Lab Manual

STUDY OF STEAM ENGINE

MISS ATIYA SADIQ

HITEC UNIVERSITY TAXILA

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

 HITEC University Taxila
Department Of Mechanical Engineering
Lab Manual

Study of Steam Engine

Objective:
a) To study the heat engine.
b) Difference between internal combustion and external combustion engine.
c) Components of a steam engine.
d) Working of a steam engine.
e) Thermodynamics of a steam engine
f) 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

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

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.

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

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:

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).

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

 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,

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

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.

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

 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

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

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.

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

  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

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

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:
1. Put cold water in the pump.
2. The pump will push the cold water into the boiler.
3. In the boiler the water will start to boil by a heating source. E.g. heat.
4. After the water is boiled, converted into steam, it is pumped into the turbine via
a nozzle.
5. The nozzle will accelerate the steam on the blades of the turbine which will
tend to rotate it.
6. 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.
7. Now as the steam strikes the blade it gives its energy to the blade and cools
down into saturated water again.
8. The saturated water is again via the pump, pumped into the boiler and the cycle
continues.

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

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.

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq

 8. It creates a choo choo sound while working which is unpleasant and makes
noise pollution.

Thermodynamics Lab Manual Prepared By: Miss Atiya Sadiq