Feedback
William commented on my idea to design a Stirling engine, and he definitely had some interesting points.
First off, he noticed that Stirling engines are sealed systems containing a fixed amount of fluid, and asked me about my plans to build a sealed, airtight system. I thought this was a great question, since it is one I have been thinking a lot about recently as well. My current plan is to purchase parts from McMaster-Carr, an online industrial hardware supplier that is frequented by hobbyists — I’ve dealt with them through our school’s robotics team, and they do have the type of hardware I would need. I’ve done a bit of digging around to find specific parts that I could use on their site, and on the topic of creating an airtight system, I’ve found some seals to use on my piston heads, as well as some short round pipe that would work perfectly for my chamber walls. I’ll definitely elaborate more on this in a later post — where I’ll talk about all the prospective parts I’ve found so far and my plans to use them in the construction of my engine.
William also brought up the relationship between Stirling engines and environmental sustainability. Stirling engines require a heat difference across them, and this difference can be provided by a number of sustainable energy sources — such as solar power. This is quite an interesting real-world link, and I agree that it is something I should definitely research and cover in this project.
First off, he noticed that Stirling engines are sealed systems containing a fixed amount of fluid, and asked me about my plans to build a sealed, airtight system. I thought this was a great question, since it is one I have been thinking a lot about recently as well. My current plan is to purchase parts from McMaster-Carr, an online industrial hardware supplier that is frequented by hobbyists — I’ve dealt with them through our school’s robotics team, and they do have the type of hardware I would need. I’ve done a bit of digging around to find specific parts that I could use on their site, and on the topic of creating an airtight system, I’ve found some seals to use on my piston heads, as well as some short round pipe that would work perfectly for my chamber walls. I’ll definitely elaborate more on this in a later post — where I’ll talk about all the prospective parts I’ve found so far and my plans to use them in the construction of my engine.
William also brought up the relationship between Stirling engines and environmental sustainability. Stirling engines require a heat difference across them, and this difference can be provided by a number of sustainable energy sources — such as solar power. This is quite an interesting real-world link, and I agree that it is something I should definitely research and cover in this project.