This is an introductory part of the cycle of the dedicated articles Internal combustion engine, a brief excursion in history, telling about the evolution of the DVS. Also, the article will be affected by the first cars.

The following parts will describe in detail various DVS:

Row-piston
Rotor
Turboactive
Jet

The engine was installed on a boat that was able to rise upstream of the Sona River. A year later, after the test, the brothers received a patent for their invention, signed by Napoleon Bonopart, for a period of 10 years.

It would be more correct to call this engine with reactive, since his work was to pushing the water from the pipe located under the bottom of the boat ...

The engine consisted of a ignition chamber and combustion chamber, air bellows, fuel-dispensing device and ignition device. Coal dust served fuel.

The bellows injected the air jet mixed with coal dust into the ignition chamber where the glowing wick brought a mixture. After that, a partially imposed mixture (coal dust burns relatively slowly) hit the combustion chamber where he completely burned and extension occurred.
Next, the pressure of the gases pushed the water from the exhaust pipe, which forced the boat to move, after that the cycle was repeated.
The engine worked in a pulse mode with a frequency of ~ 12 and / minute.

After some time, the brothers had improved the fuel adding a resin into it, and later replaced it with oil and constructed a simple injection system.
For the next ten years, the project has not received any development. Claude went to England in order to promote the idea of \u200b\u200bthe engine, but she cleared all the money and did not achieve anything, and Joseph took up his photo and became the author of the world's first photo "View from the window".

In France, in the House-Museum of Niepsum, a replica "Pyreolophore" is set.

A little later, de Riva watered his engine to a four-wheeled wagon, which, according to historians, became the first car from the engine.

About Alessandro Volta.

Volta for the first time placed plate from zinc and copper in acid to obtain a continuous electric current by creating the world's first chemical current source ("Volt Poll").

In 1776, the Volta invented the gas pistol - "Volta Pistol", in which the gas exploded from the electrical spark.

In 1800 built a chemical battery, which made it possible to receive electricity with the help of chemical reactions.

The name of the Volta is called the unit of measurement of electrical voltage - volts.

A. - cylinder, B. - "spark plug, C. - piston, D. - "Air" ball with hydrogen, E. - ratchet, F. - valve dump of exhaust gases, G. - Handle to control the valve.

The hydrogen was stored in the "air" ball with a connected pipe with a cylinder. The supply of fuel and air, as well as the approach of the mixture and the release of exhaust gases was carried out manually, with the help of levers.

Principle of operation:

Through the reset valve of the exhaust gases into the combustion chamber was air.
The valve closed.
A tap of hydrogen feed from a ball opened.
Crane closed.
By pressing the button fed an electrical discharge on the "candle".
The mixture flashed and raised the piston up.
Opened valve discharge valve gases.
The piston fell under his own weight (he was heavy) and pulled the rope, which turned the wheels through the block.

After that, the cycle was repeated.

In 1813, de Riva built another car. It was a wagon of about six meters long, with two-dimensional diameter wheels and weighing almost tons.
The car was able to drive 26 meters with a cargo of stones. (about 700 pounds) and four men, at a speed of 3 km / h.
With each cycle, the car moved to 4-6 meters.

Few of his contemporaries seriously belonged to this invention, and the French Academy of Sciences argued that the internal combustion engine would never compete with a steam engine.

In 1833., American inventor Lemuel Wellman Wright, registered a patent for a two-stroke gas engine of internal combustion with water-cooled.
(see below) In his book, Gas and Oil Engines wrote about Wright Engine the following:

"The engine drawing is quite functional, and the details are carefully worked out. The explosion of the mixture acts directly on the piston, which through the connecting rod rotates the crank shaft. In appearance, the engine resembles a high-pressure steam machine, in which the gas and air are supplied with the pumps from individual tanks. The mixture in spherical containers was settled during the lifting of the piston in the NTC (the upper dead point) and pushed it down / up. At the end of the clock, the valve opened and discharged exhaust gases into the atmosphere. "

It is not known whether this engine has ever been built, but there is its drawing:

In 1838., English engineer William Barnett received a patent for three internal combustion engines.

The first engine is a two-way one-sided action. (fuel burned only on one side of the piston) with separate gas and air pumps. The insertion of the mixture occurred in a separate cylinder, and then the burning mixture flowed into the working cylinder. The intake and release was carried out through the mechanical valve.

The second engine repeated the first, but there was a double action, that is, the burning took place alternately from both sides of the piston.

The third engine was also a double action, but had intake and exhaust windows in the cylinder walls open at the time reaching the extreme point of the extreme point (as in modern two-stakeholders). This allowed to automatically produce exhaust gases and insert a new charge of the mixture.

A distinctive feature of the Barnett engine was that the fresh mixture was compressed by the piston before ignition.

Drawing of one of the Barnett engines:

In 1853-57, Italian Inventors Economy Barzantti and Felice Mattecchi developed and patented a two-cylinder internal combustion engine. Power 5 l / s.
The patent was issued by the London Bureau as Italian legislation could not guarantee sufficient protection.

The construction of the prototype was charged with Bauer & Co. Of Milan » (Helvetica), and completed in early 1863. The success of the engine, which was much more efficient than the steam machine, was so great that the company began to receive orders from all over the world.

Early, single-cylinder engine Barzantty Mattecchi:

The model of the two-cylinder engine Barzantty Mattecchi:

Matteuchchi and Barzantti concluded an agreement on the manufacture of an engine with one of the Belgian companies. Barzantti left for Belgium to observe the work personally and suddenly died of typhus. With the death of Barzantty, all the work on the engine was discontinued, and Matteuchchi returned to her former work as a hydraulic engineer.

