I was an intern at this place and got to see some cool cross sections of the heater head heat exchanger sections. they were all hermetically sealed and I think used helium or hydrogen as the working fluid. the flexural springs were really cool and made of some very interesting alloy. specced to something like 10 gigacycles. the later heater heads were much more economical than the concave earlier versions.
At 60 Hz (the working frequency of Infinia's engine), that's 60 cycles per second, 3600 cycles per minute, 216,000 cycles per hour, and 5,184,000 cycles per day. 10 billion cycles (10 gigacycles) is only 5 years (46,000 hours) of continuous operation. That would be a very long time for a engine rebuild in a vehicle, but in this device it would likely be a complete replacement, so I hope functional life is longer than that.
Reportedly, as of 2020 a test engine at NASA had been running 15 years without any maintenance or degradation. I don't know of any further updates since that time.
Bravo.......hole grail ......10k.......i have been looking for space junk to........micro turbine engines........cryo coolers have a sterling .......... I wish they would build more ......even 1 hp.......cheers
Those engines were made around 2009. Manufacture was discontinued and the company declared bankruptcy. Apparently the solar engines performed well, but the utilities declined to provide grid/distribution access. Frivolous lawsuits from the railroad, tribal land issues etc. put the company out of business. The engines are still being used however, as remote power stations on gas pipelines installed by Qnergy who acquired the "intellectual property"for the engine from Infinia. However, these engines were developed under taxpayer $$$ government grant funding so any IP belongs to the people IMO.
very impresive but I bet replacement parts and exotic things used in it like working fluids, lubricants, and seals mean it would be best in a museum or emergency FEMA generator
Yes, these engines were built to military/NASA specifications, to withstand frontline "enemy fire" and/or unattended operation for 30 year space missions. Its output is also a somewhat variable high frequency AC that requires rectification to DC followed by conversion back to 50 or 60 hz through an inverter for useable residential AC. Probably a much more practical homeowner version could be built using a cheap, lightweight carbon fiber housing for a very very very mall fraction of what it cost taxpayers to build this over-engineered piece of scrap metal.
it might be overengineered residential but there are reasons it wouldn't be considered overengineered for space station. would be cool to see nasa do a video of it. many things like exact right CTE for cylinders and housing and components would be extremely important. and simple substitutions probably wouldnt work without a total redesign.@@peoplesresearchcenter6184
Why cry? I've got the engine ready to test run, but so far haven't been able to get it hot enough to start up. I used a 1000 watt electric hot plate and tried a kerosene heater. On further research, this engine requires about 10,000 watts of heat input to generate the rated 3000 watts electricity. The other 7000 watts goes into the cooling water. Still trying, but this was built to run on concentrated solar with a 15 foot parabolic dish focused to a point with about a 3" radius. Maybe an electric arc from carbon rods using a 220 electric arc welder would generate enough heat in a small enough area. It is charged with Helium, and theoretically ready to run anyway. I'm going to try a burner from an outdoor gas turkey roaster or something. It should at least generate something with less than full heat input but would need about 5000 watts of heat just to make 500 watts of electricity. ruclips.net/video/9EaSgmoQkd4/видео.htmlsi=QaLK80EK2EQ5KdVO
Because my dream is to have one of this engines... i'm in france and its impossible to find here, because in france we got something really nice to provide heat to the engine, the "fresnel zoom" maybe you should try this, this thing can melt rocks just with the sunlight@@peoplesresearchcenter6184
This 3kw engine ran off a 15 foot diameter parabolic mirror. It needs 10,000 watts or equivalent heat input. It was intended for utility use by a power company. I will be building smaller more practical and affordable versions.
Only a few of these engines were produced around 2009. What few details or specification have been found are posted to the Stirling engine forum: stirlingengineforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5463
About $200,000,000 in taxpayer funded R&D I think, before being scraped. This one survived because it was sent to a university for testing, I believe, then went into storage and forgotten. At this point, I think it can be considered priceless.
Наука
I was an intern at this place and got to see some cool cross sections of the heater head heat exchanger sections. they were all hermetically sealed and I think used helium or hydrogen as the working fluid. the flexural springs were really cool and made of some very interesting alloy. specced to something like 10 gigacycles. the later heater heads were much more economical than the concave earlier versions.
this looks like what I remember the solar-thermal module looked like
At 60 Hz (the working frequency of Infinia's engine), that's 60 cycles per second, 3600 cycles per minute, 216,000 cycles per hour, and 5,184,000 cycles per day. 10 billion cycles (10 gigacycles) is only 5 years (46,000 hours) of continuous operation. That would be a very long time for a engine rebuild in a vehicle, but in this device it would likely be a complete replacement, so I hope functional life is longer than that.
