heat to the air as
it moves back from the cold head to the hot head. It's a heat re-cycling
mechanism.


Simon Popy assembled his second engine with a PVC pipe jacket on the
cold head so he could give the idea a try. I don't think he's actually
circulated water through it yet.


What you see on the web page is pretty basic physics. The stuff that
isn't so basic (and that, while too expensive for a DIY irrigation pump
might have other application) may or may not find its way to a web page.

As you might expect, ideas come a lot faster than their implementation.


I've added that to my list of things to learn about.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/

 
Did you look at this calculus-free fluidyne analysis?

ts/thermally_activated_technologies/engine_driven/stirling_rankine/modeling=
_and_simulation/ornl_conf_830812_49/ornl_conf_830812_49.pdf

 

After reading it last night, smells like the foundation of a computer
model to me.

Thanks.

Curbie

 
Generally speaking since Stirlings operate of the heat difference
between hot & cold I think anything that expels from the from the cold
side and keeps heat in the hot side, with the only path for heat to
escape is through the regenerator on to the cold side will make an
efficiency improvement.

Have you played with scouring pads, Chore Boy make in copper if I
remember?
Total area & type (copper, aluminum, ...) of regenerator material
seems to determine volume of heat stored, while the thickness of
regenerator material seems to determine the rate of the material's
heat transfer. Both are important.


Well, you can beat yourself to death over fractions of a percent of
engine efficiency, but sooner or later you're going to have to put the
torch down and get the best design you have to run on solar heat.

Best wishes.

Curbie