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Hi Ken,
Since Lasers were often fired by the discharge of a xenon flash tube which requires high voltage, why not just use that? I see no great need for a coherent light beam that is just going to make heat. Don't look at it directly though, the green spot would be enormous.
Best,
Bill G.
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
I don't think steam absorbs Laser light much anyway. I did some research as to using some infra-red emissions from steam to get a good in cylinder temperature monitor. Steam vapor is just not a good infra-red emitter or absorber, so a direct temperature reading by it's infra-red emissions would be hard to do. All one might get is a reading of the cylinder wall temperature on the side opposit
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Caleb,
My friend, Ron henry, is the guy who invented the spread sheet. Back when he worked for Control Data.
Something.
Best,
Bill G.
by
Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
I think a good test engine could somehow be considered a well programed analog computer. Just a muse.
Anyway, I believe ultra pressure would best be used as a first stage in a compound engine. In mine the first stage expansion ratio is only around 3:1. Super critical steam at 850 deg F to 1,200 deg F is expanded to 1,100 psia. This in a counterflow configuration which at the high exhaust pr
by
Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
I liked them using a bearded old dude though. That alone gives them a lot more class.
Best,
Bill G.
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Well, There has got to be some good way to get nice engine braking out of a steam engine. My compound design is more for trucks and it doesn't reverse due to the way it is laid out. I really hadn't thought of braking very much. Mountain roads need it.
Some way of sucking air in through a straw and blowing it out again might be an equivalent, but I would be hesitant to let air into a closed
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hi,
Well an I.C. engine brakes just by going to low or idling throttle. It must be inhaling a bit of air mixture, compressing it and putting the heat out the exhaust or coolant. More so with a Diesel engine.
So, for a Diesel engine; air would go into the cylinder on intake, be compressed and give up some heat to the cylinder walls on compression, expand and cool somewhat on expansion and b
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Andy,
If you over expand on a unaflow, whether compound or not, it quits running. No exhaust will come out. Air might even go in the exhaust ports. So, I imagine that the engine would start braking.
I am wondering if anyone knows exactly how a steam engine does engine braking?
Hope the world is finding you well, Andy,
Bill G.
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hi Guys'
I ran into a few centrifugal pumps for a bird bath or some such which I used for my condenser experiments.
These are a common item. The consist of a normal induction motor encased in an oil bath and with a standard type of seal. The water pressure on the outside is balanced with the oil pressure on the inside and so no water enters the motor nor does any oil leak out due to a p
by
Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hi Randy,
The Kalina cycle does seem overly complex. I studied it once but forgot it's particulars. What I found was that it is high volume for machinery vs power output which would say no as far as something for transportation goes. It is excellent for grabbing work out of low temperature differential heat sources, such as Jim just mentioned.
Jim, how does a Claude cycle work?
One thi
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Guys,
I think it takes talent and enough money. But not too much money. Too much money seems to build organizations and drowned talent. It doesn't take that much money to get things built and tested. I only spent about a grand on my condenser design and it worked better than anticipated.
Paper engines quite often don't work as hoped but if it doesn't run well on paper it sure won't run w
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hi,
Certainly a lot of great information coming out here.
I am just finishing the stuff that Lohring first posted. They sure tested a lot of things that didn't work. From the above discussions it seems that our worst design problem is in both cylinder lubrication at high temperatures and piston ring sealing at such high mean effective pressures.
A properly designed piston ring "sho
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hello,
Abner Doble in his Ultramax design was going to cool the liner with feed water, which would provide a small bit of re-generation. I plan to use this concept in my compound engine. No oil is added to the steam for lubrication but oil is used on the cylinder wall. Very little of it should end up in the exhaust steam.
Does anyone have data as to how well this works?
Best,
Bill
by
Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Dan,
Hexane has been used, I imagine Octane has also. Propane should work fine. It is not that unsafe. When we see two twenty pound "fire bombs" on the back of a camper going down the freeway we know that we all live with some danger every day. My old pickup truck had it's sixteen gallon gas tank right behind the drivers seat.
Modern failsafe safety thinking probably wouldn'
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hello Dan,
We kicked this subject around a few years ago.
