Related papers: Thermodynamics education for energy transformation…
We report on the study of student difficulties regarding heat engine in the context of Stirling cycle within upper-division undergraduate thermal physics course. An in-class test about a Stirling engine with a regenerator was taken by three…
A Stirling engine of the type used for demonstration purposes has been outfitted with a pair of sensors that measure pressure and piston displacement when the engine is operating with a small temperature difference between the hot and cold…
The paper develops the dynamics and thermodynamics of Stirling engines that run with temperature differences below 100 0C. The working gas pressure is analytically expressed using an alternative thermodynamic cycle. The shaft dynamics is…
On the assumption that experimentally validated tabulated thermodynamic properties of saturated fluids published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology are accurate, a theoretical thermodynamic cycle can be demonstrated that…
There are diverse teaching methodologies to promote both collaborative and individual work in undergraduate physics courses. However, few educational studies seek to understand how students learn and apply new knowledge through open-ended…
In a quantum Stirling heat engine, the heat exchanged with two thermal baths is partly utilized for performing work by redistributing the energy levels of the working substance. We analyze the thermodynamics of a quantum Stirling engine…
In this contribution, we investigate two coupled spins as a working substance of the quantum Stirling heat engine cycle. We propose an experimentally implementable scheme in which the cycle is driven by tuning the dipole-dipole interaction…
We develop an alternative thermodynamic cycle for the Stirling machine, where the polytropic process plays a central role. Analytical expressions for pressure and temperatures of the working gas are obtained as a function of the volume and…
The topic of microscopic heat engine has undergone intensive research in recent years. Microscopic heat engines can exploit thermal as well as active fluctuations to extract thermodynamic work. We investigate the properties of a microscopic…
We report on several specific student difficulties regarding the Second Law of Thermodynamics in the context of heat engines within upper-division undergraduates thermal physics courses. Data come from ungraded written surveys, graded…
A nanoscale-sized Stirling engine with an atomistic working fluid has been modeled using molecular dynamics simulation. The design includes heat exchangers based on thermostats, pistons attached to a flywheel under load, and a regenerator.…
Thermodynamics could be seen as an expression of physics at a high epistemic level. As such, its potential as an inductive bias to help machine learning procedures attain accurate and credible predictions has been recently realized in many…
Different economical configurations, due for instance to the relative cost of the fuel it consumes, can push a heat engine into operating whether at maximum efficiency or at maximum power produced. Any relevant design of such system hence…
This paper describes simple modifications to a demonstration Stirling engine that allows one to make quantitative measurements of the Stirling cycle. First, we describe measurements of the $P$-$V$ diagram using an inexpensive pressure…
Heat engines transform thermal energy into useful work, operating in a cyclic manner. For centuries, they have played a key role in industrial and technological development. Historically, only gases and liquids have been used as working…
We use the Survey of Thermodynamic Processes and First and Second Laws-Long (STPFaSL-Long), a research-based survey instrument with 78 items at the level of introductory physics, to investigate introductory and advanced students'…
We study a thermo-mechanical system comprised of an alpha Stirling engine and a flywheel from the perspective of dynamical systems theory. Thermodynamics establish a static relation between the flywheel's angle and the forces exerted by the…
We report on a multi-year, multi-institution study to investigate student reasoning about energy in the context of quantum tunnelling. We use ungraded surveys, graded examination questions, individual clinical interviews, and…
Students have several misconceptions about thermodynamics. However, an understanding of basic concepts in this branch of physics remains fundamental to explain thermal phenomena. The purpose of this activity was to extend students'…
In order to study further the promising free piston Stirling engine architecture, there is a need of an analytical thermodynamic model which could be used in a dynamical analysis for preliminary design. To aim at more realistic values, the…