In 1877, Matteuchchi argued that he from Barzantti was the main creators of the internal combustion engine, and the engine built by August, Otto very much looked at the engine Barzantty-Mattecchi.

Documents concerning Barzantti and Matteuchchi patents are stored in the Museo Galileo library archive in Florence.

The most important invention of Nicolaus Otto was the engine with four-stroke cycle - Otto cycle. This cycle to this day underlies the work of most gas and gasoline engines.

The four-stroke cycle was the largest technical achievement of OTTO, but soon it was found that several years before his invention, the same principle of engine operation was described by the French engineer Bo de Rocha (see above). The group of French industrialists challenged Otto's patent in court, the court found them arguing convincing. Otto's rights that aroused out of his patent were significantly reduced, including its monopoly right to a four-stroke cycle.

Despite the fact that competitors have established the release of four-stroke engines, spent by many years of experience, the Otto model was still the best, and the demand for it did not stop. By 1897, about 42 thousand such engines of different power were released. However, the fact that light gas was used as a fuel, the area of \u200b\u200btheir use was strongly narrowed.
The number of luminaire plants was insignificantly even in Europe, and in Russia there were only two in Russia - in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In 1865., French inventor Pierre Hugo received a patent for a car a vertical single-cylinder double-acting engine, in which two rubber pumps were used to supply the mixture, resulting from the crankshaft.

Later, Hugo constructed a horizontal engine similar to the Lenoara engine.

Science Museum, London.

In 1870, Austro-Hungarian inventor Samuel Marcus Siegfried constructed an internal combustion engine working on liquid fuel and installed it on a four-wheel cart.

Today, this car is well known as the "The First Marcus Car".

In 1887, in collaboration with Bromovsky & Schulz, Markus built a second car - "Second Marcus Car".

In 1872., The American inventor patented a two-cylinder internal combustion engine of a constant pressure operating on kerosene.
Brighton called his engine "READY MOTOR".

The first cylinder performed the function of the compressor that was injected into the combustion chamber, which continuously arrived kerosene. In the combustion chamber, the mixture was mounted and through the spool mechanism came to the second - the working cylinder. An essential difference from other engines was that the fuel-air mixture was burning gradually and at constant pressure.

Interested in thermodynamic aspects of the engine, can read about the "Breiton cycle".

In 1878.Scottish Sir Engineer (in 1917 dedicated to knights) Developed the first two-stroke engine with the ignition of a compressed mixture. He patented him in England in 1881.

The engine worked in a curious way: air and fuel was supplied to the right cylinder, it was mixed there and this mixture was pushed into the left cylinder, where the combustion of the mixture from the candle took place. Expansion occurred, both pistons lowered, from the left cylinder (through the left nozzle) Exhaust gases were thrown out, and a new portion of air and fuel was absorbed into the right cylinder. Following the inertia, the pistons rose and the cycle was repeated.

In 1879., built quite reliable gasoline two-stroke Engine and received a patent on it.

However, the real genius of Benz manifested itself in the fact that in subsequent projects he managed to combine various devices (choke, ignition with sparks with battery, spark plug, carburetor, clutch, gearbox and radiator) On its products, which in turn has become a standard for all mechanical engineering.

In 1883, Benz founded Benz & Cie on the production of gas engines and patented in 1886 four-stroke The engine that it is used on its cars.

Thanks to the success of "Benz & Cie", Benz was able to design of slaughtered crews. By combining the experience of making engines and long-standing hobbies - construction of bicycles, by 1886 he built his first car and called him "Benz Patent Motorwagen".

The design is strongly reminded by a three-wheeling bike.

Single-cylinder four-dimensional internal combustion engine with a working volume of 954 cm3. Mounted on " Benz Patent Motorwagen.".

The engine was equipped with a large flywheel (used not only for uniform rotation, but also for launch), a 4.5 liter gas tank, an evaporative type carburetor and a spool valve through which the fuel was entered into the combustion chamber. The ignition was made by the spark plug in the Benz's own design, the voltage was supplied from the Rumkor's coil.

Cooling was a water, but not closed cycle, but evaporative. Steam went into the atmosphere, so that the car had to be charged not only with gasoline, but also water.

The engine developed the power of 0.9 hp With 400 rpm and accelerated the car to 16 km / h.

Karl Benz for the "Board" of his car.

A little later, in 1896, Carl Benz invented the opposite engine (or flat engine) In which the pistons reaches the top dead point at the same time, thereby balancing each other.

Museum "Mercedes-Benz" in Stuttgart.

In 1882., English Engineer James Atkinson came up with the Atkinson's cycle and the Atkinson engine.

Atkinson's engine is essentially an engine operating by four-stroke otto cyclebut with a changed crank-connecting mechanism. The difference was that in Atkinson's engine, all four tacts occurred in one turn of the crankshaft.

The use of the Atkinson cycle in the engine made it possible to reduce the consumption of fuel and reduce the noise level when working due to less pressure during the release. In addition, this engine did not require a gearbox to drive the gas distribution mechanism, since the opening of the valves led the crankshaft.

Despite a number of advantages (including bypassing OTTO patents) The engine has not been widespread due to the complexity of manufacturing and some other flaws.
The Atkinson cycle allows you to get the best environmental performance and efficiency, but requires high revolutions. On small turns, it gives a relatively small moment and can stumble.

