Improvement of Thermoacoustic engine with glass beads (end of the Rice engine era)

link to my relevant previous videos:
• How to make a thermoac...
• Themoacoustic heat eng...
• Thermoacoustic engine ...
The rice engine although performs fanatically over short run, but its long term performance is very poor. The rice gradually get soften and sticks together, blocking the movement of air. This stops the engine functionality. the rice must be replaced and the wet rice also damage the steel wool, which after several time it also must be replaced. After experimenting with several replacement material (pasta, wheat, orange peel, small grains, etc.) I notices that size of these material plays a role. a size of 3-5 mm seems optimum. to have a robust material that does not burn, I decided to replace the rice with glass beads. This produce satisfactory results. The glass beads are not going to stick together and we will not have mold inside the engine. Furthermore, I placed a stainless steel wool in the lower section of engine so that more this more rust resistant layer be the first to have contact with vapor. normal steel wool is placed on top of it.
With this the rice era is finished and now i will work to improve other aspects of the engine.
Last week Hassan defended his master thesis. Congratulations Hassan and good luck. With this my last MSc student of 2021-2022 has graduated.
Finance: N=60
subs=2119
Available budget (N): 2119-100-60*(60+1)=-1641
Storage limit: 2^ln(2119)=202,06

[@tenbitcomb]

You're a true MacGuyver! I've seen lots of heat engine videos and yours are the most interesting yet. Maybe the rice is acting kind of like the restrictor in thermal lag engines? No matter how it works, your engine works very well with out a displacer and even better with a tiny amount of water added. Would be cool to see how it performs with a long tube attached to the release hole (forming an air piston).

[@HVE]

Thank you. Actually I had already done some test with longer tubes. It shows interesting results which I will show it in a separate video. The acoustic wave with longer tube are of lower frequency (as i shown in one of the videos), if I use a diafragma on the long tube, instead of getting the vibration, the sound passes through it. So i need to work on it and understand it better. I guess that acoustic impedance of the diafragma is frequency dependent and below a certain level, it s just so that most of the wave passes through instead of reflection. It is very interesting and offers a lot to learn from.

[@originsdecoded3508]

Amazing job, may I make some suggestions you can explore? Your loosing a lot of energy potential with the steam produced. the shape of the can if tapered from thick to narrow like a cone would compress the steam more, increasing internal cavity compression by 3x depending how efficient you make the shaping to compress the steam. Doing so will also give you a stronger release output of the steam as it is pressured by the narrower exit point, moving the cylinder engine at greater speeds, for much longer time, because the steam trapped inside for longer time will boil the water dry much slower, yet giving stronger release like pressure cooker release valve. This can literally be turned into offgrid thermoacoustic engine with a more serious professionally grade setup with more longer lasting materials that can last much longer. putting a copper cylinder bolt at the right proportionate corresponding size with magnets around the edges of the can would even give you a nice voltage reading. supersize this tech to something much bigger and stronger, and you would be able to power an entire house with just logs of wood and fire. for an entire day. So many ways I can visualize making a thermoacoustic engine. But the best design would be which harnesses the principles of steam compression to increase energy output and endurance.

[@YimingZang]

Cool! Thank you for showing the different material in it.This engine may energize the coil winding machine you have shown in vedio before.

[@HVE]

🤣, A long way to go, until it can produce that much of power. But that would be cool.

[@jimviau327]

Cool stuff. Im in . I subscribe 🎉

[@andrewzuy6012]

Next improvement should be linked with replacing balloon diaphragm with a metal one

[@justtinkering6713]

And it works at lower temperatures if you use methanol Rather than water.

[@experiencedoldman7347]

Hi would it work if you put it said way Please inform me

[@Berkana]

What if you use fine copper wool? Copper shouldn't rust, and it is a better conductor. I'm not talking about the kind of copper wool you showed in the video. I'm talking about the super fine material, which should have better conduction with the gases in the engine.

[@HVE]

Thanks for the comment. I assume it will work, probably better than what I have shown and yes it should not rust. I do not know where to get very fine copper wool. If i find some, I will give it a try and show it in a video.

[@Berkana]

@@HVE One more thing: instead of using a balloon for the diaphragm, what if you use an exercise band? There are large flat sheets of rubber sold for providing resistance for exercises. Those are probably more durable than cutting a balloon.

[@HVE]

@@Berkana yes, large rubber bands would be more durable, but the amount of damping it creates must not be that high otherwise oscillation will not start. also making it sealed around the can will be a bit of an issue if the rubber band is a bit stiff. i will explore these and report the progress in the coming videos 🙂. Thanks for commenting.

[@Berkana]

@@HVE The exercise rubber comes in various levels of stiffness. My reasoning is that the ideal diaphragm should be more durable than a balloon, and exercise rubber may be exactly that. If you search the web for "resistance bands", you should be able to find many different types of different stiffness. Even the least stiff ones seem better than balloon material.

[@HVE]

@@Berkana Yes, I agree. if the size which is needed is available I will give it a try. What i see is that the lower stiffness is achieved by making it narrower. That will not be useful here. We need a wide band. I have done some work on an alternative solution for the piston, I will post about it soon.

[@-14545]

what if we use small rocks?