Stirling engine paddle wheeler

A competition for first-year engineering students at the University of Sydney asked them to transport a block of ice across a pond using the power of just one candle. This was the equal winner, a Stirling-engined paddle wheeler that got everone's admiration for its outstanding design and function.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Stirling
• engine
• model
• boat

[supatroopa411]

needs a bettere heating sours

[garoldavitch]

The competition was based on doing the most with the least in this case the power of one candle.

[robot797]

you sell?

[popdiddydoo]

im also supatroopa, caz im not 107 yrs old.

[popdiddydoo]

oh, sorry

[lukejameshall]

Yep i did. Its just a campbells soup can, with a smaller can inside of it as the displacer piston and the power piston is mounted sideways as u can see. i like the circular saw blade as the flywheel, it adds character haha.

It was too heavy to sit ontop of the ice, thats why it needed the polystyrene blocks underneath it.

[rangerssteamtoys]

I would have used a steam engine

[timwylie]

Looks really good. Just a thought though. You could have mounted part of your engine so that it set over the block of ice and gotten a greater temperature difference. Another idea would be to use the ice as the platform and just have an engine with a propeller in the water. But it looks really great. Did you machine all the parts yourself?

[lukejameshall]

Yay go my project!

Btw it still works even after it flipped upside down in the water.