Stirling Engine
This is a miniature Stirling engine that runs off heat from a blowtorch, converting thermal energy into rotational motion to spin a flywheel. The primary goal of this project was to bridge the gap between design and manufacturing, every single part was machined by hand, making it a great hands-on exercise in translating a CAD model into a physical assembly.
There wasn't any specific inspiration for the design of this engine. My main focus on this engine was to create the most simplistic and weight efficient design. The weight saving patterns is consistent throughout the engine and fits with the minimalistic design principle.
I designed this project in SolidWorks first by using the requirements and constraints provided by the MEAM 2010 class. Then, I based off the requirements design the more customized parts like the bedplate and the flywheel to have weight savings. For every single one of my complex assembly design, I always start with a 2D sketch that gives me a clear picture of the overall assembly. I usually call this the geometry file. Then based off my geometry file, I create the 3D shapes. Often these 3D parts are referenced to the 2D file so then I would only need to change a single 2D sketch to modify all of my parts to fit accordingly. I am a big fan of this top down design principle.
The finish on this engine is pretty simple. All of the parts are finished with a deburring wheel to make sure all edges are deburred.
The engine's final speed is 1200+ RPM
