The Air Engine: Stirling Cycle Power for a Sustainable Future

The rotating-displacer air engine
Résumé. An alternative. Taylor parameter. A rotating-displacer air engine. Academic design exercise.
The strange case of the self-regulating air engine
Background. Some realities. Constructional details. Exploratory power and torque measurement. 'Selfregulation'.
Tentative explanation. Conclusions.
Some light on the inner workings of the thermal lag engine
The concept. 'Thermal lag' engine. Ideal gas process sequence. A detailed model of the thermal processes.
Limited heat transfer. Flow losses. A practical thermal lag engine. Preliminary operating experience. Afterthought.
PART 3 WORKING WITH THE REALITY OF COMPRESSIBLE FLOW
New correlations for old
Right data – wrong application. The misleading Cf – Re correlation. Flow data acknowledging Ma. Dynamic
Similarity to the rescue. Farewell to friction factor. The new format. What the new format reveals about
'incompressible'. Epitaph.
Regenerator thermal analysis – un-finished business
Regenerator design in context. Assumptions. Modified diffusion law. Numerical solution. Parameters of
operation. Pressure and velocity fields. Inevitable asymmetry of flow cycle. Anisotropic matrix. Discussion.
Flow passage geometry
Scope. Symmetrical gauze – flow perpendicular to pane of weave. Flow parallel to plane of weave. Specimen
isotropic material – metal foam. Résumé.
Beyond the performance envelope
Introduction. Method of Characteristics. 'Unit process' of the integration sequence. High-speed operation –
the pressure-wave engine. Discussion.
For the sceptics
What does it all add up to? Flow in the isolated gauze aperture. Defining equations. Radial component of
kinetic energy. The non-so-square-weave wire gauze. Kinetic energy of rotation. 'Real' (van der Waals) gas.
Downstream pressure recovery. Simulated correlation p/p = p/p{Sg, Ma, y, dwmw.}. Implications for firstprinciples
design. Résumé.
PART 4 SOME DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Scaling - and the neglected art of back-of-the-envelope calculation
The overriding objective. Gas path scaling – update. Back-of-the-envelope Ma and Re in the regenerator.
Limiting Ma. Compressibility vulnerability chart. Heat transfer. Implications for back-of-envelope design. A
'screening' test. The wider rôle of scaling.
'How to make a business out of Stirling Engines today'
Tribal wisdom. From alchemy to appropriate technology. What has changed? The VDF-750(aS). Drive
mechanism/kinematics. General mechanical construction. Pressure balance seal. Beyond 2006.
APPENDICES
Appendix I Draft patent specification
What I claim is
Appendix II Crank mechanism kinematics
Algebra of kinematics of high-compression crank mechanism
Appendix III Equilibrium or 'temperature-determined' picture of thermal lag engine
Appendix IV Native wisdom
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