Steam Chest The steam chest (or steamchest) is the “reservoir” for collection of steam as it passes between the superheater header and the inlet port to the cylinder. The advantage of a large steam chest (as is the advantage of any reservoir) is that fluctions in pressure as the steam passes from the steamchest into […]
Superheating of Steam Page Under Development This page is still “under development”. Please contact Chris Newman at webmaster@advanced-steam.org if you would like to help by contributing text to this or any other page.’ Background On page 160 of his book “The Red Devil and Other Tales from the Age of Steam” Wardale confirms that: “The […]
Simple and Compound Expansion The term “Simple Expansion” refers to the single use of steam in powering a steam engine. “Compound Expansion” refers to the multiple uses of steam in powering a steam engine. In a “simple” engine, the steam enters the cylinder at high pressure, expands as it pushes the piston through its stroke, […]
Dave Wardale defined Equivalent Evaporation as follows: Equivalent evaporation = evaporation from and at 100°C. Evaporation figures thus expressed eliminate the effects of different feedwater and superheat temperatures, and are therefore a true measure of comparison between different boilers. [Letter from Dave Wardale to Chris Newman, 5th April 2001.] Equivalent Evaporation might be more simply […]
The Front-End Limit As discussed on the Grate Limit page, the grate limit occurs when any increase in the rate of fuel delivery produces no increase in evaporation. In other words it represents the maximum rate of heat emission that a firebox can deliver beyond which point any additional fuel added to the firebox produces […]
Specific Steam Consumption Specific Steam Consumption is defined as the steam consumed by a locomotive’s cylinders per unit output of power. It is typically measured in kg/kWh or kg/KJ. A locomotive’s Specific Steam Consumption carries important implications as may be deduced from one of Porta’s favourite equations: Thus for any given boiler output, a locomotive’s […]