Characteristics of Model and Practical Used Stirling Engines

Abstract

A Stirling engine operates with temperature difference between a hot and a cold space in the engine. Then the engine is focused as one of the energy saving or environmental technologies, because it can use various heat energy such as biomass fuel, solar energy and exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine. On the other hand, as the Stirling engine has simple structure, one can build a model engine with a little effort. In this paper, characteristics of the model and practical used Stirling engines are discussed. Also the author shows a development example of a Stirling engine generator using waste heat as the heat source.