Stirling engine
An eight-cylinder rotary Stirling cycle engine is described that includes first and second cylinder banks each comprising four cylinders having a fire box about the upper end of the cylinders and cooling fins about the lower end of the cylinders. The four cylinders of each bank are disposed about the centrally located longitudinal axis of each cylinder bank. A spacer divides each cylinder into a displacer cylinder and a power cylinder. A power piston and a displacer piston are disposed respectively in the power cylinder and the displacer cylinder and are rigidly connected together by a shaft. The lower portion of each displacer cylinder includes a displacer port, while the upper portion of each power cylinder includes a power port. A crossover pipe couples the displacer port of one displacer cylinder to a power port in an adjacent power cylinder. Since one of the two coupled cylinders is operating 90/sup 0/ out of phase with respect to the other cylinder, this method of coupling a displacer cylinder with an adjacent power cylinder provides the 90/sup 0/ phase shift required for proper engine operation. A vee transmission couples the two cylinder banks together and converts the reciprocating movement of the displacer and power pistons into rotational motion of the first and second cylinder banks. A power coupling shaft transmits the rotational motion derived from the rotating first and second cylinder banks to a point remotely located from the engine.
- Assignee:
- TIC; ERA-04-027606; EDB-79-044236
- Patent Number(s):
- US 4107925
- OSTI ID:
- 6482915
- Resource Relation:
- Patent File Date: Filed date 14 Mar 1977
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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