Laminar Flow or Thermal-Acoustic Engines

[Oldmechthings]

After building that one cylinder hot air engine, (my first post) and failing to get it to run, I was skeptical about one cylinder engines. I thought they might be a hoax. Then about a year ago I got another book on hot air engines written by Roy Darlington in England. Roy had a short chapter with a few pictures, only he called them Thermal-Acoustic engines. Then I got on the web and located a few more which even included some video clips of them running. That aroused my interest again so I proceeded to build one. I did not locate a plan, but there were pictures and good descriptions of construction.

Somewhat to my surprise, the darn thing runs, Not very fast, but about a steady 80 rpm. Don't ask me how or why, as I have no idea what makes it go. It seems to defy the laws of physics, at least as I understand them. For a piston engine to run it needs a pulsating pressure in the cylinder to push the piston back and forth. I would think applying heat to the tube would cause the air to expand and push the piston out where it would stay until the heat was removed and it cooled back down again.
It is unlikely that I'll build another one as I'm not much into building things that I do not understand

 

[Powder keg]

That looks great!I've been meaning to ask for some pictures of that engine:O) I'd like to build one of those soon. Just to watch it run:O) Thanks for sharing. I fixed your link so it works now. Keep trying:O)

Wes

 

[Oldmechthings]

Thanks so much for making the image come up. I do not know what I missed. Us old dogs learn new trick s-l-o-w sometimes.
Birk

 

[Kactiguy]

Birk, it's a good thing powder keg is around to fix things. I'll stop by and help you out again sometime soon. As for this engine, it looks great and it does work. I've seen it with my own eyes. I can't explain it, but I've seen it.

 

[MechanicallyDeclined]

Hi Birk!

Looks like this forum has you well in hand. I'll hang out here too to see what you're going to post next!

David

 

[Lyn S.]

I have built a L-Flow or T-Acoustic engine and have running very well. Nope I don`t
know how it runs, but it is fast. 825 RPM on a electronic tach.
Can`t seem to post a picture on the fourm, but will send a picture to you by Email
if you wish. Email add. be should on my profile
Lyn S.

 

[Powder keg]

Here is a video of Oldmechthings' lamina engine running:O) Great job.
[youtube=425,350]CEQ2Pue0kls[/youtube]

Enjoy, Wes

 

[Powder keg]

I'm just glad I didn't delete all your stuff:O)

Wes

 

[Brass_Machine]

that's pretty cool!

Eric