On the Heat Engine

A heat engine is a device that converts thermal energy into other forms of energy. With that in mind, we were tasked to demonstrate the cycle of motion of a mass lifter heat engine composed of a piston attached to a system (with trapped air) which is also connected to an air chamber can.

A discussion of how a heat engine works is not provided here. Suffice it to say, the engine cycle consists of two parts: isobaric part (constant pressure) and adiabatic part (no heat flow). These parts correspond to the addition/removal of mass on the piston and the exposure of the air can to hot/cold temperature respectively.

Initially, I was quite clueless with what to do with the piston apparatus (which costs P35,000 as repeated quite often by the person handling the equipment) since it was the first time for me to handle the device. Also, the reason why the piston shifted height upon exposure of the air can to hot/cold temperature was not intuitive at first. I really had to think it over after the experiment. These deterrents caused me to be not much of a help with the procedural part of the experiment this week.