Abstract: A heating and cooling machine, operating according to a regenerative gas cycle process with a working medium, has a pressure-tight housing and a heat source connected inside the housing. Two linearly moveable pistons are positioned inside the housing. The two pistons delimit therebetween a warm working volume and are driveable by a control unit. The first piston together with the housing delimits a hot working volume loaded with heat from the heat source. The second piston together with the housing delimits a cold working volume. Regenerators as well as a warm heat transfer element and a cold heat transfer element are positioned in the housing. The three working volumes communicate with one another through the regenerators and the warm and cold heat transfer elements. A partition for transmitting heat energy generated by the heat source to the hot working volume, has the shape of a radially symmetrical dome and is connected to the housing so as to be heat-insulated relative to the housing.

Abstract: A Stirling engine has an external combustion chamber for burning a kerosene and transferring a high temperature therein to working fluid in heater tubes. In the case of the present invention, the external combustion chamber is connected to a furnace for burning industrial waste materials such as plastic materials or rubber materials so that the high temperature above 900.degree. C. is able to be supplied to the combustion chamber. This serves in raising an output power of the Stirling engine. A conduit for connecting the furnace with the combustion chamber is proveded with a dumper capable of interrupting a flow of the high temperature combustion gases toward the combustion chamber of the Stirling engine.

Abstract: A Stirling engine having a modular construction including a drive case and a cylinder block with generally flat mounting surfaces that face each other. The cylinder block includes cylinder bores and cooler bores that are perpendicular to the cylinder block mounting surface. Piston rods extend through the plane defined by the cylinder block mounting surface and couple piston assemblies positioned within the cylinder bores to a drive shaft. Piston rod seals contain a working gas present within the cylinder block from leaking into the drive case. The same basic engine components may be used with either sliding contact rod seals or bellows or other types of hermetic sealing elements.

Abstract: To improve cooling efficiency of a pulse tube refrigerator, it is found that creating two conditions in the refrigerator, particularly in a regenerator is effective. In a first condition, working fluid in the regenerator should be compressed or expanded without having any displacement thereof, while it should be displaced without compression or expansion in a second condition. In order to realize this idea, a fluid displacement control valve assembly including two relief valves is disposed between a pulse tube and a buffer tank. Each of the relief valves is a normally closed one-way valve, and the valves open in opposite directions to one another when a pressure difference between the pulse tube and the buffer tank reaches a predetermined value, thus allowing the working fluid to be displaced after its compression from the pulse tube to the buffer tank and after its expansion from the buffer tank to the pulse tube.

Abstract: A hot gas engine operating with a Stirling cycle includes a hot chamber, displacer piston, regenerator, cold chamber, and power piston. A displacer piston is associated with a kinematic transmission train employing non-circular gears so as to convert rotary motion of a mainshaft into longitudinal piston movement and vice-versa. A power piston is associated with a kinematic transmission train employing non-circular gears so as to convert rotary motion of a mainshaft into longitudinal piston motion and vice-versa. The displacer piston and power piston relate to each other so that the engine working gas operates in close accordance with the theoretical four strokes comprising the Stirling cycle.

Abstract: An improved, reciprocating internal combustion engine is disclosed herein. This engine consists of multiple cylinders, each closed by a cylinder head and containing a piston which is connected to a power output shaft. Each cylinder has means for the intake and exhaust of working fluid. It also contains a movable, thermal regenerator, an alternating flow heat exchanger, and means to move this regenerator. Finally, means are provided for the introduction of fuel into the cylinder. The regenerated, internal combustion, reciprocating engine and several variations on it disclosed herein are substantially different from prior art and provide critical improvements over that prior art. These improvements include different operating processes--especially an improved heating stroke, the use of unequal effective compression and expansion ratios, non direct fuel injection, and others.

Abstract: A Stirling engine having multiple mutually parallel cylinders which operate in a double acting cycle configuration. The engine includes a drivecase having a rotatable driveshaft coupled to the pistons which is mounted within the cylinder block. The cylinder block includes cylinder bores and mutually parallel cooler bores. A generally flat retainer plate is fastened to a mounting surface of the cylinder block to affix cylinder extensions and regenerator housings to the block mounting surface in alignment with the cylinder bores and cooler bores.