The T-S chart for propane doesn't look like the T-S chart for steam insofar as the saturated line starts up and to the left, moves right and then hooks back down and to the left again. (If I remember it correctly.) What happens is that as propane expands it will have a tendency to superheat. This makes it a little harder to condense
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
That was good thinking Rolly,
So your boat floats high enough that the well is short enough to reach the prop.
Reminds me of when my son and I launched a boat that we had fixed up a bit. Mostly we had just fixed up the trailer. The boat launch place was crowded and one had to launch their boat and immediately go away to park the truck and trailer in a crowded subdivision.
It took me ab
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
OK, Ron and Bart,
It wasn't enough that I am deep into the design of a modern steam car amid some of the other stuff I am doing. Now I want a steam boat too. Bart's plans looked interesting and Ron's videos were fun to watch.
I couldn't but wonder at the low steam pressures vs efficiency but I guess that is all part of it. Also the very large diameter prop, I realize would be more effic
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
I'm game.
That was fun to watch, Ken.
Best,
Bill G.
by
Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hello Bart,
I looked at your plans for the Sea Lion and I like. I am wondering why such a big screw for the boat though? 30" seems large to me and the horse power isn't that high at around 12. 12 hp seems low though and I would think at least 20hp would be needed meeting large waves and wind. A 16" screw should handle anything. Any slight imbalance in the screws traction and th
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hi,
So how does the output of a Stanley type boiler compare to that of a mono-tube of the same size?
And, if one were to mount a circulation pump to the outside of a Stanley type boiler to scrub the bubbles away, dare we theorize as to some amount of improvement in output?
Also are Stanley type boilers with wire winding on the outside really that more dangerous than a mono-tube boiler?
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
The problem with zero clearance - zero compression, as I see it for a unaflow, zero compression would require an exhaust valve in the cylinder head to vent the residual steam out of. Thus the engine would revert to a counterflow configuration.
To effectively gain zero clearance re-compression is to initial pressure, -p1. That or exhaust at p2 is vented while the piston would otherwise be re
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hi Chuk,
I'm glad to hear that you are getting around. It's nice to have good friends to help out, glad to hear that too.
Best Wishes,
Bill G.
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Rolly,
Picture the two crankshafts side by side and geared to counter rotate. Each crankshaft has then a connecting rod going to the same wrist pin on the piston. An alternate might be two wrist pins side by side to eliminate a forked con-rod. Anyway the piston moves in a straight line with no sideways force.
I loved seeing that model epicycloid engine it is neat. I guess it isn't thou
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Jerry,
What effect does the Lanchester configuration have on the secondary shaking? The primary is canceled out isn't it?
Best Regards,
Bill G.
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Rahul,
There is also an interesting twisted tube, where the tube is compressed with several sets of rollers then twisted. This leaves both fins on the outside and a minor spiraling on the inside. I had an interest in this because it appeared that it was possible to set it up in a small shop and twist to ones own specifications.
If the fins are too deep then they are wasting space, if to
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Rahul,
Would you post some links or information about some of the things you are talking about; Things such as the eGull, Dan Gelberts uniflow, the mini channel heat exchangers and such?
I think that would be interesting.
Thanks,
Bill G.
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hi Jerry,
OK, let's see. The crosshead mainly replaces a piston in a standard IC practice configuration. So up to the wrist pin all would be the same except for the forked connecting rod end. The purpose of the crosshead is to translate the side thrust from the connecting rod to the cylinder wall so we are concerned with how much cross slide rubbing surface needs to be above the wrist pin.
by
Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Hello Rahul,
What horsepower are you thinking about for the generator, or power output?
As far as the power density of a steam engine, generally the engine itself can be made to have a higher power density than an IC engine. The problem starts when a boiler is added as that item is as big as the engine or bigger and generally heavier, depending on design. If the system is condensing, as
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
Jerry, I'd certainly like to see the Titan document when it's available. I can not now envision how the uniclevis works.
Since nobody asked: My cross slide block starts with a conventional crankshaft, then a connecting rod with a forked wrist pin end. The piston rod end fits tightly between the forks with an eye hole machined as part of it and the wrist pin goes through it. Thus the wrist
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Bill Gatlin
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SteamStuff
