What can this steam engine do and how it can work and in what fields it can be used? Lets find the answer!!!
Although the engine sputters incessantly and isn’t developed enough to be used in the real world, the discovery could make it easier to produce ultra-efficient micro-engines in the future, according to researchers at the University of Stuttgart and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Two German scientists from the University of Stuttgart have developed the world's smallest steam engine, a creation they say could spark more micromechanical machines in the coming years.
A gas-filled cylinder is alternately heated and cooled in a typical Sterling engine, a design that causes the gas to expand and contract. By oscillating between heat and cold, the engine then powers pistons, which in turn can perform a desired task such as turning a wheel ..To design the miniaturized version of the engine, an observable plastic bead takes the place of the working gas. The bead, which measures three micrometers, floats in water, according to Stuttgart University researcher Valentin Blickle. Physicists working on the project then moved to substitute the Sterling engine's pistons with a focused laser beam with variable intensity.The afore-mentioned quirks arise from the fact that the particle is suspended in water. As such, the particle receives a constant buffeting from the motion of water molecules, and these collisions dampen the useful work that the engine can perform. The amount of energy lost to such collisions varies cycle by cycle.
Despite the dampening effect, the University of Stuttgart researchers claim that their engine is as efficient as a regular Stirling engine. Though there is no immediate practical application so far, the researchers claim that it demonstrates there is no principle preventing the construction of tiny, efficient engines.The bead is about 10,000 times larger than an atom, so scientists are able to observe its motion with microscopes.
The scientists don’t think the machine would work and were amazed by their invention and hope that their experiments provide us with an initial insight into the energy balance of a heat engine operating in microscopic dimensions. Although the machine does not provide any useful work as yet, there are no thermodynamic obstacles, in principle, which prohibit this in small dimensions.So lets have our finger crossed and hope it could be made useful for future scientific purposes.
[via:Gizmag]
No comments:
Post a Comment