Experiment # 3

Working of a Steam Engine.

Objectives:
 To study the heat engine.
 Difference between internal combustion and external combustion engine.
 Components of a steam engine.
 Working of a steam engine.
 Thermodynamics of a steam engine
 Merits and demerits.

Theory:
In this experiment we will study the working of steam engine which is type of heat
engine, so we will discuss heat engines first.

- Heat Engine:

In thermodynamics, a heat engine is a system that performs the conversion

of heat or thermal energy to mechanical energy which can then be used to do mechanical work.
[1][2]
It does this by bringing a working substance from a higher state temperature to a lower
state temperature. A heat "source" generates thermal energy that brings the working
substance to the high temperature state.

The working substance generates work in the "working body" of the engine
while transferring heat to the colder "sink" until it reaches a low temperature state. During this
process some of the thermal energy is converted into work by exploiting the properties of the
working substance. The working substance can be any system with a non-zero heat capacity,
but it usually is a gas or liquid.

In general an engine converts energy to mechanical work. Heat engines

distinguish themselves from other types of engines by the fact that their efficiency is
fundamentally limited by Carnot's theorem.[3] Although this efficiency limitation can be a
drawback, an advantage of heat engines is that most forms of energy can be easily converted to
heat by processes like exothermic reactions (such as combustion), absorption of light or
energetic particles, friction, dissipation and resistance. Since the heat source that supplies
thermal energy to the engine can thus be powered by virtually any kind of energy, heat engines
are very versatile and have a wide range of applicability.
Heat engines are often confused with the cycles they attempt to mimic. Typically when
describing the physical device the term 'engine' is used. When describing the model the term
'cycle' is used.

We have two types of heat engines:

1. Forward heat engines, which operate on forward

Carnot cycle, like all practical engines are working.
E.g. Petrol engine, Diesel engine, steam engine etc.

2. Reverse heat engines are those heat engines which

operate on reverse Carnot cycle opposite to the first
type. E.g. Heat pumps, refrigerators etc.

Forward Carnot Cycle Reverse Carnot Cycle

We are here studying forward heat engines which operate on forward Carnot cycle.

Forward Heat engines are of two types mostly used:

- Internal Combustion engines
 - External Combustion engines

- Internal Combustion engine:

The internal combustion engine is an engine in
which the combustion of a fuel (normally a fossil fuel) occurs with an
oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part
of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine
(ICE) the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases
produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of
the engine. The force is applied typically to pistons, turbine blades, or
a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance,
transforming chemical energy into useful mechanical energy.

The term internal combustion engine usually refers to an

engine in which combustion is intermittent, such as the more familiar
four-stroke and two-stroke piston engines, along with variants, such
as the six-stroke piston engine and the Wankel rotary engine. A second class of internal
combustion engines use continuous combustion: gas turbines, jet engines and most rocket
engines, each of which are internal combustion engines on the same principle as previously
described.

- External Combustion Engine:

33

An external combustion engine (EC engine) is a heat engine where an

(internal) working fluid is heated by combustion in an external source, through the engine wall
or a heat exchanger. The fluid then, by expanding and acting on the mechanism of the engine,
produces motion and usable work. The fluid is then cooled,
compressed and reused (closed cycle), or (less commonly) dumped,
and cool fluid pulled in (open cycle air engine).

We will study the steam engine which is a type of external

combustion heat engine.

- Steam Engine:
 A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using
steam as its working fluid.

Using boiling water to produce mechanical motion goes back about 2,000 years, but early
devices were not practical. Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working
fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar
power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be used. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used
to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle.

In a steam engine, hot steam, usually supplied by a boiler, expands under pressure, and part of
the heat energy is converted into work. The remainder of the heat may be allowed to escape,
or, for maximum engine efficiency, the steam may be condensed in a separate apparatus, a
condenser, at comparatively low temperature and pressure. For high efficiency, the steam must
fall through a wide temperature range as a consequence of its expansion within the engine. The
most efficient performance—that is, the greatest output of work in relation to the heat
supplied—is secured by using a low condenser temperature and a high boiler pressure. The
steam may be further heated by passing it through a superheater on its way from the boiler to
the engine. A common superheater is a group of parallel pipes with their surfaces exposed to
the hot gases in the boiler furnace. By means of superheaters, the steam may be heated
beyond the temperature at which it is produced by boiling water.