Now the Atkinson's engine is used on the hybrid cars "Toyota Prius" and "Lexus HS 250H".

In 1884., British engineer Edward Butler, on the London Bicycle Show "Stanley Cycle Show" demonstrated the drawings of a three-wheel car with internal combustion gasoline engineAnd in 1885 built it and showed it at the same exhibition, calling "Velocycle". Also, Butler was the first one who used the word petrol.

Patent for "Velocycle" was issued in 1887.

The "VELOCYCLE" was installed single-cylinder, four-stroke gasoline engine equipped with an ignition coil, a carburetor, choke and liquid cooling. The engine developed the power of about 5 hp With a volume of 600 cm3, and accelerated the car to 16 km / h.

Over the years, Batler has improved the characteristics of his vehicle, but it was deprived of the possibility of testing it because of the "Law of the Red Flag" (published in 1865) According to which the vehicles should not exceed the speed of over 3 km / h. In addition, three people were in the car, one of which was supposed to go before the car with the Red Flag (Such is safety measures) .

In the magazine "English Mechanic" from 1890, Butler wrote - "The authorities prohibit the use of a car on the roads, as a result, I refuse to further development."

Due to the lack of public interest in the car, Butler disassembled it on scrap metal, and sold the patent rights of Harry J. Louuson (bicycle manufacturer) which continued the engine production for use on boats.

The Batler himself moved to the creation of stationary and ship engines.

In 1891., Herbert Eykroyd Stewart in collaboration with the company "Richard Hornsby and Sons" built the engine "HORNSBY-AKROYD", in which the fuel (kerosene) under pressure was injected in additional camar (because of the form it was called "hot ball")mounted on the cylinder head and connected with a combustion chamber by a narrow passage. The fuel flammped from the hot walls of the extra chamber and rushed into the combustion chamber.

1. Additional camera (Hot Ball).
2. Cylinder.
3. Piston.
4. Carter.

To start the engine, a soldering lamp was used, which heated an additional chamber (after launch it was heated by exhaust gases). Because of this, the engine "HORNSBY-AKROYD", which was the predecessor of the diesel engine designed by Rudolph Diesel, often called "Semi-Diesel". However, a year later, Eykroyd improved his engine adding a "water shirt" (patent from 1892), which made it possible to increase the temperature in the combustion chamber due to an increase in the degree of compression, and now there was no need for an additional heating source.

In 1893., Rudolph Diesel received patents on a heat engine and a modified "carno cycle" called "Method and apparatus for the conversion of high temperature to work".

In 1897, at the "Augsburg Machine-Building Plant" (since 1904 MAN), with the financial participation of the company Friedrich Krupp and the Zulzer brothers, the first functioning Diesel Rudolph Diesel was created
The engine power was 20 horsepower at 172 revolutions per minute, efficiency of 26.2% with a weight of five tons.
This is much superior to existing OTO engines with efficiency of 20% and ship vapor turbines with efficiency 12%, which caused live industry interest in different countries.

The diesel engine was four-stroke. The inventor found that the efficiency of the internal combustion engine increases from increasing the degree of compression of the combustible mixture. But it is impossible to compress the combustible mixture strongly, because the pressure and temperature increases and it is self-proposal ahead of time. Therefore, the diesel decided to compress it is not a combustible mixture, but clean air and the end of the compression inject fuel into the cylinder under strong pressure.
Since the compressed air temperature reached 600-650 ° C, the fuel was self-proposal, and the gases, expanding, moved the piston. Thus, diesel managed to significantly increase the efficiency of the engine, get rid of the ignition system, and instead of a carburetor use high pressure fuel pump
In 1933, Elling prophetically wrote: "When I started working on a gas turbine in 1882, I was firmly confident that my invention would be in demand in the aircraft industry."

Unfortunately, Elling died in 1949, and without surviving the era of turbojet aviation.

The only photo that managed to find.

Perhaps someone will find anything about this person in the Norwegian Museum of Technology.

In 1903., Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, in the journal "Scientific Review" published an article "Investigation of world spaces with reactive devices", where he first proved that the device capable of making a space flight is a rocket. The article was also offered the first project of a long-range missile. The body was an oblong metal chamber equipped with liquid jet engine (which is also an internal combustion engine) . As a fuel and oxidant, he offered to use liquid hydrogen and oxygen respectively.

Probably on this rocket and space note and it is worth finish the historical part, since the 20th century came and the internal combustion engines began to be made everywhere.

Philosophical Afterword ...

K.E. Tsiolkovsky believed that in the foreseeable future, people will learn to live if not forever, then at least very long. In this regard, there will be little space (resources) on Earth and will need ships for resettlement to other planets. Unfortunately, something in this world went wrong, and with the help of the first missiles, people decided to simply destroy themselves like ...

Thanks to everyone who read.

All rights reserved © 2016
Any use of materials is allowed only with an active reference to the source.

In just about a hundred years ago, internal combustion engines had to conquer the place they occupy in modern automotive in a cruel competitive struggle. Then their superiority did not seem so obvious as today. Indeed, a steam engine is the main rival of a gasoline motor - possessed compared to it with huge advantages: silent, ease of power regulation, beautiful traction characteristics and striking "oku-binding", allowing to work on any form of fuel from firewood to gasoline. But ultimately, the economy, ease and reliability of internal combustion engines took over and forced to reconcile with their disadvantages, as inevitability.
In the 1950s, with the advent of gas turbines and rotary engines, the assault storming of the monopoly position occupyed by the engines of internal combustion in the automotive industry, the assault, which was still not crowned with success. At about the same years, attempted to bring a new engine to the scene, in which the cost-effectiveness and reliability of a gasoline engine with silent and "omnivorous" of the steam plant is strikingly combined. This is the famous external combustion engine that Scottish priest Robert Stirling patented on September 27, 1816 (English Patent No. 4081).

