Chapter 20

Questions and Answers

Question 1

Why is the Stirling engine

considered a closed
system?

Answer 1

The Stirling engine is considered a closed

system. The fluid remains inside the engine
and is heated and cooled in order to move
back and forth pushing the pistons.

Question 2

What were the design requirements for

the wheelchair engine? Why did the
Stirling engine seem like it might meet
the criteria?

Answer 2
The Stirling engine seemed like a good fit because it
produced enough energy to propell the chair with
large people on it as well as the fact that it could last
all day long. Finally, it did bot emit any emissions
nor sound.

Question 3

Why wasnt the engine that

Chriss team redesigned used in
the wheelchair? How might it be
used?

Answer 3
The Stirling engine took so long to redesign that new batteries were developed
in the meantime and had more power than their redesigned engine. In order to
make the chair with the best technology that they had so that people would get
more use out of their chair they decided to use the new batteries. This engine
may be used to power many electrical devices in fuel powered vehicles
because they increase the amount of energy that you can get out of something.
Such as sleeper cabs on buses. They can also be run by geothermal or solar
energy.

Question 4

Chris describes the cooling

source as an energy sink. Why
is the term energy sink more
appropriate?

Answer 4

Energy sink is more accurate than cooling

source because the object is not really a cold
object. It just has less heat than the fluid and
therefore less energy.

Question 5

Chris says that the greater the temperature

difference between the top and bottom of the
Stirling engine, the greater the amount of
energy transferred to move the pistons and
spin the flywheel. Explain

Answer 5
The greater the difference between the top and
bottom increases the amount of energy produced
becuase there will be more energy moving across
the engine in order to try to equalize the sides.

Question 6

In a Stirling engine, the working

gas never leaves the engine.
Describe how this is different than
a combustion engine.

Answer 6
Through the use of solar hot water or geothermal energy the
engine could be heated entirely through green energy then
cooled by a lake or another geothermal system. This would
make the engine entirely green and not produce any emissions
which is good for the environment.

Question 7

Given what you know about renewable

energy sources, explain how the Stirling
engine may be used in a way that is
beneficial to the environment.

Answer 7

Heating a small area or food. Or

cooling something like a frige.

Question 8
If you were to manually turn the crankshaft of a
Stirling engine, the engine would work in reverse. It
would pump energy from one side of the engine to
the other. Over time, one side of the engine would
become cool and the other side hot. What might be
some practical applications of this?

Answer 8
For camping if there was a small portable Stirling
engine then someone could heat one side of inorder
to charge their cell phone or another electrical
device like a television or radio.

Question 9

Be creative and think of a way that

a closed-system engine like the
Stirling engine might be applied.

Answer 9
There are several design configurations for Stirling engines that can be built, many of which
require rotary or sliding seals, which can introduce difficult tradeoffs between frictional
losses and refrigerant leakage. A free-piston variant of the Stirling engine can be built, which
can be completely hermetically sealed, reducing friction losses and completely eliminating
refrigerant leakage. For example, a Free Piston Stirling Cooler (FPSC) can convert an
electrical energy input into a practical heat pump effect, used for high-efficiency portable
refrigerators and freezers. Conversely, a free-piston electrical generator could be built,
converting a heat flow into mechanical energy, and then into electricity. In both cases,
energy is usually converted from/to electrical energy using magnetic fields in a way that
avoids compromising the hermetic seal.