http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-stirling-engines-work.

html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine

Temperature:

Temperature is the most important part of the engine. The concept is basically heat being
transferred to mechanical energy. Because of heat convection the gas, which is just air in our case,
inside the flask is heated up in the right part and is cooling down in the left part. The change of
temperature and the movement is shown in the illustrations.

Phase 1 – The gas inside is cold and majority of it is at the right side of the flask above the flame.

Phase 2 – Gas is heated up and now is located at the left side of the flask.

Phase 3 – Gas is cooling down and starting to mix around the flask.

Phase 4 – Again gas is cold and majority of it is at the right side of the flask above the flame.

PV work:

Our device is a closed system, so the volume does not change. It means it’s an isovolumetric process.
So, when the temperature increases the atoms start to move faster and it exerts bigger pressure on
the walls of the flask and on the inside of the syringe causing it to expand.
Phase 1 – Gas inside is cold, so the pressure is minimum.

Phase 2 – Gas is heated up and because of that it expands and pressure is being applied on the
syringe. That is why it extends.

Phase 3 – Syringe is compressing because the gas is cooling down.

Phase 4 - Gas inside is cold, so the pressure is minimum.

Gravity:

Gravity is the reason why our device returns to position 1 from position 3. As we know the
gravitational force is bigger at a point, which has a bigger mass. That is the case here. Our left part is
heavier than the right part, so naturally it tilted to the left. Balls move to the left and it creates space
for the air to move to the right and be heated up.

Friction:

Friction is what makes the engine less efficient. Actually it was a big obstacle for us. Friction was
quite big between the inside of the syringe and the outside part of it. When talking about the
friction between the metal balls and the glass flask, it should be insignificant ().
Phase 1 – When the syringe is at it’s shortest position, the end of it is leaning on the wheel. The balls
lay at the left side of the flask because of gravity and that the equilibrium position of the structure is
more to the left.

Phase 2 – Syringe is extending and is not leaning on the wheel anymore making the balls move to the
right of the flask as well as changing the equilibrium position. Also, we consider that the friction
between the inside of the syringe and the outside of it makes a different to the efficiency.

Phase 3 – The syringe is closing, starting to lean on the wheel again and making the equilibrium
move to the left. The balls are moving to the left of the flask because of gravity.

Phase 4 – The syringe is at it’s shortest position and it is leaning on the wheel. The balls lay at the left
side of the flask because of gravity and that the equilibrium position of the structure is more to the
left.

1-2 ISOTHERMAL Heat addition (expansion).

At step 1 the pressure is maximum. The syringe here is still closed. But when going from 1 to
2 it is extending. The temperature at that time is constant, but the pressure is decreasing
while the volume is increasing. We get to Phase 2.

2-3 ISOCHORIC Heat removal (constant volume).

 Volume is constant, but because the gas inside is cooling down the pressure is also
dropping.

3-4 ISOTHERMAL Heat removal (compression).

The temperature is the same from 3 to 4, but the volume is dropping and the syringe is
closing. Because of that the pressure increases. It is Phase 3.

4-1 ISOCHORIC Heat addition (constant volume).

We get to Phase 1here. Gas inside is heated up. Volume is constant, but the pressure is
increasing drastically.

Efficiency:

To know how good it is in practice we need to know the efficiency of it. This is done by
constructing a mechanism, which is a coin attached to a gear that is turned by the piston. By
measuring how high it is lifted.

All of the power is coming from the heat of the candle. It’s specific energy B is given to be 40
* 10^6 J/kg with a burn rate r of 0.14 * 10^-3 / 60 kg/s.

Now we will take a look at how much of the energy is used to lift the coin. We analyzed the
data over a time period of 60 seconds. Delta h is the distance that coin moved over delta t.

We found that delta h for us is 20* 10^-3 m.

The useful work is the change in potential energy over the time period.

E=m*h*g=5.9*10^-3 *9.81*20*10^-3=1.158* 10^-3 J

We then divide the change in potential energy by our time interval to get the average power
output.

P=1.158* 10^-3 J/ 60=1.93 * 10^-5

Now there is only one step left to find the efficiency. Dividing the power output by the power
input will give the result.

e = P/P = 1.93*10^-5/93.33 = 2.07 * 10^-7 percent

The result is very small, so it wouldn’t be useful in practice. This can be explained. First of
all, when the candle is used, huge part of the power is wasted because it doesn’t enter the
system, but is spread in the surroundings. Without that, the steel balls and the flask itself
also take the heat.
Friction between the gear, piston and the syringe parts is also what makes the engine
perform poorly. End of the syringe would get stuck on the wheel.

Additionally, the device is moving all the time, so power is wasted on kinetic energy. Steel
balls moving inside the flask and hitting the walls.

In the end, a Stirling engine could be improved by adding a regenerator (distribution of heat)
and a radiator (better cooling system) for better heat use.