The working fluid of Infinia Stirling engines is helium.
Reportedly, as of 2020 a test engine at NASA had been running 15 years without any maintenance or degradation. I don't know of any further updates since that time.
@@brianb-p6586not 24hr operation a day for solar thermal, possible down days In winter. Thanks for the math, though.
Bravo.......hole grail ......10k.......i have been looking for space junk to........micro turbine engines........cryo coolers have a sterling .......... I wish they would build more ......even 1 hp.......cheers
Interesting. Let’s wait a year and see if it’s still around and getting some traction.
Those engines were made around 2009. Manufacture was discontinued and the company declared bankruptcy. Apparently the solar engines performed well, but the utilities declined to provide grid/distribution access. Frivolous lawsuits from the railroad, tribal land issues etc. put the company out of business. The engines are still being used however, as remote power stations on gas pipelines installed by Qnergy who acquired the "intellectual property"for the engine from Infinia. However, these engines were developed under taxpayer $$$ government grant funding so any IP belongs to the people IMO.
very impresive but I bet replacement parts and exotic things used in it like working fluids, lubricants, and seals mean it would be best in a museum or emergency FEMA generator
Yes, these engines were built to military/NASA specifications, to withstand frontline "enemy fire" and/or unattended operation for 30 year space missions. Its output is also a somewhat variable high frequency AC that requires rectification to DC followed by conversion back to 50 or 60 hz through an inverter for useable residential AC.
Probably a much more practical homeowner version could be built using a cheap, lightweight carbon fiber housing for a very very very mall fraction of what it cost taxpayers to build this over-engineered piece of scrap metal.
it might be overengineered residential but there are reasons it wouldn't be considered overengineered for space station. would be cool to see nasa do a video of it. many things like exact right CTE for cylinders and housing and components would be extremely important. and simple substitutions probably wouldnt work without a total redesign.@@peoplesresearchcenter6184
i want to cry
Why cry? I've got the engine ready to test run, but so far haven't been able to get it hot enough to start up. I used a 1000 watt electric hot plate and tried a kerosene heater. On further research, this engine requires about 10,000 watts of heat input to generate the rated 3000 watts electricity. The other 7000 watts goes into the cooling water. Still trying, but this was built to run on concentrated solar with a 15 foot parabolic dish focused to a point with about a 3" radius. Maybe an electric arc from carbon rods using a 220 electric arc welder would generate enough heat in a small enough area. It is charged with Helium, and theoretically ready to run anyway. I'm going to try a burner from an outdoor gas turkey roaster or something. It should at least generate something with less than full heat input but would need about 5000 watts of heat just to make 500 watts of electricity.
ruclips.net/video/9EaSgmoQkd4/видео.htmlsi=QaLK80EK2EQ5KdVO
Because my dream is to have one of this engines... i'm in france and its impossible to find here, because in france we got something really nice to provide heat to the engine, the "fresnel zoom" maybe you should try this, this thing can melt rocks just with the sunlight@@peoplesresearchcenter6184
ruclips.net/video/I3pCs7jwK7I/видео.html @@peoplesresearchcenter6184
This 3kw engine ran off a 15 foot diameter parabolic mirror. It needs 10,000 watts or equivalent heat input. It was intended for utility use by a power company. I will be building smaller more practical and affordable versions.
How many I find one of these retail or specs of the metallurgical structuring and schematics?
Only a few of these engines were produced around 2009. What few details or specification have been found are posted to the Stirling engine forum: stirlingengineforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5463
Outstanding ❤
Whats the cost?
About $200,000,000 in taxpayer funded R&D I think, before being scraped. This one survived because it was sent to a university for testing, I believe, then went into storage and forgotten. At this point, I think it can be considered priceless.
@@peoplesresearchcenter6184 this model was listed on ebay for 24k. attila blade did a disassembly of this model in his channel.
Where to purchase?
This engine from 2009 never went into production, other than a few for testing. None are available for purchase as far as I know
@@peoplesresearchcenter6184 where did you get yours?
damn that animation makes me randy