What makes a Stirling engine efficient?
I'm trying to understand practical efficiency of external combustion engines:
a. In practicality (and NOT in the ideal world) why are regenerative Stirling engines more efficient than an "open" heat engine, where the heated and cooled
This pretty much covers current technological factors.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/stirling-en gine.htm
After the above, google is worth a browse
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source= hp&q=stirling+engine+how+it+works&am