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In mechanical engineering, the Beale number is a parameter that characterizes the performance of Stirling engines [1] . It is often used to estimate the power output of a Stirling engine design. For engines operating with a high temperature differential, typical values for the Beale number are in the range 0.11−0.15; where a larger number indicates higher performance.
The Beale number can be defined in terms of a Stirling engine's operating parameters:
where:
To estimate the power output of an engine, nominal values are assumed for the Beale number, pressure, swept volume and frequency, then the power is calculated as the product of these parameters, as follows:
Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the imperial horsepower, which is about 745.7 watts, and the metric horsepower, which is approximately 735.5 watts.
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of all types. The main types are: the internal combustion engine, used extensively in motor vehicles; the steam engine, the mainstay of the Industrial Revolution; and the Stirling engine for niche applications. Internal combustion engines are further classified in two ways: either a spark-ignition (SI) engine, where the spark plug initiates the combustion; or a compression-ignition (CI) engine, where the air within the cylinder is compressed, thus heating it, so that the heated air ignites fuel that is injected then or earlier.
The Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. The concept was proven by German engineer Felix Wankel, followed by a commercially feasible engine designed by German engineer Hanns-Dieter Paschke. The Wankel engine's rotor, which creates the turning motion, is similar in shape to a Reuleaux triangle, with the sides having less curvature. The rotor spins inside a figure-eight-like epitrochoidal housing around a fixed-toothed gearing. The midpoint of the rotor moves in a circle around the output shaft, rotating the shaft via a cam.
In physics, resonance refers to a wide class of phenomena that arise as a result of matching temporal or spatial periods of oscillatory objects. For an oscillatory dynamical systems driven by a time-varying external force, resonance occurs when the frequency of the external force coincides with the natural frequency of the system. Resonance can occur in various systems, such as mechanical, electrical, or acoustic systems, and it is desirable in certain applications, such as musical instruments or radio receivers. Resonance can also be undesirable, leading to excessive vibrations or even structural failure in some cases.
A Stirling engine is a heat engine that is operated by the cyclic expansion and contraction of air or other gas by exposing it to different temperatures, resulting in a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work.
Engine displacement is the measure of the cylinder volume swept by all of the pistons of a piston engine, excluding the combustion chambers. It is commonly used as an expression of an engine's size, and by extension as an indicator of the power an engine might be capable of producing and the amount of fuel it should be expected to consume. For this reason displacement is one of the measures often used in advertising, as well as regulating, motor vehicles.
Centrifugal compressors, sometimes called impeller compressors or radial compressors, are a sub-class of dynamic axisymmetric work-absorbing turbomachinery.
A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor.
Thiele/Small parameters are a set of electromechanical parameters that define the specified low frequency performance of a loudspeaker driver. These parameters are published in specification sheets by driver manufacturers so that designers have a guide in selecting off-the-shelf drivers for loudspeaker designs. Using these parameters, a loudspeaker designer may simulate the position, velocity and acceleration of the diaphragm, the input impedance and the sound output of a system comprising a loudspeaker and enclosure. Many of the parameters are strictly defined only at the resonant frequency, but the approach is generally applicable in the frequency range where the diaphragm motion is largely pistonic, i.e., when the entire cone moves in and out as a unit without cone breakup.
Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change its shape, area, volume, and density in response to a change in temperature, usually not including phase transitions.
A gear train or gear set is a machine element of a mechanical system formed by mounting two or more gears on a frame such that the teeth of the gears engage.
The mean effective pressure (MEP) is a quantity relating to the operation of a reciprocating engine and is a measure of an engine's capacity to do work that is independent of engine displacement. Despite having the dimension of pressure, MEP cannot be measured. When quoted as an indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), it may be thought of as the average pressure acting on a piston during the different portions of its cycle. When friction losses are subtracted from the IMEP, the result is the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP).
A thermodynamic cycle consists of linked sequences of thermodynamic processes that involve transfer of heat and work into and out of the system, while varying pressure, temperature, and other state variables within the system, and that eventually returns the system to its initial state. In the process of passing through a cycle, the working fluid (system) may convert heat from a warm source into useful work, and dispose of the remaining heat to a cold sink, thereby acting as a heat engine. Conversely, the cycle may be reversed and use work to move heat from a cold source and transfer it to a warm sink thereby acting as a heat pump. If at every point in the cycle the system is in thermodynamic equilibrium, the cycle is reversible. Whether carried out reversible or irreversibly, the net entropy change of the system is zero, as entropy is a state function.
The West number is an empirical parameter used to characterize the performance of Stirling engines and other Stirling systems. It is very similar to the Beale number where a larger number indicates higher performance; however, the West number includes temperature compensation. The West number is often used to approximate of the power output of a Stirling engine. The average value is (0.25) for a wide variety of engines, although it may range up to (0.35), particularly for engines operating with a high temperature differential.
A mechanical amplifier or a mechanical amplifying element is a linkage mechanism that amplifies the magnitude of mechanical quantities such as force, displacement, velocity, acceleration and torque in linear and rotational systems. In some applications, mechanical amplification induced by nature or unintentional oversights in man-made designs can be disastrous, causing situations such as the 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse. When employed appropriately, it can help to magnify small mechanical signals for practical applications.
Thermodynamic heat pump cycles or refrigeration cycles are the conceptual and mathematical models for heat pump, air conditioning and refrigeration systems. A heat pump is a mechanical system that transmits heat from one location at a certain temperature to another location at a higher temperature. Thus a heat pump may be thought of as a "heater" if the objective is to warm the heat sink, or a "refrigerator" or “cooler” if the objective is to cool the heat source. The operating principles in both cases are the same; energy is used to move heat from a colder place to a warmer place.
The theory of sonics is a branch of continuum mechanics which describes the transmission of mechanical energy through vibrations. The birth of the theory of sonics is the publication of the book A treatise on transmission of power by vibrations in 1918 by the Romanian scientist Gogu Constantinescu.
ONE of the fundamental problems of mechanical engineering is that of transmitting energy found in nature, after suitable transformation, to some point at which can be made available for performing useful work. The methods of transmitting power known and practised by engineers are broadly included in two classes: mechanical including hydraulic, pneumatic and wire rope methods; and electrical methods....According to the new system, energy is transmitted from one point to another, which may be at a considerable distance, by means of impressed variations of pressure or tension producing longitudinal vibrations in solid, liquid or gaseous columns. The energy is transmitted by periodic changes of pressure and volume in the longitudinal direction and may be described as wave transmission of power, or mechanical wave transmission. – Gogu Constantinescu
In control system theory, and various branches of engineering, a transfer function matrix, or just transfer matrix is a generalisation of the transfer functions of single-input single-output (SISO) systems to multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The matrix relates the outputs of the system to its inputs. It is a particularly useful construction for linear time-invariant (LTI) systems because it can be expressed in terms of the s-plane.
Most of the terms listed in Wikipedia glossaries are already defined and explained within Wikipedia itself. However, glossaries like this one are useful for looking up, comparing and reviewing large numbers of terms together. You can help enhance this page by adding new terms or writing definitions for existing ones.
An RF chain is a cascade of electronic components and sub-units which may include amplifiers, filters, mixers, attenuators and detectors. It can take many forms, for example, as a wide-band receiver-detector for electronic warfare (EW) applications, as a tunable narrow-band receiver for communications purposes, as a repeater in signal distribution systems, or as an amplifier and up-converters for a transmitter-driver. In this article, the term RF covers the frequency range "Medium Frequencies" up to "Microwave Frequencies", i.e. from 100 kHz to 20 GHz.
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