Stirling engine with daily cycles

[FALCON_12]

Hello,

My specialty is not thermals and I apologize in advance to anyone who might be offended by my idea.

The usual precautions having been taken, here is the idea:

During the day, using the sun to raise the temperature of a volume V of gas which deforms mechanically drives an alternator via a ratchet wheel and a piston. Any cooling of the volume of gas induced by drops in illumination (clouds) and/or changes in outside temperature (wind) cause the piston to retract, but when it returns, thanks to the ratchet wheel, it causes the turn the alternator again.

At night the volume V cools down the piston returns to its position 0.

During the day, the high temperature is obtained by tube solar collectors or concentrators.

A kind of nycthemeral cycle Stirling engine (1) in a way...

Well... I expect a volley of green wood, but I like the risk ;)

1)- nothing to do with the famous rap group.

[Remundo]

Hello Falcon

the idea is not bad in itself.

It's not Stirling strictly speaking. But it's inspired by it.

expanding air with heat pushes the piston one way, contracting with cold will push it back the other way.

but it is a bit rudimentary operation.

I doubt on the other hand that we can obtain more than a few hundred Watts by this principle "with the Sun". It would be better to have a solar dish to concentrate the sun.

[FALCON_12]

Hello Falcon

the idea is not bad in itself.

It's not Stirling strictly speaking. But it's inspired by it.

expanding air with heat pushes the piston one way, contracting with cold will push it back the other way.

but it is a bit rudimentary operation.

I doubt on the other hand that we can obtain more than a few hundred Watts by this principle "with the Sun". It would be better to have a solar dish to concentrate the sun.

Are you saying this because the yield of a stirling is all the greater as Tf/Tc is small? in this case couldn't we raise Tc to as much as we can with a parabola in a conventional stirling? we would also have a Tf which is equal to Tnuit, which we do not have with it.

Such a system would also pose fewer mechanical problems: the return trips of the piston are much less frequent, therefore less wear and its overall design is much simpler and more affordable for a particular handyman, it seems to me!

On the other hand, the force required from the piston will be much greater. In a single stroke it will have to deliver all the energy of the day on days of constant sunshine but it seems to me that this does not represent mechanical constraints out of proportion if we stick to individual stirlings of a few kW.

[Remundo]

1 round trip per day seems to me a movement of soporific slowness very complicated to exploit.

working with huge volumes of pressurized air requires an airtight and potentially reinforced tank

That doesn't seem very realistic to me.

we prefer to have a more concentrated heat and to make work a small motor with faster cycles.