In a two-piston Stirling engine, the heated cylinder is heated by an external flame. The cooled cylinder is air-cooled and has fins on it to aid in the cooling process. A rod stemming from each piston is connected to a small disk, which is, in turn, con­nected to a larger flywheel (see Figure C.4). This […]

Instead of having two pistons, a displacer-type engine has one piston and a displacer. The displacer serves to control when the gas chamber is heated and when it is cooled [8-10], as in Figure C.3. This type of Stirling engine, sometimes used in classroom demonstrations, can run using as little energy as human body heat. […]

A Stirling engine uses the Stirling cycle, which is unlike the cycles used in internal – combustion engines. Three major points should be observed: 1. The gases used inside a Stirling engine never leave the engine. There are no exhaust valves that vent high-pressure gases, as in gasoline or diesel engines, and no explosions are […]

B. 1 INTRODUCTION The Stirling engine is an external heat engine that is vastly different from the inter­nal combustion engines of ordinary cars. Invented by Reverend Robert Stirling in 1816, the Stirling engine has the potential to be much more efficient than a gasoline or diesel engine. It was invented to create a safer alternative […]

As noted earlier, hot water or steam from below ground can also be used to make electricity in a geothermal power plant. Steam carries noncondensable gases of variable concentration and composition. In California, there are 14 areas where geothermal energy is used to make electricity. Some are not yet used because the resource is too […]

Today, it is common to use geothermally heated water in swimming pools and health spas. The hot water from below ground can also warm buildings for growing plants. In San Bernardino in southern California, hot water from below ground is used to heat buildings during the winter; the hot water runs through miles of insu­lated […]

Heat flows outward from the Earth’s interior, causing a convective motion in the mantle, which, in turn, drives plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the movement of plates within the Earth, plates that collide periodically usually causing other events to take place. When two plates collide, one plate is subducted beneath the other and the subducted […]

B. 1 INTRODUCTION The Earth’s crust is formed from enormous slabs—the tectonic plates—from the original ball of liquid and gas it was billions of years ago. The tectonic plates are actually moving very slowly over a massive layer of very hot rock, separating from, crushing into, or sliding under one another. The tectonic plate movement […]