Abstract: A burner for a Stirling engine includes a combustion chamber forming an air-fuel mixture by mixing air and fuel supplied from air inlet passageways and a fuel injection nozzle, an igniter igniting the air-fuel mixture within the combustion chamber, a heater tube absorbing high-temperature heat generated by the combustion of the air-fuel mixture and transferring it to the Stirling engine, and exhaust gas passageways discharging an exhaust gas to the outside. In addition, a heating duct is provided between the combustion chamber and a head portion of the Stirling engine. The heating duct transfers high-temperature combustion gas through combustion gas passageways to the heater tube, thereby increasing a heat transfer rate and preventing corrosion.

Abstract: A stirling engine or an internal combustion engine having one or more cylinders, each having a moveable piston which is coupled to a drive shaft to drive a load. The engine load coupling also includes a set of Class 1 elliptical gears of the first type which means each gear rotates about one of its focal points. The load and the engine are efficiently operated as a result of the operation of the coupling arrangement. In apparatus employing a Stirling engine, apparatus and engine efficiencies are enhanced through elliptical gear operation which enables the Stirling engine to operate very closely to the idealized Stirling cycle.

Abstract: In a Stirling engine comprising: a cylinder having an expansion space; a housing accommodating a heat accumulating unit; and a heating unit through which said expansion space is communicated with the heat accumulating unit, the heating unit is formed by using a flattened pipe, and preferably heat transferring fins, and reinforcing members for preventing the increase in volume of the flow path in the heating unit are provided in the latter, so that in connecting the heating unit to the cylinder and the housing, the number of assembling steps is decreased, and the heating unit is sufficiently large in dead volume ("flow path sectional area" x "flow path length") and in heat transfer area.

Abstract: A piston end position limiter for a free piston machine of the type having a piston sealingly reciprocating in a cylinder and separating a work space bounded at one end of the piston from a second space bounded at the opposite end of the piston. The work space and the second space contain a working fluid having an average pressure. A first valve is connected in communication between a fluid reservoir and the work space and is adapted to open only when the working fluid pressure varies sufficiently in one direction from its average pressure. A second position responsive valve is connected between the reservoir and the second space and is operatively linked to the piston for opening in response to the piston reaching a selected end limit of its reciprocation.

Abstract: A cam driving apparatus for a Stirling cycle module in which a circumferential surface of a rotary cam is equipped with an upper cam curve profile and a lower cam curve profile thus achieving a light and compact cam module.

Abstract: The use of flexures in the form of flat spiral springs cut from sheet metal materials provides support for coaxial nonrotating linear reciprocating members in power conversion machinery, such as Stirling cycle engines or heat pumps. They permit operation with little or no rubbing contact or other wear mechanisms. The relatively movable members include one member having a hollow interior structure within which the flexures are located. The flexures permit limited axial movement between the interconnected members, but prevent adverse rotational movement and radial displacement from their desired coaxial positions.

Abstract: A piston centering system for a free piston machine. The invention uses a centering passageway which is in communication between a work space and a second space which spaces are formed in a housing and are separated by a piston which reciprocates in a cylinder in the housing. The centering passageway has a valve, such as a spool valve formed in the piston and cylinder or a center post, the valve opening in response to the piston being near the center of the opposite limits of its reciprocation. The improvement is the inclusion of a pressure responsive, one way valve interposed in the passageway. The one way valve is oriented to permit the passage of the working gas through the passageway from one space to the other in a direction opposite to a net leakage flow from one space to the other through the annular gap between the piston and cylinder and to prevent substantial flow through the passageway in the reverse direction.

Abstract: An apparatus for decreasing nitrogen oxides in a combustion device of Stirling engine which performs continuous combustion includes a combustion chamber, means for supplying the combustion chamber with fuel and air, an exhaust passageway for discharging exhaust gas produced by combustion in the combustion chamber, a catalytic unit arranged in the exhaust passageway for purging toxic components contained in the exhaust gas discharged, and hydrogen supply means for supplying hydrogen gas to the exhaust gas which enters the catalytic unit. The hydrogen gas is supplied to the combustion exhaust gas which has entered the catalytic unit, and the combustion exhaust gas is then catalytically reduced in an environment of a comparatively low temperatures of less than 250.degree. C., whereby the nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas are decreased.

