Could a Stirling motor be used to power an automobile?

[cameron marical]

Do you think a Stirling motor can be used to power a small automobile with at least one person inside? Im guessing that with me in it, plus the motor and the body Im drawing out, it will be about 160-180 pounds. Could a stirling motor push that much on wheels do you think?

 

Ive been wondering this question for a while. Im currently making my own stirling motor, and am wondering If you guys think If It would work or not. I beleive that It will, and I will probably still try even If Im told It doesnt work, why not. Im not so much worried about speed, just so long as Its a bit faster than walking, Im cool with it.

 

Im tired of walking 1&1/2 miles to school twice a day to get to school and back. I guess Im lazy. I could even impresse a couple chicks with It too.

 

And since I have no car, I thought that I could improvise and use my already acquired knowledge to accomplish my goal. { to be lazy and not have to walk everywhere}

 

oh yea.

[danie]

How do you plan to power tht engine. You will nead a heat saurce. gas., wood ,focused solar etc. How big will the silinders be.

[ydoaPs]

You will nead a heat saurce[sic]

 

Body Heat? That'd be kinda cool.

[cameron marical]

How do you plan to power tht engine. You will nead a heat saurce. gas., wood ,focused solar etc. How big will the silinders be.

 

I plan to use solar heat.mirrors directing light at from from multiple sources on it. The heated cylinder would be Wrapped in aluminum foil to help heat it too. I live in a quite sunny, and hot place, so i think that there will be enough to power it. The cylinders will be about 7 inch wide and about 9 inches long i think, The other the same size, and have an ice cube covering It. Is that good? Im still unsure how big they should be, suggestions would be cool.

 

Body Heat? That'd be kinda cool.

 

I dont think i could get enough energy from that. Though they do have small ones that do just that. you can hold it and it will turn. too puny for any power source though.

[CaptainPanic]

While solar heat provides a lot of energy, you should realize that you'll be harvesting only a portion of the sun's energy.

 

The sun will provide in the order of 1000 W/m2 on a sunny day.

 

Because of the Carnot efficiency you will only be using 30% of the sun's energy that is converted to useful heat. In practice, I think you'd do very well if even 10% of the sun's energy is converted into kinetic energy... because you will have more losses: friction (air, and all other types of friction), reflection of sunlight and radiation of heat.

 

So, you must either have a massive solar collector, or tons of mirrors. If you plan to concentrate the sun onto your little car: please wear a protective suit, it's gonna be hot!

 

Please remember that while 1000 W/m2 sounds like a lot, It is about 1 hp. (Horsepower = about 750 W - it's a unit which, inconveniently, is often used to describe the power of cars and other transportation devices).

 

Good luck, it's a nice idea.

[CDizzle]

It could work, but you need to use a vehicle without a lot of torque. A stirling engine is small and not a lot of HP and plus it cant sustain a lot of torque. If you use a small vehicle, then maybe. How are you going to power it? Gas most likely, then you need a small gas tank. You need to balance everything out so that the aft wont be way heavy and vice versa. You need to make everything small because of torque and also its only to go to school. Also, It wont impress the chicks haha

 

I just saw someones post and it said Solar heat. That could work very well. Just Don't over do it. You dont need to go far.

[phoglite]

Do you think a Stirling motor can be used to power a small automobile with at least one person inside?

 

Ford did it back in the 70's. See link:

 

http://www.sivakrishna.com/stfaq.html