Friday, January 14, 2011

New Curie effect heat engine

I searched a lot for a Curie effect heat engine and found simple layouts that actually can not be called heat engines but toys. I thought about a Curie effect rotational heat engine (not oscillating) and got this result (see figure below). One of the most important features of this engine that it can be driven using concentrated solar energy and so the rotation of the rotor is not going to affect the heat source (like that in the case of using candles).



One important note is when using candles or flames for driving the Curie effect heat engine the magnet itself is going to be affected. Also, the ferromagnetic material used in the engine should have low specific heat and low Curie temperature. I tried to make this engine using a bottle cap and some twist ties and the engine revolved but due to some inaccuracies it did not work later. Also, I faced a problem that we did not have here in Egypt Neodymium magnets. I hope that anyone will use this method will refer to me first (contact me via email).