Process physics

The principle of action of all the thermal engines without exception is based on the expansion of the heated gas, a large mechanical work is performed than it is required to compress cold. To demonstrate this, enough bottles and two saucepans with hot and cold water. At first, the bottle is lowered into the ice water, and when the air is cooled in it, the neck is plugged with a plug and are rapid in hot water. After a few seconds, cotton is distributed and the gas heated in the bottle pushes the plug by performing mechanical work. A bottle can be returned to ice water again - the cycle will repeat.
In the cylinders, pistons and intricate levers of the first stirling machine, this process was almost exactly reproduced, until the inventor realized that part of the heat was taken away from the gas during cooling, it can be used for partial heating. We need only some kind of container in which it would be possible to store heat taken from the gas during cooling, and again give it when heated.
But, alas, even this very important improvement was not saved by the stirling engine. By 1885, the results achieved here were very mediocre: 5-7 percent kp, 2 liters from. Power, 4 tons of weight and 21 cubic meters occupied space.
External combustion engines were not even saved by the success of another design developed by the Swedish Engineer Erickson. Unlike Stirling, he suggested heating and cooling the gas not at a constant volume, but at constant pressure. 8 1887 Several thousand small Ericson engines perfectly worked in printing houses, houses, in mines, on ships. They filled out water tanks, led the effect of elevators. Erickson tried to even adapt them to drive carriages, but they were too heavy. In Russia before the revolution, a large number of such engines were produced under the name "Heat and Strength".
However, attempts to increase power up to 250 liters. from. ended with a complete failure. The machine with a cylinder with a diameter of 4.2 meters developed less than 100 liters. e., Fire cameras burned out, and the ship on which engines were installed, died.
Unfortunately unfortunately spread up with these weak masteodons as soon as powerful, compact and light benzomotors and diesel engines appeared. And suddenly, in the 1960s, after almost 80 years old about "Stirling" and "Erixonakh" (we will conditionally call them so by analogy with Diesel) as the formidable rivals of internal combustion engines. These conversations do not subside and today. What explains such a steep turn in views?

Price of methodicity

When you learn about the old technical idea that has been revived in modern technology, the question immediately arises: what prevented its implementation earlier? What was the problem, that "hook", without a decision of which she could not make a way to life? And it almost always turns out that with his revival, the old idea is obliged to either a new technological method, or a new design, to which the predecessors or a new material did not think. The external combustion engine can be considered the rarest exception.
Theoretical calculations show that kp. "Stirling" and "Ericksons" can reach 70 percent - more than any other engine. And this means that the failures of the predecessors were explained secondary, in principle with eliminated factors. The right choice of parameters and applications, a scrupulous study of the operation of each node, thorough processing and finishing of each part made it possible to realize the advantages of the cycle. Already the first experimental samples were given by KPD 39 percent! (KPD Petrol engines and diesel engines, which were worked out for years, respectively, 28-30 and 32-35 percent.) What opportunities "viewed" in due time and stirling and ericson?
The very container in which alternately is inhibited, then heat is given. The calculation of the regenerator in those times was simply impossible: the science of heat transfer did not exist. Its sizes were taken on the peephole, and how the calculations show, the efficiency of the external combustion engines is very dependent on the quality of the regenerator. True, its poor work can be used to a certain extent to the increase in pressure.
The second reason for failure was that the first installations operated on air at atmospheric pressure: their dimensions were treated huge, and the power is small.
By bringing kpd. Regenerator up to 98 percent and filling a closed circuit with a compressed to 100 atmospheres with hydrogen or helium, the engineers of our days increased the cost-effectiveness and power of "stirlings", which even in this form showed by KPD. Higher than in internal combustion engines.
Already one would be enough to talk about installing external combustion engines on cars. But only a high economy is not yet exhausted the advantages of these regenerated from the oblivion of machines.

How Stirling works

External combustion engine circuit diagram:
1 - fuel nozzle;
2 - exhaust pipe;
3 - air heater elements;
4 - air heater;
5 - hot gases;
6 - hot cylinder space;
7 - regenerator;
8 - cylinder;
9 - cooler ribs;
10 - cold space;
11 - working piston;
12 - rhombic drive;
13 - the rod of the working piston;
14 - synchronizing gears;
15 - Camera combustion;
16 - heater tubes;
17 - hot air;
18 - piston-displacer;
19 - air actor;
20 - supply of cooling water;
21 - seal;
22 - buffer volume;
23 - seal;
24 - piston piston-displacer;
25 - piston pusher;
26 - yarm of the working piston;
27 - Finger of the Youth of the Work Piston;
28 - piston-oscillator rod;
29 - yarm of the piston-oscillator;
30 - crankshafts.
Red background - heating circuit;
dotted background - Cooling circuit

