Displacer-type Stirling Engine
Kontax Stirling Engine
In secondary schools the fundamentals of kinematics and some electromagnetism are taught in lectures and demonstrated in laboratories. There is likely to be less emphasis on thermodynamics and the concepts that are covered in lectures are probably not reinforced by demonstrations. The students are of the age where they are new drivers and interested in engines. Moreover, there is a lot of recent interest in environmentally friendly uses of energy in today's world. The Stirling engine can be a very good tool for demonstrating some fundamental physics while discussing topics that are likely to attract and keep the attention of the students. This website will explain:


(1) What is a Stirling Engine?
(2) How does the Stirling Engine work?
(3) Which physics concepts can be learned?
(4) Stirling Engine instrumentation for PV-diagrams
(5) Demonstration of a Stirling engine
(6) Results of the demonstration

 

(A) Original Stirling Engine demonstration proposal
(B) Striling Engine demonstration slideshow

(The two documents linked above repeat much of the information presented in this website)


created by Hiroko Nakahara
nhiroko"at"phas.ubc.ca
last modified: April 21, 2009