In a reciprocating engine, the piston and cylinder

type of steam engine, steam under pressure is
admitted into the cylinder by a valve mechanism.
As the steam expands, it pushes the piston, which
is usually connected to a crank on a flywheel to
produce rotary motion. In the double-acting
engine, steam from the boiler is admitted
alternately to each side of the piston. In a simple
steam engine, expansion of the steam takes place
in only one cylinder, whereas in the compound
engine there are two or more cylinders of
increasing size for greater expansion of the steam
and higher efficiency; the first and smallest piston
is operated by the initial high-pressure steam and the second by the lower-pressure steam
exhausted from the first.
In the steam turbine, steam is discharged at high velocity through nozzles and then flows
through a series of stationary and moving blades, causing a rotor to move at high speeds.
Steam turbines are more compact and usually permit higher temperatures and greater
expansion ratios than reciprocating steam engines. The turbine is the universal means used to
generate large quantities of electric power with steam.

- Components of a Steam Engine:

A steam engine is a combination of many components by which it works we will
discuss the only parts here which are four.

1. Water Pump:
The Rankine cycle and most practical steam engines have a water pump
to recycle or top up the boiler water, so that they may be run continuously. Utility and
industrial boilers commonly use multi-stage centrifugal pumps; however, other types are used.
Another means of supplying lower pressure boiler feed water is an injector, which uses a steam
jet usually supplied from the boiler. Water pumps only work is to flow the water into the boiler.

2. Boiler:
 Boilers are pressure vessels that contain water to be boiled, and some kind of
mechanism for transferring the heat to the water so as to boil it.

The two most common methods of transferring heat to the water are:

1. water-tube boiler – water is contained in or run through one or several tubes

surrounded by hot gases
2. fire-tube boiler – the water partially fills a vessel below or inside which is a combustion
chamber or furnace and fire tubes through which the hot gases flow

Fire tube boilers were the main type used for early high pressure steam (typical steam
locomotive practice), but they were to a large extent displaced by more economical water tube
boilers in the late 19th century for marine propulsion and large stationary applications.

Once turned to steam, many boilers raise the temperature of the steam further, turning 'wet
steam' into 'superheated steam'. This use of superheating avoids the steam condensing within
the engine, and allows significantly greater efficiency.

3. Turbine:

A steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized

steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft.

Because the turbine generates rotary motion, it is particularly suited to be used to drive an
electrical generator. Steam turbines are made in a variety of sizes ranging from small <0.75 kW
(<1 hp) units (rare) used as mechanical drives for pumps, compressors and other shaft driven
equipment, to 1,500,000 kW (2,000,000 HP) turbines used to generate electricity. There are
several classifications for modern steam turbines.

4. Condenser:

In systems involving heat transfer, a condenser is a device or unit used to

condense a substance from its gaseous to its liquid state, typically by cooling it. In so doing, the
latent heat is given up by the substance, and will transfer to the condenser coolant. Condensers
are typically heat exchangers which have various designs and come in many sizes ranging from
rather small (hand-held) to very large industrial-scale units used in plant processes.

In the steam engine after passing through the boiler the steam comes into the condenser to be
cooled and reused. The condensers are cooled by water flow from oceans, rivers, lakes, and
often by cooling towers which evaporate water to provide cooling energy removal. The
resulting condensed hot water output from the condenser is then put back into the boiler via a
pump.

Working of a steam
Engine

Thermodynamics of a steam engine:

There are four processes in the Rankine cycle.

 Process 1-2: The working fluid is pumped from low to high pressure. As the fluid is a
liquid at this stage the pump requires little input energy.
 Process 2-3: The high pressure liquid enters a boiler where it is heated at constant
pressure by an external heat source to become a dry saturated vapor.

