I’ve been looking into triple expansion steam engines and feel like I have a comfortable grasp on their operation but I can’t seem to figure out why the cylinders are arranged so that the high pressure steam enters the smallest cylinder first, then exits the largest cylinder last with the least amount of pressure behind the steam. Wouldn’t you want to the reverse arrangement so that you would have the highest steam pressure acting on the largest cylinder? Thanks for info.
Ok so I was asking about why steam engines release a whole bunch of steam when they start to push off and from what I understood of the answers was that when the pistons are cool the steam begins to condense into water and so when the locomotive begins to move again the engineer pushes a whole bunch of extra steam through the pistons and out through a set of valves at the base of the cylinder in order to clear out all that extra water.
So why is it that when you're in the steam locomotive and you begin to add more power to the wheels the train begins to puff out steam through the cylinder drain cocks? From the looks of it this should only happen when the locomotive has been resting for a while.
This could very well just be an oversight of the team or something that was added because it looks cool (and it admittedly is), I'm just wondering what the reason behind it is.
https://preview.redd.it/y3u5awdil9y51.jpg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=598a63ae3b2688023e0d18728565a2e723bc79ac
This model steam engine is designed from the scratch and operates from air compressor. Notice that you need at least 40 PSI pressure to operate the engine and this level depends on engine assembly quality. Notice that some sanding will be required to make it operational. This engine is taller than soda can and requires few components to be printed with support. Let me know if you have any questions
Wondering about what are the most powerful naturally aspirated engines for each cylinder count and engine layout uses (for some like inline 6 and V6 which are both popularly used) ?
Mainly thinking about manufacturer production vehicles here, but if you want to include manufacturer race cars too (for specific race series, homologated etc not thinking of one-off dragsters or anything) then that would be interesting to know too.
If its an interesting thread, maybe on another day we can do one for supercharged, turbocharged engines.
