Mechanical autonomous stochastic heat engines

Stochastic heat engines extract work from the Brownian motion of a set of particles out of equilibrium. So far, experimental demonstrations of stochastic heat engines have required extreme operating conditions or nonautonomous external control systems. In this talk, we will present a simple, purely classical, autonomous stochastic heat engine that uses the well-known tension induced nonlinearity in a string. Our engine operates between two heat baths out of equilibrium, and transfers energy from the hot bath to a work reservoir. This energy transfer occurs even if the work reservoir is at a higher temperature than the hot reservoir. The talk will cover a theoretical investigation and experimental results on a macroscopic setup subject to external noise excitations. This system presents an opportunity for the study of non equilibrium thermodynamics and is an interesting candidate for innovative energy conversion devices.