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Internal Combustion

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Re: Internal Combustion
Post by Randomiser   » Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:06 pm

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Patyr will sign off on diesels just as soon as DW wants one. :twisted:
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Re: Internal Combustion
Post by Weird Harold   » Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:18 pm

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Randomiser wrote:Patyr will sign off on diesels just as soon as DW wants one. :twisted:


Assuming, of course, that DW does want one. ;) Writing a steampunk future for Safehold would be far more interesting and challenging.
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Re: Internal Combustion-spoiler
Post by PeterZ   » Wed Nov 25, 2015 10:08 pm

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Spoiler!

That's right. Stefyny Mahlahrd's middle name is Ahgythah and her mother's maiden name was Hyterodaihn.

Weird Harold wrote:
Randomiser wrote:Patyr will sign off on diesels just as soon as DW wants one. :twisted:


Assuming, of course, that DW does want one. ;) Writing a steampunk future for Safehold would be far more interesting and challenging.
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Re: Internal Combustion-spoiler
Post by Weird Harold   » Wed Nov 25, 2015 10:21 pm

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PeterZ wrote:Spoiler!

That's right. Stefyny Mahlahrd's middle name is Ahgythah and her mother's maiden name was Hyterodaihn.



Funny. :)
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Answers! I got lots of answers!

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Re: Internal Combustion-spoiler
Post by isaac_newton   » Thu Nov 26, 2015 4:35 am

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Weird Harold wrote:
PeterZ wrote:Spoiler!

That's right. Stefyny Mahlahrd's middle name is Ahgythah and her mother's maiden name was Hyterodaihn.



Funny. :)


Nah - that clanks :-)
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Re: Internal Combustion-spoiler
Post by Weird Harold   » Thu Nov 26, 2015 5:23 am

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isaac_newton wrote:
PeterZ wrote:Spoiler!

That's right. Stefyny Mahlahrd's middle name is Ahgythah and her mother's maiden name was Hyterodaihn.


Weird Harold wrote:Funny. :)


Nah - that clanks :-)


You should be Punn-ished for that line. :lol:
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Answers! I got lots of answers!

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Re: Internal Combustion
Post by WeberFan   » Mon May 09, 2016 8:07 pm

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Every now and again, I get a thought in my head and can't let go of it. This one noodled around for most of the weekend, and I just got around to searching through the various threads until I found the most appropriate one.

For some reason, I was under the mistaken impression that a Diesel REQUIRED a glow plug to operate.

Not so.

In fact, in watching a Science Channel program this evening, I watched a guy put a small wad of cotton into a clear plexiglass tube, fit a hand-operated piston in the top, and rapidly force the piston downward. The compression he induced was sufficient to heat the air enough to ignite the cotton wad.

Fascinating! :o

So I did some more digging and learned that a glow plug was only needed when starting the Diesel in cold weather (exactly as other posters on this forum stated). Obviously an electrically-powered glow plug would violate the Proscriptions. But if you put a "jacket" around the cylinder, and if you forced hot steam through the jacket, you'd get the cylinder / piston plenty warm and would eliminate the need for a glow plug. This wouldn't be necessary in a warm engine room aboard ship or when operating in warm climates.

So I envision low-RPM, high-torque diesels being used for maritime operations in place of steam engines, and used to power land vehicles (trains, heavy-wheeled off-road vehicles).

There's nothing inherently bad with steam-powered vessels, but you either need an oil-powered furnace to generate the steam or you need a lot of man to shovel coal around. IIRC we haven't heard anything about oil-powered furnaces yet. Diesel (or any other heavy liquid hydrocarbon) is easier to store and easier to move around. Also, no matter how you cut it, coal being stored in a coal bunker still has a lot of air space between the chunks of coal - wasted volume. Not a factor with oil, which can easily be pumped where it's required.

I'm not sure which engine is more efficient - steam or diesel. Probably depends on a lot of factors and is probably application-specific.

Diesels can probably be started faster than steam engines, so going from a cold start to full operations is going to be faster than it would be with a comparable steam plant.

Just some thoughts added to what is already a mature forum.
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Re: Internal Combustion
Post by 6L6   » Mon May 09, 2016 10:52 pm

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In my Navy days we would start to raise steam at midnight in order to set sail at 8:00 AM.
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Re: Internal Combustion
Post by Annachie   » Tue May 10, 2016 5:24 am

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6L6, what was the steam used for?


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Re: Internal Combustion
Post by DDHv   » Tue May 10, 2016 7:52 am

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= 6L6

In my Navy days we would start to raise steam at midnight in order to set sail at 8:00 AM.


Annachie wrote:6L6, what was the steam used for?


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Doesn't matter for the timing. You need to heat large amounts of mass (including the water), instead of the micro mass of a diesel's air/fuel mixture. This is one of the reasons utilities like gas fueled turbines for peaking - they react to demand changes more quickly, and by having steam produced from the higher exhaust temperatures, efficiency doesn't suffer too much. It is also why some utilities (PJM for one) are willing to pay for frequency control operations: batteries are much more expensive and low capacity, but can react very quickly. Some are looking into electric cars with VTG capability so they don't need to pay for the batteries.
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