In this modern world where companies are focusing on green energy, cam less engine can become a great alternative.
A cam is a rotating or sliding piece in a mechanical linkage used especially in transforming rotary motion into linear motion or vice-versa. In an engine, it is connected to a shaft (e.g. a cylinder with an irregular shape) that strikes a lever at one or more points on its circular path. In a traditional engine, the camshaft has a very important role to play while opening and closing of a valve. It was a necessary evil for an engine functioning. Furthermore, because of the camshaft, engineers need to choose either an efficient engine or a powerful engine but not with both qualities. This is one of the most important factors that make a camless engine a necessity. Though the idea of cam less engine existed from 1899, it has become the need of the modern world now, when we need power and efficiency both.
We had discussed both Stirling Engine and Remote control
cars in two separate posts. In this post
we will combine these two technologies. Before we start our discussion, I would
briefly describe both of them.
Stirling Engine
1.Piston 2. Displacer, Hot gases in the left side of Heat displacer, push it forward to move piston.
It is an external combustion engine where combustion occurs
outside the engine itself. An advantage with this engine is that, it can be
used with any type of heating source both renewable and non renewable. Basic form
of engine consists of one cylinder, hot at one end and cold at the other, loose
fitting displacer, power piston and flywheel.
When we heat at one end, gas starts to expand and push loose
displacer forward, which is connected with piston which eventually revolves the
flywheel. With its revolution it pushes back the fitting displacer to its
original position having cold gas at both ends again. This cycle continues till
the heat is supplied from heat source.
RC Cars
These cars are usually powered by electric batteries can be
controlled by remote control. It consists of three components, transmitter (our
remote), receiver (which receives transmitter signal) and car itself. Transmitter
role is not only limited to receiving signals but it also transforms these radio
waves into electric signals and controls the components. Most of these cars use
Amplitude modulation but some newer once also use Frequency modulation. If you
have never heard about modulation, our fm and am radio works with same transmitter,
receiver concept. By the way, frequency most often used in mini remote cars is 2.4 GHz.
RC Cars itself is a big concept and out of scope for this
post, for this project idea, I would rather recommend you to buy an RC car from
toy store and install our engine on it. If it works, then you can shift your focus
to build one car by yourself.
We all have heard about steam engines, a big giant engine on the train, producing enough power to pull huge boogies attached to it. But today, we are going to discuss engines opposite to train engines, an engine which is a small engine but produces enough torque to move our bicycle forward.
IC Engine which is also known as the Internal Combustion engine are engines where combustion takes place inside the engine. It is different from external combustion engines such as Stirling engine and Steam Engines where combustion takes place outside the chamber of an engine. Projects :
Stress Analysis and Optimization of Crankshafts: The main objective of this study was to investigate weight and cost reduction opportunities for a forged steel crankshaft. The need for load history in the FEM analysis necessitates performing a detailed dynamic load analysis. Therefore, this study consists of three major sections: (1) dynamic load analysis, (2) FEM and stress analysis, (3) optimization for weight and cost reduction.
Cogeneration (also combined heat and power, CHP) is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat. We all know that all power plants emit heat while producing electricity, this heat energy can be used for other purposes. Masnedø CHP power station in Denmark(Image is shown below) uses the same concept. In my opinion, it is a great project for Mechanical Engineering students. Its use is not only limited to big power plants, but it can also be used in other places too, a good example of that is the implementation of a co-generation plant at Carnegie Mellon University about which you can search on the internet.
At the time of global warming, it is vital to improving the efficiency of our power plants, this can be done easily using this method. The University of Gaziantep journal about Performance assessment of co-generation plants proves my point.
Coopers' Brewery uses this system to reduce its carbon footprint to 50 percent and at the same time double there production.
How cogeneration works?
Even though companies started to implement co-generation in their plants, there is still a lot to do in this field, for example, there can be other ways to use this heat or how many other places this concept can be implemented.
