Air Engines : The History, Science, and Reality of the Perfect Engine

The original Air Engines (also known as a heat, hot air, caloric, or Stirling engines), predated the modern internal combustion engine. This early engine design always had great potential for high efficiency/low emission power generation. However, the primary obstacle to its practical use in the past has been the lack of sufficiently heat-resistant materials. This obstacle has now been eliminated due to the higher strength of modern materials and alloys.

Several companies in the U.S. and abroad are successfully marketing new machines based on the Air Engine concept. Allan Organ and Theodor Finkelstein are two of the most respected researchers in the field of Air Engines. Finkelstein is considered a pioneer of Stirling cycle simulation. The historical portion of the book is based on four famous articles he published in 1959. The rest of the chapters assess the development of the air engine and put it in the modern context, as well as investigate its future potential and applications.

The audience for this book includes mechanical engineers working in power related industries, as well as researchers, academics, and advanced students concerned with recent developments in power generation.

Originally co-published by Professional Engineering Publishing (UK) and ASME Press in 2001.  Reprinted with minor corrections by ASME Press in 2009.

Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Notation

Chapter 1 : Air Engines
Chapter 2 : The Stirling Engine
Chapter 3 : Later Single Cylinder Engine
Chapter 4 : Philips Engines
Chapter 5 : ‘Modern Knowledge’ … and All That
Chapter 6 : Reassessment
Chapter 7 : Post-Revival
Chapter 8 : The ‘Regenerator Problem’
Chapter 9 : Two Decades of Optimism
Chapter 10 : Thermodynamic Design
Chapter 11 : Completing The Picture
Chapter 12 : By Intuition, or by Design?
Chapter 13 : And The Heyday to Come
Chapter 14 : In Praise of Robert Stirling

Appendix : Literary Output of Theodor Finkelstein
References