Abstract: A pulse tube refrigerator includes a compression space defined by a compression piston inside a cylinder, an expansion space defined by an expansion piston inside a cylinder, the expansion piston being reciprocated at an advance angle of a constant phase difference within a range of 10.degree.-45.degree. relative to the compression piston, and first and second thermal systems communicating the compression and expansion spaces. Each thermal system has a radiator, a regenerator, a cold head and a pulse tube, with the regenerator of the second thermal system being composed of two regenerator sections. The cold head of the first thermal system is made to perform a heat exchange with the second thermal system between the two regenerator sections thereof, whereby a very low temperature is obtained from the cold head of the second thermal system.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a heat loss preventing apparatus for preventing a working gas of a high temperature which exist in an expansion space to flow directly to a compression space by providing a tip upwardly formed with the displacer and integrally provided in a form of cylinder at an upper end thereof and a baffle downwardly formed with an end of the cylinder and integrally provided at an upper portion of end of the cylinder, thereby increasing a heat efficiency of Stirling module, in particular more effectively reducing the heat loss by providing the tip and the baffle when the displacer is positioned either at a top dead point or at a bottom dead point.

Abstract: In a Stirling engine, a thermal isolating space is provided between an expansion space and a heating portion so as to establish a thermal isolation of the expansion space from the heating portion.

Abstract: Disclosed are apparatus and methods used to preheat a working fluid for a subsequent solar-driven dissociation reaction. The working fluid is first passed through a blackbody receiver where it absorbs thermal energy, and is subsequently exposed to direct solar radiation. The present invention allows the working fluid to absorb relatively large amounts of solar energy at elevated temperatures, while the blackbody absorber remains at a relatively low temperature, thus minimizing energy losses through reradiation and enhancing the efficiency of the overall energy exchange. Also disclosed is a non-driven-flow fluid absorption receiver for preferred use with a Stirling engine incorporating absorption of infrared radiation.

Abstract: A Stirling cycle engine having its cylinders ganged together by connecting through a cross connect passage and valve the cold variable volume chamber of one cylinder with the compression chamber of a cylinder in which the displacer piston and the power piston are ninety degrees (90.degree.) out-of-phase with the pistons in the first cylinder.The displacer piston and power piston in each cylinder are connected by a sealed piston rod so that the two pistons move in unison. Each cylinder's power piston is connected by means of a connecting rod to a means for converting the reciprocating motion of the power piston into rotational motion. Each cross connect passage is provided with a valve which allows a working fluid to pass from the cold variable volume chamber of one cylinder to the compression chamber of any cylinder which is ninety degrees (90.degree.) out-of-phase with the displacer piston of the first cylinder. This valving feature allows the engine to be reversed and throttled.

Abstract: The Stirling engine uses an annular cam for converting the reciprocating movements of the pistons of the engine in a rotating movement. The annular cam is concentric with the engine block and provides movement to a first piston located in a first radial cylinder. A second piston located in a second radial cylinder provides work to the annular cam. A working gas circuit located between the first and the second cylinders is provided for powering the engine. The circuit comprises a cooling assembly, a regenerator and a heating assembly. The pistons are operatively connected to the annular cam by means of a radial rod at the end of which are located rollers engaged with the inner cam path and maintained by an inner guide parallel to the cam path. The engine provides a very simple and economical construction of the Stirling engine.

Abstract: A Stirling engine includes an expansion cylinder, a compression cylinder, and a plurality of conduits which each extend between and connect the expansion cylinder and the compression cylinder. A plurality of heating portions are provided, each of which is disposed in one of the conduits in order to be connected with the expansion cylinder. A plurality of cooling portions are also provided, each of which is disposed in one of the conduits in order to be connected with the compression cylinder. A plurality of regenerative portions are also included, each of which is disposed in one of the conduits in order to connect one of the heating portions and one of the cooling portions. Each of the regenerative portions possesses a length according to the temperature of the working fluid in the corresponding heating portion.

Abstract: A compressor integral with a Stirling engine having a pressure space comprises a housing, a partition wall provided in the housing, a first pressure chamber defined in the housing at one side of the partition wall and connected with the pressure space of the Stirling engine, and a second pressure chamber defined in the housing at the other side of the partition wall and connected with the first pressure chamber via an orifice. A rod passes through the partition wall and has a first end and a second end located in the first pressure chamber and the second pressure chamber, respectively. A third pressure chamber is defined by a first plate which is connected to the first end of the rod and a first bellows located between the first plate and the partition wall. A fourth pressure chamber is defined by a first plate which is connected to the second end of the rod and a second bellows located between the second plate and the partition wall.

