Solar Stirling-Engine Water Pump Proposal Draft

2005, 15 p. Advisor: Professor E. Carr EverbachThe goal of this project is to design, build and instrument a Solar Stirling-engine Water Pump using fluidyne technology and to evaluate its performance. The motivation behind the project is the recently revived interest in the liquid-piston Stirling engines as an alternative power source.
The objectives of the project will be to build an engine with a power output of at least 5W capable of pumping water to a height of at least 7 feet;
to generate P-V diagrams of the engine’s performance in real-time;
to investigate engine performance with different fluid types, manometer diameters, manometer lengths, among others and o boil the water that has been pumped using focused sunlight. A suitable design will be selected for power output, mechanical simplicity and sustainability. The engine will be built for the pedagogical purpose of demonstrating fluidyne technology principles in a laboratory setting. Other applications to be investigated will be solar-power generation and use as a heat pump. The project will involve significant machine shop work and software modeling.