In the modern design of "Stirling", working on liquid fuel, - three contours with each other only heat contact. This is the outline of the working fluid (usually hydrogen or helium), the contour of heating and the cooling circuit. The main purpose of the heating contour is to maintain a high temperature at the top of the working circuit. Cooling circuit supports low temperature at the bottom of the working circuit. The outline of the working fluid itself is closed.
The contour of the working body. In the cylinder 8, two pistons are moving - working 11 and piston-oscillator 18. The movement of the working piston Up leads to the compression of the working fluid, its movement is caused by the expansion of the gas and is accompanied by the performance of useful work. The movement of the piston-displacer is squeezing the gas into the bottom, cooled cylinder cavity. The movement of it down corresponds to the heating of the gas. Rhombic drive 12 informs pistons moving corresponding to four cycle clocks ((these tacts are shown in the diagram).
Takt I. - cooling of the working fluid. The piston-oscillator 18 moves up, squeezing the working fluid through the regenerator 7, in which the heat of the heated gas is intensified, into the lower, cooled part of the cylinder. The working piston 11 is located in NMT.
Takt II. - Compression of the working body. The energy stored in the compressed buffer volume gas 22 reports the working piston 11 movement upwards accompanied by a cold working body compression.
Tact III. - Heating the working fluid. The piston-oscillator 18, almost stuck to the working piston 11, displaces the gas in the hot space through the regenerator 7, in which heat is returned to the gas, stored during cooling.
Tact IV. - Expansion of the working body - a worker. Heating in hot space, gas expands and makes a useful work. Some of it is inhibited in the compressed buffer volume gas for the subsequent compression of the cold working fluid. The rest is removed from the motor shafts.
Contour heating. Air fan is injected into the air 19, passes through the elements of the 3 heater, heats up and enters fuel injectors. The resulting hot gases heat the tube 16 of the heater of the working fluid, the elements 3 of the heater are streamlined and, by giving its heat to air to burn fuel, are thrown out through the outlet 2 into the atmosphere.
Cooling outline. Water through the nozzles 20 is fed to the lower part of the cylinder and, the flowing edges of the 9th cooler, continuously cools them.

"Stirling" instead of DVS

The first tests carried out by half a century ago showed that Stirling is almost perfectly infused. He has no carburetor, high pressure nozzles, ignition systems, valves, candles. The pressure in the cylinder, although it rises almost up to 200 atm, but not an explosion, as in an internal combustion engine, and smoothly. The engine does not need silencers. Rhomboid kinematic drive piston is completely balanced. No vibrations, no rattling.
It is said that, even by attaching a hand to the engine, it is not always possible to determine whether it works or not. These qualities of the automotive engine are especially important, for in large cities, there is an acute problem to reduce noise.
But another quality is "omnory." In fact, there is no such source of heat that would not be suitable for the "Stirling" drive. The car with such an engine can work on firewood, on straw, on the corner, on kerosene, on the nuclear stuel, even on the sun's rays. It can work on the warmth, stored in the melt of some salt or oxide. For example, the melt of 7 liters of aluminum oxide replaces 1 liter of gasoline. Such universality will not only be able to always rescue the driver who fell into trouble. She will solve the sharply problem of the smoke of cities. Driving to the city, the driver turns on the burner and melts salt in the tank. In the city, the fuel does not burn: the engine runs on the melt.
And regulation? To slow down power, it is enough to release from a closed engine circuit into a steel cylinder the desired amount of gas. The automation immediately reduces the fuel supply so that the temperature remains constant regardless of the amount of gas. To increase power, the gas is injected from the balloon again into the contour.
But in terms of cost and by weight, "stirling" is still inferior to internal combustion engines. Per 1 l. from. They account for 5 kg, which is much larger than that of gasoline and diesel engines. But we should not forget that these are also the first, not communicated to the high degree of perfection of the model.
Theoretical calculations show that, with other things being equal, "Stirling" requires smaller pressures. This is an important dignity. And if they have more constructive advantages, it is possible that they will be the most formidable rival of internal combustion engines in the automotive industry. And not a turbine at all.

"Stirling" from GM

Serious work on improving the external combustion engine, which began 150 years after its invention, has already brought its fruits. A variety of design options for the styling cycle are proposed. There are motor projects with an inclined washer to regulate the stroke of the pistons, a rotary engine is patented, in one of the rotary sections of which compression occurs, in the other - the expansion, and the supply and heat dissipation is carried out in the connecting cavities. The maximum pressure in the cylinders of individual samples reaches 220 kg / cm 2, and the average efficient pressure is up to 22 and 27 kg / cm 2 or more. Economitivity is brought to 150 g / hp / hour.
General Motors has reached the greatest progress, which in the 1970s built a V-shaped "stirling" with a conventional crank-connecting mechanism. One cylinder is working, the other is a compression. The worker is only a working piston, and the piston-displacer is in a compression cylinder. Between the cylinders there are heater, regenerator and cooler. The phase shift angle, in other words, the angle of the lag of one cylinder from the other, this "Stirling" is 90 °. The speed of one piston should be the maximum at the moment when the speed of another is zero (in the upper and lower dead points). The shift of the phases in the movement of the pistons is achieved by the location of the cylinders at an angle of 90 °. Constructively, this is the easiest "stirling". But it is inferior to the engine with a rhombic crank mechanism in equilibrium. For a complete balancing of inertia forces in the V-shaped engine, the number of its cylinders should be increased from two to eight.

Schematic diagram of V-shaped "Stirling":
1 is a working cylinder;
2 - working piston;
3 - heater;
4 - regenerator;
5 - heat insulating coupling;
6 - cooler;
7 is a compression cylinder.