Abstract: An expansion engine incorporates various structural features in which all cold seals are stationary, and only warm seals move. Moving parts which are subject to cryogenic temperatures are designed with gas bearings, while tight tolerances and material choices inhibit wear and steady state heat loss. Numerous other features include structural design to relieve stresses, combined fabrication of key parts, initial bias of the inlet and outlet valves which contract on cooldown to desired alignment, and a gas-purged upper seal housing, eliminate various sources of expansion engine failure and heat loss during operation and result in high reliability and thermal efficiency.

Abstract: A stirling engine with mechanical output through a main shaft (71) has piston(s) (44) reciprocable in cylinder bore(s) (41). Each piston is guided on a fixed piston guide (52) which extends into but not through the piston. This guidance holds the piston clear of mechanical contact with the cylinder bore (41). A separate seal is provided between the piston and the bore. Internal guidance of the piston permits a guidance arrangement where clearances change very little or not at all with changes in temperature of the engine.

Abstract: A double-headed swash plate type Stirling engine includes double headed pistons defining front spaces and rear spaces and anchored to the swash plate by shoes. Thus, the reciprocal movement of the double-headed pistons, resulting from the expansion and compression of an operating gas in the front and rear spaces, are directly converted into the rotary movement of the swash plate. Hence, the Stirling engine has a very simplified construction.

Abstract: The seal bellows of a Stirling cycle device is connected between the bottom of a reciprocating piston and a cylinder wall to form a buffer space between the cycle working space and the lubricated crankcase. The piston and cylinder wall form a noncontact clearance seal between the buffer space and the working space in which an expander piston has a vented clearance seal to reduce the thermal loss due to cold gas leaking along the clearance seal.

Abstract: A Stirling engine with mechanical output through a crankshaft (57) has piston(s) (42) reciprocable in cylinder bore(s) (41). The piston to crankshaft connection includes a lever arm (74) on pivot pin (77) and a connecting rod (75). The lever arm passes through opening (76) which is sealed from the engine crankcase by an annular seal member (94) engaged against part spherical seat (91) on the lever arm by gas pressure and by a spring washer (65).

Abstract: The guide portion of the cylinder of a Stirling cycle device is located at least partially within and is axially coextensive with the bellows thereby providing a reduction in the height/length of the piston, cylinder and bellows assemblies. The reduction is the distance between the guide surface and the top of the piston reduces the moment arm for canting.

Abstract: Combustion engine of high efficiency comprising two cylinders with a channel between them, each cylinder containing a sliding piston, said pistons being coupled such that they move synchronously and in opposite directions, or comprising a stator and a rotor, a duct shaped as a closed circle between said stator and rotor, at least one vane sliding in the duct and being fastened to the rotor, wherein the expansion takes place at a substantially constant temperature and at a substantially constant pressure.

Abstract: The apparatus is a low-temperature solar to electric power conversion system. A solar collector directs solar insolation to a cavity receiver which heats primary thermal transport fluid to approximately 700.degree. F. An auxiliary fossil or biomass heater may be used to replace or supplement the solar-powered cavity receiver. The primary thermal transport fluid is provided to a Stirling engine which provides electric power and hot water heated to approximately 160.degree. F.

Abstract: This heat engine, uses a Stirling cycle design, wherein a cold exchanger section of a cylinder and a hot exchanger section of the same cylinder are attached to an axis in an off-center positioned. The axis is preferably capable of rotation, but in some embodiments may be fixed. When a rotatable axis is used, a liquid acting as a piston moves within a portion of the cylinder against centrifugal force, and is driven by a working gas which is used in the same cylinder. By oscillating the liquid in the cylinder outwardly in the cylinder during a downward, or "power", stroke and inwardly in the cylinder during an upward, or "drag", stroke the center of mass of the liquid in the cylinder provides a greater moment of force during the downward power stroke than during the upward drag stroke. When used with a rotating axis and subjected to heating at a hot exchanger section and to cooling at a cold exchanger section at selected times it produces continuous power producing rotary motion about the axis.

Abstract: A piston-cylinder assembly in which the piston includes two piston heads connected together in spaced relation by a stem and cooperable with two portions of the cylinder, dividing the cylinder into a working chamber on one side of the first piston head between it and the end wall of the cylinder, a drive chamber on the opposite side of the second piston head communicating with the drive, and an intermediate chamber between the working chamber and drive chamber. The first piston head defines a clearance seal with respect to the first portion of the cylinder, and the second portion of the cylinder guides the reciprocatory movements of the piston. The intermediate chamber includes a semi-permeable seal between the cylinder and piston, which seal is permeable by gas but impermeable by liquids, to thereby prevent the passage of liquid from the drive chamber through the intermediate chamber to the working chamber.

