Investigating student understanding of heat engine: a case study of Stirling engine

Abstract

We report on the study of student difficulties regarding heat engine in the context of Stirling cycle within upper-division undergraduate thermal physics course. An in-class test about a Stirling engine with a regenerator was taken by three classes, and the students were asked to perform one of the most basic activities---calculate the efficiency of the heat engine. Our data suggest that quite a few students have not developed a robust conceptual understanding of basic engineering knowledge of the heat engine, including the function of the regenerator and the influence of piston movements on the heat and work involved in the engine. Most notably, although the science error ratios of the three classes were similar ($\sim$10\%), the engineering error ratios of the three classes were high (above 50\%), and the class that was given a simple tutorial of engineering knowledge of heat engine exhibited significantly smaller engineering error ratio by about 20\% than the other two classes. In addition, both the written answers and post-test interviews show that most of the students can only associate Carnot's theorem with Carnot cycle, but not with other reversible cycles working between two heat reservoirs, probably because no enough cycles except Carnot cycle were covered in the traditional Thermodynamics textbook. Our results suggest that both scientific and engineering knowledge are important and should be included in instructional approaches, especially in the Thermodynamics course taught in the countries and regions with a tradition of not paying much attention to experimental education or engineering training.