The operating cycle in such an engine proceeds as follows.
In the working cylinder 1 gas (hydrogen or helium) heated, in another, compression 7 - cooled. When the piston moves in the cylinder 7, the gas is compressed - compression tact. At this time, it starts to move down the piston 2 in the cylinder 1. The gas from the cold cylinder 7 flows into hot 1, passing sequentially through the cooler 6, the regenerator 4 and the heater 3 - heating tact. Hot gas expands in cylinder 1, making work, - expansion tact. When the piston 2 moves in the cylinder 1, the gas is pumped through the regenerator 4 and the cooler 6 to the cylinder 7 - cooling tact.
Such a scheme "Stirling" is most convenient for reversing. In the combined housing of the heater, the regenerator and the cooler (they will be discussed later) dampers are made for this). If you translate them from one extreme position to another, then the cold cylinder will become hot, and hot - cold, and the engine will rotate in the opposite direction.
The heater is a set of tubes from heat-resistant stainless steel, for which the working gas passes. The tubes are heated by the flame of the burner adapted for burning various liquid fuels. The heat from the heated gas is reserves in the regenerator. This node is of great importance for high efficiency. It will fulfill its purpose if it will be transmitted about three times more heat than in a heater, and the process will take less than 0.001 seconds. In a word, this is a high-speed heat battery, and the heat transfer speed between the regenerator and the gas is 30,000 degrees per second. The regenerator whose efficiency is 0.98 units, consists of a cylindrical housing, in which several washers made from a wire roller (wire diameter 0.2 mm) are sequentially located. To heat from it, the refrigerator is not transmitted, the thermal insulating coupling is installed between these units. Finally, the cooler. It is made in the form of a water shirt on the pipeline.
The power of "Stirling" is regulated by changing the pressure of the working gas. For this purpose, the engine is equipped with a gas cylinder and a special compressor.

Advantages and disadvantages

To evaluate the prospects for the use of "Stirling" on cars, analyze its advantages and disadvantages. Let's start with one of the most important parameters for the thermal engine of parameters, the so-called theoretical efficiency for "Stirling" it is determined by the following formula:

η \u003d 1 - TX / TG

Where η - efficiency, TX - the temperature of the cold volume and TG is the temperature of the "hot" volume. Quantify this parameter at "Stirling" - 0.50. This is much more than the best gas turbines, gasoline and diesel engines, in which theoretical efficiency is equal to 0.28; 0.30; 0.40.
As an external combustion engine. Stirling "can work on various fuels: gasoline, kerosene, diesel, gaseous, and even on solid. Such a fuel characteristics such as a cetane and octane number, ash content, a buzzing temperature during combustion outside the engine cylinder, do not matter for stirling. So that he worked on different fuels, it is not necessary for large alterations - just replace the burner.
The external combustion engine in which the burning flows stably with a constant coefficient of excess air equal to 1.3. It highlights significantly less than the internal combustion engine, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides.
Small noise of "Stirling" is explained by a low degree of compression (from 1.3 to 1.5). The pressure in the cylinder rises smoothly, and not an explosion, as in a gasoline or diesel engine. The absence of fluctuations in the gases column in the graduation path determines the feasibility of the exhaust, which is confirmed by the tests of the engine developed by the company "Phillips" together with Ford for the bus.
Stirling is characterized by low oil consumption and high wear resistance due to the absence of active substances in the cylinder and relatively low working gas temperature, and its reliability is higher than that of internal combustion engines known to us, since it does not have a complex gas distribution mechanism.
The important advantage of "stirling" as a car engine is increased adaptability to load changes. It, for example, is 50 percent higher than that of a carburetor motor, due to which it is possible to reduce the number of steps in the gearbox. However, it is impossible to completely abandon the clutch and gearbox, as in a vapor car.
But why does the engine with such obvious advantages still have not found practical application? The reason is simple - he has a lot of confused flaws. The main among them is a great difficulty in management and regulation. There are also other "reefs", which are not so easy to get around and designers and production workers. - In particular, the pistons need very effective seals that must withstand high pressure (up to 200 kg / cm2) and prevent oil entering the working cavity. In any case, the 25-year work of the company "Phillips" on the finishing of its engine has not yet been able to make it suitable for mass applications on cars. An important meaning is characteristic of the "Stirling" - the need to divert a large amount of heat with cooling water. In internal combustion engines, a significant part of the heat is thrown into the atmosphere along with the spent gases. In Sterling, only 9 percent of the heat obtained during the combustion of fuel takes place in the exhaust. If in the gasoline engine of internal combustion with cooling water is removed from 20 to 25 percent of heat, then in "Stirling" - up to 50 percent. This means that the car with such an engine must have a radiator about 2-2.5 times more than that of a similar gasoline motor. The lack of "Stirling" is its high proportion compared to the common internal combustion system. A rather significant minus is the difficulty of increasing the speed: already at 3600 rpm significantly increase the hydraulic losses and the heat exchange is worse. Finally. "Stirling" is inferior to the usual internal combustion engine in the pickup.
Work on the creation and finishing of automotive "stirlings", including for passenger cars, continue. We can assume that currently fundamental issues have been solved. However, a lot of things on the finish. The use of light alloys can be reduced by the proportion of the engine, but it will still be higher. than at the motor internal combustion, due to the higher pressure of the working gas. Probably, the external combustion engine will be used primarily on trucks, especially the military - due to its undepair to fuel.

The aggravation of global problems requiring an urgent solution (exhaustion of natural resources, environmental pollution, etc.), led at the end of the 20th century to the need to adopt a number of international and Russian legislation in the field of ecology, environmental management and energy saving. The main requirements of these laws are aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, resource- and energy saving, translating motor transport to environmentally friendly motor fuels, etc.