Abstract: A radial, hot-gas engine which derives the necessary phase angle between hot and cold cylinders by locating them ninety degrees apart around the circumference of the crankcase, thereby eliminating complicated piston connecting rod linkages and permitting use of a simple eccentric and roller-follower drive arrangement between pistons and crankshaft. The radial design permits use of the crankcase as a pressure vessel and storage reservoir for the working fluid while keeping crankcase mass low relative to conventional engine designs. The invention also eliminates critical seals by application of an integral pump that scavenges working fluid from the crankcase reservoir and pressurizes the working cylinders when the engine is started, and maintains working pressure while the engine is in operation.

Abstract: An improved technique for balancing inertia forces and rocking couples of a Ross-type Stirling machine (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,138,897; 4,532,819 and 4,738,105). Two counter-rotating balance masses are used, one on the crankshaft and one on a separate balance shaft. These balance masses lead the throw of the crankshaft by more than 180 degrees of rotation. The axis of the balance shaft is positioned so that a line connecting it and the axis of the crankshaft is inclined with respect to the cylinder axes toward the heavier piston of the machine. The new technique is also applicable to other machines having separate parallel cylinders in which pistons of unequal mass reciprocate out of phase.

Abstract: A machine which combines an Alpha-type Stirling cycle thermal machine and a magnetoelectric resonanace mechanism adaptable to be useful both as an electric generator and an electric heat pump, such a Stirling cycle resonance machine has a simplified mechanical arrangement with a minimum number of moving parts within a hermetically sealed and permanently lubricated housing, is fully automatic, self-starting, and self-regulating in operation in that the mechanical motion of the pistons is maintained in appropriate phase relationship by an electronic quadrature phase-locking circuit. It can readily use multiple fuels as an electric generator and multiple electric power sources (DC or AC) as an electric heat pump.

Abstract: In a free piston engine, to reduce dynamic loads on the reciprocating elements caused by a time varying pressure gradient across the gas bearing and close clearance seals provided therein, drain galleries are incorporated at the ends of the gas bearings to isolate the same, and circumferentially spaced grooves are incorporated in the close clearance seal region.

Abstract: A stirling cycle apparatus having a buffer connecting the compressor piston back room with the expansion piston back room. The apparatus also has a diaphragm which divides the buffer and the crank room. The buffer reduces the pressure changes between the both sides of the diaphragm so that the stress to the diaphragm can be reduced.

Abstract: In an engine based on the Stirling cycle the individual hot side and cold side cylinders typically used in conventional Stirling engines are subdivided into a cluster of parallel cylinders of smaller diameter than the single cylinder but with the area of the cylinder walls greater than that for the single cylinder for the same displacement and with spaces between the cylinders in the cluster to allow a heating or cooling medium to flow through the spaces and contact the enlarged surface area for tranferring heat into or out of the cylinders more efficiently. The described engine has the hot side cylinder cluster disposed horizontally to facilitate allowing hot gases of combustion to flow through the spaces between the subdivided cylinders by natural convection. Moreover, having the hot side cylinders disposed horizontally facilitates confining the hot combustion gases to one end region of the cylinders in isolation from the rest of the engine structure.

Abstract: A compression piston and cylinder mechanism for the V type two piston Stirling engine which substantially reduces engine dead volume without increasing complexity or decreasing mechanical efficiency. A stepped piston is attached at its smaller outer portion to a relatively long connecting rod. The piston seal is located at the larger inner portion of the piston, thereby permitting a short passage of low dead volume to connect the volume swept by the compression piston to the engine's heat exchangers. A stepped cylinder corresponds to the shape of the piston, having a smaller outer portion that sustains the side loading resulting from connecting rod angularity, and a larger inner portion that the piston seals against.

Abstract: A mechanical force amplifier is disclosed including a gas-containing cylinder having one fixed end and one movable end determined by the position of an output power piston. A cold temperature zone and a hot temperature zone are maintained along the axis of the cylinder, the cold zone being adjacent the fixed end and the hot zone being adjacent the movable end. The power piston is resiliently urged toward the fixed end so as to compress the gas.A displacement piston is positionable along the axis of the cylinder within the cold zone and the hot zone and is designed to allow the gas to flow around it as the piston is moved. The displacement piston and the power piston are completely uncoupled from movement with each other except through the gas.

