Existing literature focuses on the alleged merits of the Stirling engine. These are indeed latent but, decades on, remain to be fully realised. This is despite the fact that Stirling and other closed-cycle prime-movers offer a contribution to an ultra-low carbon economy. By contrast with solar panels, the initial manufacture of Stirling engines makes no demands on scarce or exotic raw materials. Further, calculating embodied carbon per kWh favours the Stirling engine by a wide margin.However, the reader expecting to find the Stirling engine promoted as a panacea for energy problems may be surprised to find the reverse. Stirling and Thermal-Lag Engines reflects upon the fact that there is more to be gained by approaching its subject as a problem than as a solution. The Achilles heel of the Stirling engine is a low numerical value of specific work, defined as work per cycle per swept volume per unit of charge pressure and conventionally denoted Beale number NB. Measured values remain unimproved since 1818, quantified here for the first time at 2% of the NB of the modern internal combustion engine! The low figure is traced to incomplete utilisation of the working gas. Only a small percentage of the charge gas - if any - is processed through a complete cycle, i.e., between temperature extremes.The book offers ready-made tools including a simplified algorithm for particle trajectory map construction; an author-patented mechanism delivering optimised working-gas distribution; flow and heat transfer data re-acquired in context and an illustrated re-derivation of the academically respected Method of Characteristics which now copes with shock formation and flow-area discontinuities. All formulations are presented in sufficient detail to allow the reader to 'pick up and run' with them using the data offered in the book.The various strands are drawn together in a comprehensively engineered design of an internally focusing solar Stirling engine, presented in a form allowing a reader with access to basic machining facilities to construct one.The sun does not always shine. But neither will the oil always flow. This new title offers an entree to technology appropriate to the twenty-first century.

This 1992 book provides a coherent and comprehensive treatment of the thermodynamics and gas dynamics of the practical Stirling cycle. Invented in 1816, the Stirling engine is the subject of worldwide research and development on account of unique qualities - silence, indifference to heat source, low level of emissions when burning conventional fuels and an ability to function in reverse as heat pump or refrigerator. The student of engineering will discover an instructure and illuminating case study revealing the interactions of basic disciplines. The researcher will find the groundwork prepared for various types of computer simulation, Those involved in the use and teaching of solution methods for unsteady gas dynamics problems will find a comprehensive treatment on nonlinear and linear wave approaches, for the Stirling machine provides an elegant example of the application of each. The book will be of use to all those involved in researching, designing or manufacturing Stirling prime movers, coolers and related regenerative thermal machines.

The original Air Engines (also known as a heat, hot air, caloric, or Stirling engines), predated the modern internal combustion engine. This early engine design always had great potential for high efficiency/low emission power generation. However, the primary obstacle to its practical use in the past has been the lack of sufficiently heat-resistant materials. This obstacle has now been eliminated due to the higher strength of modern materials and alloys. Several companies in the U.S. and abroad are successfully marketing new machines based on the Air Engine concept. Allan Organ and Theodor Finkelstein are two of the most respected researchers in the field of Air Engines. Finkelstein is considered a pioneer of Stirling cycle simulation. The historical portion of the book is based on four famous articles he published in 1959. The rest of the chapters assess the development of the air engine and put it in the modern context, as well as investigate its future potential and applications. The audience for this book includes mechanical engineers working in power related industries, as well as researchers, academics, and advanced students concerned with recent developments in power generation.