Simple Heat Engines: Heros Engine, Putt-Putt Boat

Thermodynamics Demonstration
July 21, 2016

SYDE 381
Yang Chen (20536293)

Motivation
Heat engines have extremely useful and common applications in peoples everyday lives all
around the world examples include the steam engine, used in power plants in the form of a
steam turbine, and the internal combustion engine, used in automobiles. These complex systems
can seem intimidating and shy away potential students of thermodynamics - as such, our
objective is to demonstrate the basic workings of the heat engine to make these systems relatable.
This will be achieved by investigating two simple versions of such a system: the Heros Engine,
and the putt-putt engine/boat. Considered to be of no actual practical use but rather a toy[1][2][3] in
its original form, the Heros Engines ancient origins and simple nature make it fun and easy to
[1]

relate to, and motivate investigation of the thermodynamics. Of similar consequence, the puttputt boat is also a fun toy and may seem simple at first, but actually has some incredibly
interesting thermodynamic workings. As such, the demonstration would certainly be appropriate
for the beginning of week 12 as an introduction to heat engines, but also potentially the very first
week to show the class a fun toy that some may even have played with or made in the past, as a
relatable introduction to segue into the course.
Physics
The basic idea of the heat engine is that it converts heat energy into mechanical energy, which
can then do useful mechanical work[4]. In both devices of interest, we are working with the
conversion of water to steam, and thus the expansion of volume of the water. As this liquid water
passes through the vapour dome due to the increase in internal energy and turns into steam,
volume increases significantly[4], which we use to our advantage in our engine. This
demonstrates the simple concept of conservation of mass and 1st Law. We can also see the basic
model of a heat engine, as seen in Figure 1. In the Heros Engine, the internal (kinetic) energy of

the water (heat sink, or cold reservoir) increases as heat (heat

source, or hot reservoir) is applied, and the steam will expand and
be forced to exit through the holes at tangential directions and,
based on Newtons Third Law, make the can rotate (work done).
This creates the torque and the mechanical energy were seeking.

Figure 1[5]: Heat Engine Model

For the putt-putt boat, the physics are a bit more involved. The
process is a cyclic one as described below[6][7], typical for heat
engines, as seen in the PV diagram in Figure 2. This is due to
constraints from the 1st and 2nd laws[5]. First, the tubing in the puttputt engine fills with water, and droplets are flash-boiled and turn

Figure 2[5]: Heat Engine Model

to steam. The expansion of water into steam causes water to leave the pipe. This is the main
source of propulsion that pushes the boat forward. Eventually, the steam encounters the cooler
part of the pipe, and condenses. The lower pressure due to the expanded gas and condensation
creates enough of a vacuum to pull the water back in (equilibrium of pressure), and restarts the
cyclic process. A common question is if the water is going both into and out of the pipe, the boat
should have no net motion. There are multiple theories to explain this, but the most common and
intuitive is the fact that when the water is pulled into the tube, it comes from a hemisphere of
directions all around the opening of the pipe, while the force from the expulsion of water is in
much more unidirectional, causing a bigger net force in the forward direction. [6][7]
Demonstration

The first part of the demonstration will involve a simple Heros Engine. It can
be constructed out of fairly crude materials using a pop can, two nails, some
fishing wire, a stand, and a heat source[8]. The pop can with two holes
protruding at angles parallel to each other and tangential to the can wall is

Figure 3[8]: Top view

with protruding nails

first filled with water, as seen in figure 3.

The can is suspended using the wire and stand, and is heated from below. This will hopefully
create the desired effect of the steam leaving the can and generating enough torque to spin the
can. In terms of potential problems and unknowns, there are many variables in this
demonstration that can affect the motion of the can. In particular, the placement of the holes
made will particularly affect the motion - the direction should be as tangential as possible in
order to create the perpendicular thrust from the sides of the can to make the can rotate. The wire
could also potentially be of too much resistance for the can to rotate. Both of these problems may
be solved by having a stronger output stream of steam. This can be accomplished by adding
small tubing to the holes made to better direct the air[3].
For the putt-putt boat, seen in figure 4, a large, clear bin filled with water can be brought to class.
The putt-putt boat can again be constructed in a variety of methods[3][6]. The boat should be placed
on the water, and then the source of heat should be introduced, usually by lighting a candle. The
extruding pipes should be slightly tilted to wet the inside of the pipe, and begin the cyclic heat
engine process. The boat should be observed to be moving along the water. Potential problems
and unknowns can be attributed to not having a strong enough heat source. The putt-putt boat
already has a very lackluster efficiency[7], so the boat may not move as much as desired. This can

be improved by having a better model for the

diaphragm (the part that is directly heated) of the
engine, such as using a condenser[7].

Figure 4[3]: Picture of putt-putt boat

References
[1] "Hero's Engine", Marshall Space Flight Center, 2016. [Online]. Available:
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/02.html. [Accessed: 17- Jul- 2016].
[2] "turbine", Encyclopdia Britannica, 2007. [Online]. [Accessed: 18- Jul- 2016]
[3] "Chapter 5: Thermodynamics -- Building simple heat engines", Scitoys.com, 2016. [Online].
Available: http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/thermo/thermo.html. [Accessed: 19- Jul- 2016].
[4] Yunus Cengel., Introduction to Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer + EES Software. New
York: McGraw-Hill Science, 2007.
[5] "Heat Engines", Hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu, 2016. [Online]. Available:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/heaeng.html. [Accessed: 19- Jul- 2016].
[6] "The Pop-pop pages.", Nmia.com, 2016. [Online]. Available:
http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/pop-pop/. [Accessed: 19- Jul- 2016].
[7] J. Renaud, Propulsion of a boat by means of a pop-pop engine, 2nd ed. 2016.
[8] "Thermodynamics: The heat is on! / Labs, Activities, and Other CoolStuff", Arborsci.com,
2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.arborsci.com/cool/thermodynamics-the-heat-is-on.
[Accessed: 19- Jul- 2016].