Abstract: A reversible thermal engine is provided which operates on the principles of the Stirling and Ericsson cycles. The engine comprises two variable volume compartments connected by passageway with a regenerator therein. Heat exchangers provide heating and cooling to the working gas during the cycle. Control means are provided to vary the volume of the gas transferring between compartments such that the volume variations of the gas are in the form of overlapping quadrilateral waveforms.

Abstract: An environmentally safe cooling system employing a non-freon base Stirling cycle cooler whereby a collant is cooled in a heat exchanger, circulated to a remote location to a set of refrigeration coils (over which air is circulated) and subsequently recirculated to the heat exchanger for removal of the coolant absorbed heat to repeat the cycle.

Abstract: The invention relates to the improved combustion of fuel in a combustion chamber of a stirling engine and the like by dividing combustion into primary and secondary combustion zones through the use of a diverter plate.

Abstract: There is disclosed an oil-free compressor integral with a Stirling engine. The compressor is used as an air compressor or in air-conditioning equipment. The Stirling engine has a cylinder in which a displacer piston is slidable. An expansion space and a compression space are formed on opposite sides of the piston. The compressor comprises a first pressure chamber communicating with the compression space, a second pressure chamber connected with a Rankine heat pump circuit via valves, a first buffer chamber communicating with the compression space via a first orifice, and a second buffer chamber connected with the second pressure chamber via a second orifice. The first pressure chamber is partitioned from the second pressure chamber by a first diaphragm. The first buffer chamber is partitioned from the second buffer chamber by a second diaphragm. These two diaphragms are connected together by a rod such that they move together axially.

Abstract: A sealing mechanism in a Stirling engine comprising, an output deriving device, a rod for connecting an operating piston defining an operating space and the output deriving device, an intermediate member for supporting the rod in fluid-tight manner via a bush, a sealing member secured to the intermediate member and including a lip in elastic engagement with the rod for assuring a fluid-tight fit, an intermediate chamber defined between the sealing member and the operating piston, a pressure chamber defined between the sealing member and the intermediate member, a first check-valve allowing fluid-flow from the intermediate chamber to the pressure chamber and a relief valve to be opened for releasing the pressure in the pressure chamber into a space for accommodating the output deriving device when the differential pressure exceeds a predetermined value.

Abstract: A cogeneration system is disclosed using a Stirling cycle engine in which the waste heat from the engine and a generator driven by the engine is used for space heating or producing hot water and the generator used to produce electricity. A Stirling engine has numerous advantages over a reciprocating internal combustion engine in cogeneration systems in that the Stirling engine has a longer life, less maintenance cost, less noise and vibration and fewer emissions. With cogeneration, the added energy and fuel required over and above that required to produce a comparable amount of heat allowed to produce the same amount of heat with a conventional furnace or boiler is often less than the amount of electric energy produced from the system thereby resulting in a efficiency greater than 100% in the production of electricity.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a sealing device provided between a piston rod of a Stirling cycle engine and a variable volume chamber. The sealing device is provided with an arrangement so as to equalize pressures between a seal chamber and the variable volume chamber of the Stirling cycle engine. By equalizing pressures between the respective spaces, an overpressure is prevented which would otherwise distort the seal and permit oil to be carried into the working volume of the Stirling cycle engine.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a Stirling free piston cryocooler in which the drive assembly is arranged in an in-line opposed piston arrangement. The displacer piston assembly is nested within the power piston assembly. In one embodiment the thermodynamic assembly is connected to the drive mechanism in a tee arrangement so that the opposed cryocooler pistons share a common expansion space. In another embodiment the thermodynamic assembly is connected to the drive mechanism in a double split tee arrangement with the thermodynamic components remotely located from the expansion and compression spaces and connected thereto by flexible tubes.

Abstract: A cooling system for a Stirling engine which includes a cooler, an ultrasonic wave generator for making cooling fluid into atomized particles, a water tank, a pump and an electric power generator for generating electric power by driving force of the Stirling engine to supply the electric power to the pump and the ultrasonic wave generator, whereby the cooling fluid is converted to atomized particles of cooling fluid and then phase changing latent heat generated by the process of changing the atomized particles of cooling fluid to gas is utilized so that working fluid of Stirling engine is effectively cooled.