Several projects are available in the general area of alternative energy sources.
Projects in this area have obvious national interest and since much that is published on the subject ignores basic physical principles, there is an opportunity for physics students to make important contributions to the literature. Under appropriate conditions, if the speaker is driven at an audible frequency a temperature gradient is produced along the length of the pipe, the end away from the speaker becoming the hotter end. Students have recently studied the operation of such a thermo-acoustic engine. We hope to continue working with students to study the dynamic, thermodynamic, and heat- transfer properties that produce this effect, to build a working engine, and to conduct experiments on it. Recently a variety of heat engines using non-mechanical compressors have been proposed.