One of the promising ways to solve these problems is the development and widespread introduction of energy-forming systems based on engines (machines) of Stirling. The principle of operation of such engines was proposed in 1816 by Scottish Robert Stirling. These are machines operating on a closed thermodynamic cycle, in which the cyclic processes of compression and expansion occur at different levels of temperature, and the flow control of the working fluid is carried out by changing its volume.

The stirling engine is a unique heat machine, since its theoretical power is equal to the maximum power of thermal machines (Carno cycle). It works at the expense of thermal expansion of gas, followed by compression of gas during its cooling. The engine contains some constant volume of working gas, which moves between the "cold" part (usually having the ambient temperature) and a "hot" part, which is heated by burning various fuels or at the expense of other heat sources. Heating is made outside, so the stirling engine belongs to external combustion engines (DVPT). Since, compared to the engine, in Stirling engines, the combustion process is carried out outside the working cylinders and is equilibrium, the working cycle is implemented in a closed inner contour at relatively low pressure raises in the engine cylinders, the smooth nature of the heat-hydraulic processes of the inner circuit working fluid and in the absence of a gas distribution mechanism valves.

It should be noted that the production of stirling engines has already begun abroad, the technical characteristics of which are superior to DVS and gas turbine installations (GTU). So, the stirling engines "Philips", "STM Inc.", "Daimler Benz", "Solo", "United Stirling" with a capacity from 5 to 1200 kW have kp. More than 42%, the working resource is more than 40 thousand hours and the specific mass from 1.2 to 3.8 kg / kW.

In world reviews for energy-forming techniques, the stirling engine is considered as the most promising in the 21st century. Low noise, low toxicity of exhaust gases, the ability to work on various fuels, a large resource, good torque characteristics - all makes stirling engines more competitive in comparison with DVS.

Where can stirling engines?

Autonomous energy installations with stirling engines (stirling generators) can be used in the regions of Russia, where there are no reserves of traditional energy and gas. You can use peat, wood, shale, biogas, coal, agricultural waste and wood processing industry as fuel. Accordingly, the problem disappears with the energy supply of many regions.

Such energy installations are ecologically clean, since the concentration of harmful substances in combustion products is almost two orders of magnitude lower than that of diesel power plants. Therefore, stirring generators can be installed in close proximity to the consumer, which will allow to get rid of losses for electricity transmission. A 100 kW generator can provide electricity and warmth any location with a population of more than 30-40 people.

Autonomous energy installations with stirling engines will be widely used in the oil and gas industry of the Russian Federation when developing new fields (especially in the conditions of the Far North and the shelf of the Arctic seas, where there is a serious energy transport of exploration, drilling, welding and other works). As a fuel, a crude natural gas, passing petroleum gas and gas condensate can be used here.

Now in the Russian Federation every year disappears to 10 billion cubic meters. m associated gas. It is difficult to collect it and expensive, to use as motor fuel for internal combustion engines it is impossible due to the ever-changing fractional composition. So that the gas does not pollute the atmosphere, he simply burns. At the same time, its use as a motor fuel will give a significant economic effect.

3-5 kW power installation is advisable to use in automation, communication and cathode protection systems on trunk gas pipelines. And more powerful (from 100 to 1000 kW) - for electrical and heat supply of large watches of gazovikov and oilmen. Installations Over 1 thousand kW can be applied on ground and sea drilling facilities of the oil and gas industry.

Problems of creating new engines

The engine proposed by Robert Stirling himself had significant mass-dimensional characteristics and low kp. Due to the complexity of processes in such an engine associated with the continuous movement of the pistons, the first simplified mathematical apparatus was developed only in 1871 by Prague professor at Schmidt. The calculation method proposed by them was based on the ideal model of the Stirling cycle and allowed the engine to create engines with kp. up to 15%. Only by 1953 the Dutch Filips was created the first high-performance stirling engines, which are superior to the characteristics of internal combustion engines.

In Russia, attempts to create domestic stirling engines were undertaken repeatedly, but success did not have. There are several basic problems that restrain their development and widespread use.

First of all, it is the creation of an adequate mathematical model of the design of the stirling machine and the corresponding method of calculation. The complexity of the calculation is determined by the complexity of the implementation of the thermodynamic cycle of stirling in real machines due to nonstationarity of heat and mass exchange in the inner contour - due to the continuous movement of the pistons.

The lack of adequate mathematical models and calculation methods is the main reason for the failures of a number of foreign and domestic enterprises in the development of both engines and stirling refrigeration machines. Without accurate mathematical modeling, the adjustment of the projected machines is becoming transformed into perennial exhausting experimental studies.

Another problem is to create the designs of individual nodes, complications with seals, power regulation, etc. The difficulties of constructive execution are due to the working bodies used, which use helium, nitrogen, hydrogen and air. Helium, for example, has superfluidity that dictates increased requirements for sealing elements of working pistons, etc.

The third problem is a high level of production technology, the need to apply heat-resistant alloys and metals, new methods of their welding and soldering.

A separate question is the manufacture of a regenerator and nozzles for it to ensure, on the one hand, high heat capacity, and on the other - low hydraulic resistance.

Domestic development of stirling machines

Currently, Russia has accumulated sufficient scientific potential to create highly efficient stirling engines. Significant results were achieved in the Stirling Technology Innovation Research Center LLC. Specialists conducted theoretical and experimental studies to develop new methods for calculating highly efficient stirling engines. The main directions of work are related to the use of stirling engines in cogeneration plants and systems for using the heat of exhaust gases, for example, in mini-CHP. As a result, developing techniques and prototype of 3 kW engines were created.

