Abstract
The volume variations of Stirling engines depend on the designs of piston drive mechanisms. A good design of the piston drive mechanism should yield such volume variations that are close to the ideal ones to make the indicated work as large as possible. In the present study, the effects on the P-V diagram of the Stirling engine are firstly separated by using the iVV cycle which has ideal volume variations, and then the P-V diagrams and indicated works yielded, respectively, by two different piston drive mechanisms are compared with those of the iVV cycle to show the characteristics of these mechanisms.