 Process 3-4: The dry saturated vapor expands through a turbine, generating power. This
decreases the temperature and pressure of the vapor, and some condensation may
occur.
 Process 4-1: The wet vapor then enters a condenser where it is condensed at a constant
pressure to become a saturated liquid.
In an ideal Rankine cycle the pump and turbine would be isentropic, i.e., the pump and turbine
would generate no entropy and hence maximize the net-work output. Processes 1-2 and 3-4
would be represented by vertical lines on the T-S diagram and more closely resemble that of
the Carnot cycle. The Rankine cycle shown here prevents the vapor ending up in the superheat
region after the expansion in the turbine, which reduces the energy removed by the
condensers.

T-S
diagram for the process

P-V diagram for the process

 h-s diagram for the process P-h diagram for the process

Steam engine is a two stroke engine which has a first stroke as compression stroke and the
second stroke as a power stroke. The working is showed in the following diagrams.

First Stroke Exhaust Second Stroke Exhaust

Procedure:
 Put cold water in the pump.
 The pump will push the cold water into the boiler.
 In the boiler the water will start to boil by a heating source. E.g. heat.
 After the water is boiled, converted into steam, it is pumped into the turbine via a
nozzle.
 The nozzle will accelerate the steam on the blades of the turbine which will tend to
rotate it.
 On the rotation of the blades the shaft adjoined with it will also rotate going into the
generator to produce work. E.g. electrical power.
 Now as the steam strikes the blade it gives its energy to the blade and cools down into
saturated water again.
 The saturated water is again via the pump, pumped into the boiler and the cycle
continues.

Observations:
In this experiment we see the conversion of one form of energy to another
form. I.e. thermal energy into mechanical or electrical energy. The steam is used to drive the
turbine which converts the energies forms. The steam engine works on the basic principle of
the ideal Rankine cycle. Water is pumped via a pump into the boiler where it boils and then
sent into the turbine to create the power and from there the cooled water is poured in the
pump and the cycle goes on. We are studying an ideal rankine process in which the process
carrying out are isentropic and isobaric so that all the laws we apply are valid. It’s a two stoke
engine. All the strokes working periodically to make out the max power. The first stroke is the
power stroke which rotates half of the power wheel, after that the exhaust stroke then the
second stroke to make the wheel rotation complete and drive the power created. After this
comes the last step of the cycle is again the exhaust of the residual gases and intake of the new
fuel.

Merits And De-merits of steam engine:

 Merits:

1. Any source of suitable energy can be used to create steam and use it to drive the
steam engine.
2. It’s efficient is not much affected by high altitudes.
3. A steam engine (or external combustion engine) could be located anywhere because
water is heated in a separate boiler to produce steam. The steam engine, with its
boiler, could be taken to any place of work. On the other hand, blowing wind or
flowing water is not available everywhere to run the wind mills or water mills.
4. Cheap to build, simple, easy to maintain, reliable, readily available coal supplies
many improvement which can enhance the performance of the engine.
5. They are used in many transportation systems.

 De-merits:

1. Steam engines have low efficiencies up to 30% only.

2. Create a lot of Air pollution.
3. High temperature is required to make steam which is highly dangerous and difficult
to achieve.
 4. A steam engine is huge and heavy. That is, an external combustion engine is huge
and heavy. Due to its big boiler and furnace a steam engine is huge, heavy and
clumsy. Since the boiler of a steam engine is very heavy, therefore, a steam engine
cannot be used for running small vehicles like cars and buses.
5. A steam engine does not start at once. Before a steam engine can start, we have to
build a coal fire to get steam.
6. Due to overheating sometimes the boiler can explode endangering lives.
7. Most of the heat generated is lost.
8. It creates a choo choo sound while working which is unpleasant and makes noise
pollution.

Applications of steam Engine:

1. In early times they were used as water pumps.

2. Steam engines were used to drive transportation means.
3. They are used in generation of electricity in some areas now-a-days.
4. They are also used in steam rockets.

Nothing is true Everything is

Permitted