Special attention in the course of research was paid to the development of individual stirling machines and their constructive execution, as well as the creation of new funding schemes for settings of various functional purposes. The proposed technical solutions, taking into account the fact that stirling machines are less expensive to increase the economic efficiency of the application of new engines compared to traditional energy converters.

The production of stirling engines is economically appropriate, taking into account the practically unlimited demand for environmentally friendly and highly efficient energy equipment both in Russia and abroad. However, without the participation and support of the state and large business, the problem of their mass production cannot be solved in full.

How to help the production of stirling engines in Russia?

Obviously, innovative activity (especially the development of basic innovations) is a complex and risky type of economic activity. Therefore, it should rely on the mechanism of state support, especially "at the start", followed by the transition to ordinary market conditions.

The mechanism of creating large-scale production of stirling machines and energy-forming systems based on them could include:
- Direct share budget financing of innovative projects on stirling machines;
- indirect support measures through the liberation of products manufactured by stirling projects, from VAT and other taxes of the federal and regional levels during the first two years, as well as the provision of a tax credit on such products for the next 2-3 years (given that development costs fundamentally new products are inappropriate to include in its price, i.e. in the expenses of the manufacturer or consumer);
- Exception from the taxable base on the inclust of the enterprise's contribution to the financing of stirling projects.

In the future, at the stage of sustainable advancement of energy equipment based on stirling machines in the domestic and foreign markets, replenishment of capital to expand production, technical re-equipment and support of the next projects for the production of new types of equipment can be carried out by profits and sales of shares of successfully developed production, credit resources Commercial banks, as well as attracting foreign investment.

It can be assumed that due to the presence of a technological base and accumulated scientific potential in the design of Stirling machines, in a reasonable financial and technical policy, Russia may already in the near future to become the world leader in the production of new environmentally friendly and highly efficient engines.

In external combustion engines, the fuel combustion process and the source of thermal exposure are separated from the work unit. This category usually includes steam and gas turbines, as well as stirling engines. The first prototypes of such installations were designed for more than two centuries ago and used throughout almost the XIX century.

When powerful and economical energy installations were needed for the rapidly developing industry, the designers came up with replacement with explosive steam engines, where the working body was under high pressure of steam. So there were external combustion engines that have been distributed at the beginning of the XIX century. Only in a few decades, the engines of internal combustion came to change. They cost significantly cheaper as their widespread.

But today the designers are increasingly looking at the external combustion engines released from the widespread use. This is explained by their advantages. The main advantage is that such installations do not need well cleaned and expensive fuel.

External combustion engines are unpretentious, although so far their building and maintenance costs quite expensive.

Stirling's engine

One of the most famous representatives of the family of external combustion engines is a stirling machine. She was invented in 1816, it was repeatedly improved, but afterwards for a long time it was undeservedly forgotten. Now the stirling engine received the second birth. It is successfully used even when exploring the outer space.

The work of the stirling machine is based on a closed thermodynamic cycle. Periodic compression and expansion processes here go at different temperatures. The workflow control occurs by changing its volume.

Stirling engine can operate as a heat pump, pressure generator, cooling devices.

In this engine at a low temperature there is a gas compression, and with high - its expansion. Periodic change in parameters occurs due to the use of a special piston having a function of the displacer. Heat to the working fluid at the same time is supplied from the outside, through the wall of the cylinder. This feature gives the right

Last year, magazine, in the first issue of which readers welcomed A. EinsteinFurnished 85 years.

A few team of the editors continues to publish IRwhose readers you have the honor to be. Although it becomes more difficult to do it every year. For a long time, at the beginning of the new century, the editors had to leave his native residence on the meat street. (Well, in fact, this is a place for banks, and not for some kind of inventors). It helped us however Y. Maslyukov (At that time, Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the Russian Federation for Industry) to move to NIIAA at the metro station "Kaluga". Despite the accurate compliance with the conditions of the contract and the timely payment of the lease, and inspiring the proclamation of the course on innovation by the President and the Government of the Russian Federation, the new director in NIIAA informed us about the eviction of the editorial office "in connection with the production necessity." This, with a decrease in the number of operating in NIIAA, almost 8 times and the corresponding release of areas and, despite the fact that the editors occupied by the editors did not constitute one hundredth of the unbarrible areas of NIIAA.

We were sheltered by Mirea, where we are located last five years. Twice move that it is overrouded, says the proverb. But the editors keeps and will hold out how much can. And it will be able to exist as long as the magazine "Inventor and rationalizer" Read and write out.

Trying to cover the information more interested people we updated the website of the magazine, making it, in our opinion, more informative. We are engaged in digitizing past years, starting with 1929 of the year - the basis of the magazine. We produce an electronic version. But the main thing is the paper edition IR.

Unfortunately, the number of subscribers, the only financial basis of existence IR, and organizations, and individuals decrease. And my numerous letters about the support of the magazine to state leaders of different rank (both presidents of the Russian Federation, the Prime Ministers, both Moscow mayors, both governors of the Moscow Region, the governor of their native Kuban, the leaders of the largest Russian companies) did not give results.

In connection with the above, the editors appeals to you, our readers: Support the magazine, of course, if possible. The receipt for which you can list the money for statutory activities, then you mean the publication of the magazine, published below.