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Old 07-11-2010, 09:34 PM   #150 (permalink)
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Here is a small pump out of a pancake air compressor. I has a sealed bearing that might hold up to the heat and fluid blowby from the steam, but it also might get hot enough to casue the sealed bearing to fail.

Not sure if it could produce enough power, but it probably could handle significant RPM.

The problem with steam is efficiency, even large turbines are only about 35% efficient, unless you run the exhaust from one turbine into another turbine.

In the Titanic they used triple or quadruple expansion engines as well as turbines. It was one of one kind and two of the other, I don't remember which. Even with the huge masses involved in some of the quadruple expansion engines at the end of the steam era, the piston engines were more efficient than the turbines. That was one of the reasons Britain used oil fired turbines on their capital ships when they built the Dreadnought. The fuel consumption was astronomical with the turbines, and Britain used oil for fuel even though they relied on imported oil to run their fleet of Dreadnought battleships.

The piston multiple expansion engines continued on and even today the tons per mile energy cost of the last of the steam railroad locomotives rivals the diesel engines of today.

regards
Mech
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