Problem 5: Bimetallic Oscillator

“A simple electric oscillator can be made using a bimetallic contact-breaker. Investigate the relevant parameters that affect the frequency of such an oscillator.” 

I. Phenomenon Demonstration

• Homemade bimetallic strips – Thermostat demonstration // Homemade Science with Bruce Yeany by Bruce Yeany https://youtu.be/5fI-El2kipE

II. Books, Encyclopedia, Discussion and Forum Posts

• Wikipedia: Bimetallic Strip, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimetallic_strip
• Thermal Circuit Breaker, https://reviseomatic.org/help/e-components/Thermal%20Circuit%20Breaker.php
• US Patent: Bimetallic strip for a circuit breaker, https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050134424A1/en#patentCitations 

III. Research Papers

• Ravindran, S.K.T., Kroener, M., Woias, P., 2012. A Bimetallic Micro Heat Engine for Pyroelectric Energy Conversion. Procedia Engineering 47, 33–36.. doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2012.09.077
• De Alba, R., Abhilash, T.S., Rand, R.H., Craighead, H.G., Parpia, J.M., 2017. Low-Power Photothermal Self-Oscillation of Bimetallic Nanowires. Nano Letters 17, 3995–4002.. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b04769
• Arnaud, A., Boisseau, S., Monfray, S., Puscasu, O., Despesse, G., Boughaleb, J., … & Skotnicki, T. (2013, December). Piezoelectric and electrostatic bimetal-based thermal energy harvesters. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 476, No. 1, p. 012062). IOP Publishing.