THE ICY RIDER: A VEHICLE DRIVEN BY FREEZING WATER

He Icy Rider is a small vehicle driven by the expansionpressure of freezing water. Its driving energy is generated by freezing aconfined water volume of 0.027 m3 until a pressure of 25 MPa occurs.Generated energy is extracted by a simple hydraulic system. With a total weightof 200 kg (incl. driver) the Icy Rider reaches a speed of 70 km/h over amaximum driving distance of 400 m. Media showed great interest at the time ofits design in 1985 and according to ratings the Icy Rider was watched on TV bymore than 100 million viewers. Because of recent interest in the Icy Rider, thecurrent paper describes its operating principle and theoretical basis. It isshown that the energy utilized by the Icy Rider is 6.5 Wh. Since this energy isextracted during about 25 seconds it means a power of 1 kW. A well designed IcyRider could potentially utilize considerably more energy and reach considerablygreater velocities.