Steam

[JW]

This picture just came out so nice I had to share.



The exhaust of the corn burner is discharging directly behind the gauge, pretty clean huh.

-JW

[Old F]

One ?  What are you doing that needs 1000 psi

of steam.

Old F  

[JW]

You noticed that huh,

All I can say is not easy. I'm running an 11hp engine @ 500rpm. I putout about 35amps at 13.00v. Believe it or not what you see blasting steam there, is a minor btu exchange compared to the open atmosphere system(which is a separate system), that has tremendiously more btu transfer into heating the engine block, compared with the "wet steam' burst released in the picture. the two energy sources put together actually "run' the engine. so you are missing the picture of the rest of the system, I will post it tomorrow for the quirious eye, Its worth a look. just so you are aware the picture above was taken within several seconds, which is all the steam discharge can be demo'ed for. the fired capacity of the system is about a cup of water. so the burst is quite fast 3 or 4 seconds only. actually this is way more flash steam than the engine cycle requires to run continiously. the burst went about forty feet in the air but you cannot see it from the pic. And insidently this is a unique heatexchanger burner combo, since there is a mechanism to move the water tube heat exchangers out of the fire. this allows the operator to accomodate unexpected situations, solid fuel burners cannot shut down imedietly like there liguid fueled counterparts. its a system that has endured much scutiny from many partys. just bear in mind this is steam from corn.

-JW

[Old F]

I thought it mite be some thing along that line and I would guess from looking  that the metering

valve is rated at about 10,000 PSI.

Were I work we take a slurry and with a high pressure pump

boost it to 6500 PSI and out a spray nozzle in to a 300 F air stream. This flashes out the water

leaving a dry powder product.  All the high pressure pluming is in sg 160 stainless steel.

 And what I see in the pic had to cost you a penny or two ; )

Old F  

[JW]

That's correct Old F,

 It is a 10,000lb valve. By the way I had a chance to check out your web-site, nice job. Ya all the stuff in the system that holds any pressure is as over built as possible. I figure its worth investing in good solid componets, that way I can experiment another day. My personal philosophy is dont make steam until you can be sure you can keep everything under complete control. Here's the pic I promised yesterday.



And this is pic of the alternator, it is rated for 100amps, and is a one wire hook up model.



Actually this is the system Im using the reactor batteries on. I finnally got a good charge on them. I ended up using a small regulated power supply set to 12v. Its the kind of power supply thats used for prototyping electronic circuits. the output is about an amp and it takes a full 4 days to charge them (or each). But it works real good. I initally used a 3 mode battery charger on the reactor battery but for some reason the voltage would climb out of the factory max spec which is 14v. with the regulated power supply the voltage does not exeed 13.34v.

-JW

[JW]

I was thinking agout the material Old F brought up, the 160. I tried to identify it and could not find that exact grade. closest thing to that I could find was N 155. I figure this must be some type of inconel alloy 600. And if im not mistaken this is a material that retains its tensile strength at very high temps. My uncle uses a simular material for the propane heat exchanger on his ballon burner. That is a super-alloy, its really amazing stuff, it can be red-hot and still holds its strength.

 I want to add something here that will give others an idea of the kind of things, that you should educate yourself on, should you become involved with a steam project. I have done this on every-single-peice thats in my system. there is a formula called "Barlow's Formula" its what you use to determine what your componets bursting pressure is. "P=2St/D"

where P = bursting pressure in psi

      S = tensile strength of tube material

      t = Wall thickness in inches

      D = outside diameter in inches

here's an example-

 to find bursting pressure of a tube with a 4" OD X .250 wall, with tensile strength of 80,000 psi:

     2 X 80,000 X .250     40,000

 P= ------------------- = -------- = 10,000 psi bursting pressure

            4                4

 the formula may be rearranged to determine necessary dimensions or tensile strength to produce a desired bursting pressure, as follows:

      DP         2St        DP

 t = ----   D = -----  s = ----

      2S         P          2t

examples:

 to find the wall thickness nessiary to withstand a pressure of 10,000 in a 4" OD tube with 80,000 psi tensile strength:

      4x 10,000      40,000

 t = ------------ = -------- = .250 wal thickness

      2 x 80,000    160,000

to find necessary OD to withstand a pressure of 10,000 psi in a tube with .250" and a tensile strength of 80,000 psi:

      2 x 80,000 x .250"       40,000

 D = --------------------- = ----------- = 4" outside diameter

          10,000               10,000

 to find the tensile strength of material necessary to withstand a pressure of 10,000 in a tube 4" OD x .250" wall:

       4 x 10,000     40,000

 S = ------------- = ---------- = 80,000 psi tensile strength

      2 x .250         .500

                             2 St

Again the formula is    P = -------

                              D

tensile strength is very important, material analysis will give you this information for example 316L , which is the material I use, has a tensile strength of "minumum" 75,000 psi.

Working pressures are generally 1/4 of the bursting pressure from barlow's formula. so if it busts at 10,000 psi safe working limit should be 2,500 psi.

temperature compensation should also be alocated for as well, generally if the material is 'hot" it losses tensile strength. for example 316L losses 15% of its tensile strength at 600*f.

 Interesing note here the 160 material Old F brought up does not lose as much strength at the same temp. 600*f

 Old F I was thinking about i fred's website sorry. got you two mixed up there for a second sorry.

-JW

[Old F]

Jw

The schedule 160 is not a grade of stain less steel it is the wall thickness of the pipe sorry

about that. I like your  choice of engines. Hell these day I like any thing older than my self  and

they are getting harder to find all the time  : )

With what your doing the old hit and miss engine  makes a nice test bed.

Old F

[JW]

Old F,

 Thanks for the compliment, it does make a good test bed. when others get a close up look they appreciate the simplicity. the engine does have some history to it, it was used for powering a bug spray pump for Stokely Farms cannery. it was in service there for about forty years. bought new from sears and robuck in about 1920.

-JW

[DanB]

That red engine looks like a gas engine...

is it a steam engine?

[JW]

DanB,

 Thats correct it is a gas engine. But... I have converted it to a steam engine. More specifically a four-cycle steam engine. I have been working on a way to "lightly" modify any four stroke engine into a steam engine. I use a direct injection valve to accomplish this. The most major modification to the engine is the removal of the spark plug and magneto assy. then the direct injection valve is mounted like the spark plug. An electronic sensor and target is mounted to the cam gear, it activates the direct injection valve(its electric) at TDC on a power stroke. This releases flash steam into the engine and causes it to run. for this to work the engine itself must be quite hot, atleast 300*f. I heat the engine through its water cooling jacket and dedicated heatexhanger circulating oil. then the steam discharge that you see at the top of the post is routed thru the direct injection valve.

 I chose this route for several reasons. first is that you do not need to hack up an engine to make it work on steam. this is acomplished by not majorly modifying the engine, such as messing with cam or valve timing. instead you can remove the spark plug, install the injection valve, then pretty much everything else is on the outside of the engine. this is nice because it allows you to remove everything, and you can reinstall the original parts, and make the engine run as it originally did.

This engine in particular is a proof of concept devise. I am looking to aquire "run" data from this engine. the idea is to make a high rpm piston steam engine. although this engine will not exceed 600rpm. I am studying the benifits of leaving the intake and compression strokes intack. alot of real interesting stuff happens by doing this, and several advantages have already been shown. for example the compression stroke will make surplus heat, this is used by the engine.

-JW  

[JW]

Just for fun,

 you can see the Gran-Torino Pan Top, in the background.

-JW