Jack Walton-Cole

Sterling Engine Analysis

1. Introduction
In this experiment the aim was to find the efficiency of a sterling engine. The
method to this was, using thermocouples to measure the temperature on either
side of the base and calculating the rotational velocity of the spinning wheel.
Using an already known equation and plotting v2 against change in temperature
between the plates to find the efficiency.
2. Method

First we started by setting up the experiment (shown in Figure 1 below) and

then putting the Stirling Engine on top of a mug of boiling water and then
allowed it to reach a stable temperature, by this point the wheel should be
spinning and a pseudo-stable rate. At this point we measured the temperature of
the top and bottom of the plate and then used our oscilloscope to find the
rotational period of the wheel.

After this the plates will start to cool slightly, we then would take another
reading from the thermocouples and the oscilloscope and would repeat as the
temperature decreased.

Once the plates had cooled sufficiently, we put the engine into a dry ice bath
and allowed it to cool to a stable temperature. We then continued taking more
readings until the wheel reached room temperature. Figure 1 below shows the
collected data when separated into negative and positive temperature changes.

Forward Bias Data

Period of Rotation Freq. of rotation Velocity squared (m^2

T1 T2 ΔT (ms) (Hz) s^-2)
41.4 29.4 12 2088 0.48 0.019
52.8 27.7 25.1 684 1.46 0.176
54.2 25.7 28.5 612 1.63 0.219
56.4 23.2 33.2 528 1.89 0.295
55.4 19.0 36.4 468 2.14 0.375
Backward Bias Data
Freq. of rotation
T1 T2 ΔT Period of Rotation (ms) (Hz) Velocity squared (m^2 s^-2)
-12.0 13.5 25.5 984 1.02 0.085
-13.5 13 26.5 1356 0.74 0.045
-16.1 13 29.1 1020 0.98 0.079
-19.2 12 31.2 672 1.49 0.182
-19.2 13 32.2 864 1.16 0.110
-21.6 13.8 35.4 648 1.54 0.196
-23.4 15.3 38.7 612 1.63 0.219
-25.5 17.5 43.0 528 1.89 0.295
-30.3 14.4 44.7 480 2.08 0.357
-29.0 21 50.0 432 2.31 0.440

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Jack Walton-Cole

3. Data Analysis
Figure 2 below shows the plots of our data

Forward Bias
0.6

0.5

0.4
Velocity2 (m2s-2)

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

-0.1

-0.2

10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Change in Temperature (°C)
Graph above shows the forward bias. Graph below is for backward bias

0.6
Backward Bias
0.5

0.4
Velocity2 (m2s-2)

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

-0.1
25 30 35 40 45 50
Change in Temperature (°C)
Our graph doesn’t pass through the origin which shows our data is slightly off,
ideally the graph should pass through the origin because the wheel won’t turn if
there is no temperature difference between the plates. This slight offset
however, doesn’t effect the results because the gradient would pass through the
origin if moved within a range of the error bars.

The gradient of our calculated graph is not equal to the efficiency of the Stirling
𝛼𝑀
Engine it is 𝜂 = , where α equals the gradient, M is the mass of the disc, m is
4𝑚𝑐
the mass of the air in the chamber, and c is the specific heat capacity of air.

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Jack Walton-Cole

After calculating the gradient we then used the above equation to calculate the
efficiency. Shown below in Figure 3

Forward Bias
𝛼𝑀
𝜂=
4𝑚𝑐
0.01404 × 65.2 × 10−3
𝜂=
4 × 0.1 × 10−3 × 0.718
𝜂 = 0.32%
Backward Bias

0.01534 × 65.2 × 10−3

η=
4 × 0.1 × 10−3 × 0.718
𝜂 = 0.35%

These values are relatively good values, the backwards bias should be the same
as the forwards bias in theory. However the temperature effects the friction of
the Stirling Engine, lower temperature means lower friction so this increase in
efficiency is expected.
4. Error Analysis
Forward gradient:(0.01404 ± 0.00118)𝐽𝑘𝑔−1 𝐾 −1
Backward gradient:(0.01534 ± 0.00128)𝐽𝑘𝑔−1 𝐾 −1
This is a reasonable error considering the velocity was measured with an
oscilloscope and will therefore not affect the gradient too much. The error of
the efficiency is actually smaller because when calculating the error 𝛥𝜂 = 𝛥(𝛼𝑀)
so we must times the error in the gradient by 0.01𝑔 to get the error in
efficiency. Calculated below:
Forward Bias: 𝜂 = (0.32 ± 0.12)%
Backward Bias: η = (0.35 ± 0.13)%
Most error were caused by friction within the Stirling Engine, this used a lot of
the work that was being made from turning the piston, as said above the friction
is lower for the backward bias. This is why the graphs must be done separately
as this would have an effect on the gradient of the graph. The problems in this
experiment were mainly in the temperature, this is due to the fact that we
didn’t/couldn’t take readings from both the thermocouples at the same time
which added a random error that can’t be factored in.

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Jack Walton-Cole

5. Comparison With Carnot Engine

The highest theoretical efficiency the Stirling Engine could achieve is giving by
𝑇ℎ −𝑇𝑐
𝜂 = 𝑇ℎ
, where 𝑇ℎ is the temperature of the bottom plate, this shows that the
efficiency will be greater for lower temperatures. Using collected data, the
highest possible efficiency we could obtain would have a high temperature
difference and a low hot plate temperature. Using the above equation, the max
efficiency we can obtain is 95.3%, this shows how much friction has an effect on
the efficiency of engine.

Theoretically, if we lowered the temperature of the plates even further, such as

to 0𝐾, the efficiency would increase to a higher value potentially as high as
90% because very little energy will be lost to friction. The efficiency of the
particular Stirling Engine we used is not likely to reach 95% because this is the
ideal theoretical efficiency, and it is almost impossible to reach this level of
efficiency because to have a Carnot Engine you must not lose any work but work
will always be lost to friction.

6. Conclusion and Evaluation

Our forward and backwards bias’s efficiencies lie within each other’s error
boundaries, showing that the Stirling Engine is very inefficient but this data was
expected. The backward bias efficiency being higher does make sense because,
the lower temperature lowers the friction of the moving parts as individual
particles have less kinetic energy and therefore less momentum so the piston is
losing less momentum as it is moving. In theory, if we increased the temperature
of the Stirling Engine to a high enough temperature the friction cause by the
rigid surfaces would decrease, however the friction caused by the air would
increase so overall the efficiency would still be less than at colder temperatures.
To improve this experiment the easiest way to do so would be to remove as much
friction as possible and to increase the temperature difference between the
plates. Removing friction from the system would not make the experiment work
better, however it would make it more successful. Due to the fact that most of
the energy in the Stirling engine is lost to friction, decreasing the loss will
increase the efficiency of the Stirling engine; doing thing will then reduce the
percentile error of our values, making our collected data more valid. The only way
to friction while keeping the engine in a suitable condition is to lubricate the
mechanisms, this will not lower the friction massively but doing more could hinder
the experiment. Secondly, increasing the temperature difference would mean we
can find a more linear fit and to also eliminate anomalies from our graphs. To
change the temperature difference more we could try to separate the top and
the bottom of the Stirling engine into separate systems so the heat doesn’t move
over to the other plate, which would lower the temperature difference. On
further research, we couldn’t find anything to improve this experiment more. The

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Jack Walton-Cole

concept of a Stirling engine is simple so improving the experiment would be quite

difficult since there was few pieces of data to collect so increasing the quality of
this would be rather difficult.