High-Power Solid-State Heat Engine Design

[Gromet]

Two things missing--the oal dimentions, and the output in Watts?

[hemmjo]

My 8th grade students built a device using a similar concept back in the late '80's. I got the idea from an article of the time, but I do not recall the magazine. As I recall the article was something like "Solar Muscle Engine".

It used Styrofoam coffee cups on each end, with strips of plastic cut from black plastic trash bags as the expanding/contracting elements. When placed in the sun, the black plastic would contract then expand as they were exposed to the sun, then shaded as the motor rotated. They were at first very skeptical at the prospect of this even working.

A couple of the motors did not work, due to careless workmanship. The best one was build by a group of girls who were meticulous in their construction.

The motors did not produce any usable power, except to power the imaginations of the students, and to help inspire a few to become engineers, etc.

I was able to find a similar article https://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Thermal-Motor/

[Gromet]

Yes, I remember that article, and one that my son made did work, albeit very slowly