Lamina Flow Engines

[ART]

I have been building one of these Lamina Flow engines for two months using only the information from this site, and others on the web. No formal plans. I got it together last week, and can not get it to run. Rather than putting it on a shelf I am determined to get it working, and would appreciate any information from those who have gotten theirs to run. It has a 1" stroke and .912 bore with a graphite piston, and I am using a .885 x 5.750 Pyrex test tube with SS Regenerator material about 2/3 volume of the tube. I have made several flow restrictors with openings from .125 thru .450, and none seem to make any difference. I installed a P M Research bronze 3.5 OD flywheel, but felt that it might be too light so I installed with it another one one on the outbound end of the crankshaft with no change in performance using either one or both of them. The engine turns very freely on bearings with the test tube removed, and has good compression with it attached. I am using a small alcohol burner to heat the tube at the end of the regenerator. I tried to calculate the compression ratio, and came up with 1.056 to 1 with no regenerator material installed. I have tried to increase the ratio by putting an aluminum plug in the far end of the test tube, but still no improvement. Again any direction would be appreciated, Thanks,
ART

 

[mklotz]

I am using a small alcohol burner to heat the tube at the end of the regenerator.

Which end? If you're heating it at the outboard end - end farthest from the piston - try heating at the other end. If you're already doing that, my apologies.

I had to fiddle with the amount of regenerator to get mine to run. It's an easy thing to do so worth a try.

Mine has an aluminum flywheel about 3.5" OD too. It's rather light. I doubt very much that your bronze flywheel is too light.

My restrictor is about 0.25".

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DF9gNCavKs[/ame]

Keep trying. These engines are fiddly, indeed fickle, at best.

 

[Stan]

If you read my posts on lamina engines you would have seen that I got a big improvement using steel wool instead of SS (much better heat transfer with steel than SS). Also reduce the volume of regenerator to one half the volume of the tube or less. A .25 restrictor should get it running and then experiment to find the optimum.
The heat source flame needs to be just at the margin of steel wool and open space. You might try using more heat in an attempt to get it running. Mine run better with denatured ethanol than with methanol, presumably because of higher heat content.

 

[ART]

Thanks for the information Marv and Stan. I was heating the regenerator at the end nearest the engine. Today I removed the second flywheel, and made a new restrictor that when inserted in the tube end of the engine fills the entire legnth back to the "inside of the head nearest the piston. I started out with a .187 thru hole and progressively opened it to .250 trying to get the engine to run at several diameters. It did begin to occilate with the opening at .250. I, also, changed the regenerator to steel wool before testing. I see progress!!!, and will continue making small adjustments. Thanks again,
ART