Path: santra!tut!draken!kth!mcvax!uunet!labrea!rutgers!apple!xanadu!michael
From: michael@xanadu.COM (Michael McClary)
Newsgroups: alt.fusion,sci.space,rec.autos.tech
Subject: Re: Stirling engines & fusion, rev. 2
Keywords: stirling engines fusion
Message-ID: <fGBXa#2Cnbui=michael@xanadu.COM>
Date: 27 Apr 89 13:36:26 GMT
References: <1989Apr25.132913.1300@mntgfx.mentor.com>
Reply-To: michael@xanadu.UUCP (Michael McClary)
Organization: Xanadu Operating Company, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 17
Xref: santra alt.fusion:733 sci.space:9465

In article <1989Apr25.132913.1300@mntgfx.mentor.com>
mbutts@mntgfx.mentor.com (Mike Butts @ APD x1302) describes
stirling engines of the crankshaft kind.  There is another
that is interesting:

This sort has a fixed cylinder, a displacer piston mounted
to the power piston by a spring, a strong magnet mounted
on the power piston, and coils mounted on the cylinder.
The mass of the displacer piston and the spring tying
it to the power piston form a simple harmonic oscilator,
and at its resonant frequency the displacer lags the power
piston by 90 degrees.

Once you apply a temperature difference, initial small vibrations
at the resonant frequency become amplified by the engine, making
it self-starting.  The magnet and coil form an alternator, and
power is efficiently extracted as electricity.