...Steam engines are external combustion engines,[1] 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 the cycle, water is heated and transforms into steam within a boiler operating at a high pressure. When expanded through pistons or turbines, mechanical work is done. The reduced-pressure steam is then condensed and pumped back into the boiler. In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either the integrated steam plants (including boilers etc.) such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine. Specialized devices such as steam hammers and steam pile drivers are dependent on the steam pressure supplied from a separate boiler. Using boiling water to produce mechanical motion goes back over 2000 years, but early devices were not practical. The Spanish inventor Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont obtained the first patent for a steam engine in 1606.[2] In 1698 Thomas Savery patented a steam pump that used steam in direct contact with the water being pumped. Savery's steam pump used condensing steam to create a vacuum and draw water into a chamber, and then applied pressurized steam to further pump the water. Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine was the first commercial...
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...Steam Turbines The invention of the water turbine was so successful that eventually, the idea came about for extracting power from steam. Steam has one great advantage over water-it expands in volume with tremendous velocity. To be the most effective, a steam turbine must run at a very high speed. No wheel made can revolve at any speed approaching the velocity that a steam turbine can. By utilizing the kinetic energy of steam flow, the turbine could achieve a higher efficiency. As a result, the steam turbine has supplanted the reciprocating engine as a prime mover in large electricity-generating plants and is also used as a means of jet propulsion. The action of the steam turbine is based on the thermodynamic principle that when a vapor is allowed to expand, its temperature drops. In turn, its internal energy is decreased. This reduction in internal energy is transformed into mechanical energy in the form of an acceleration of the particles of vapor. The transformation that occurs, provides a large amount of available work energy. The essential parts of all steam turbines consist of nozzles or jets through which the steam can flow and expand. Thus, the temperature drops, and kinetic energy is gained. In addition, there are blades, on which high pressure steam is exerted. Stationary blades shift the steam onto rotating blades, which provide power. Also, turbines are equipped with wheels or drums where the blades are mounted. A shaft for these...
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...The first practical steam engine was patented by James Watt in 1769. Steam engines worked like this. The water in a holding tank would be heated up and pressure would build in the tank. Once the water pressure was built up high enough the pressure was released to make power and propel the vehicle. Some examples of steam powered vehicles are Trains, ships, and cars. There were ups and downs for this type of engine though. On the up side of steam power it’s has the ability to convert raw heat into mechanical work. Also steam engines burn fuel cleanly and efficiently, with relatively little pollution. One down fall to the steam engine is, the engine would loss pressure and you would have to stop and let the pressure rebuild itself before you could move on. Without steam engines being invented, nuclear engines probably would not have been invented. The gasoline engine is a engine that is ran off of gas. The gas gets sprayed into a cylinder and mixed with air. When that happens a spark is ignited and makes a explosion in the cylinder. This makes the piston move up and down at a very high speed. The piston is connected to a crank shaft and that is connected to a transmission. The transmission will turn a drive shaft and that will make your car move. This was a improvement over the steam engine. There was not any more stop and wait for the pressure to build. This kept you moving for longer periods of time. This also gave you a lot more power and speed. The downfall...
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...First, the steam railway system reduced the amount of time it took for people to travel. Here is a quote from class and shows how important the steam railway was and how it influenced society. “On the Manchester rail-road, for example, above half a million persons travel annually; and supposing each person save only one hour in the time of transit, between Manchester and Liverpool, a saving of five hundred thousand hours, or of fifty thousand working days, of ten hours each, is effected. Now this is equivalent to the actual power of the country of one hundred and sixty-seven men, without increasing the quantity of food consumed…” (Babbage, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, 1832) The steam railway saved fifty thousand working days...
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...The invention of the steam engine can be viewed as a pedestal when compared to other scientific and technological invention that changed the course of human history. The invention of the steam engine brought about a number of changes in society and the industrial world , the most important being the Industrial Revolution . No invention is a single man’s task; it is an aggregation of minor inventions leading to the final step of progression. The invention of the steam engine is believed to have been an amalgamation of tiny inventions, leading to the final product. It is believed that the first relics of the steam engine were found in Alexandria the home of a famous mathematician, engineer called Hero. Hero’s steam engine contained an altar and its pedestal was hollow and air tight. A liquid was poured into the pedestal and a pipe inserted of which the lower end passed beneath the surface of the liquid, and the upper extremity lead through a figure standing at the altar and terminated in a vessel inverted above this altar. When a fire was made on the altar, the heat produced expanded the confined air, and the liquid was driven up the tube, issuing from the vessel in the hand of the figure standing by the altar, which offered...
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...James Watt: Perfecter of the Steam Engine The world we live in today is is fast paced, competitive, and ever evolving. Being accustomed to such a rapidly changing and highly inventive society can make it very difficult to imagine the way people lived centuries ago. Before the Industrial Revolution, most everything was done by hand, required a great deal of time and effort, and was terribly expensive. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, intuitive thinkers would invent and perfect machines, tools, and devices, forever changing the ways of the world. In the following paragraphs, James Watt and his steam engine will be discussed in detail, along with their enormous influence in modernizing the world's industries, trade, transportation, and economy. James Watt was born in Scotland in 1736, and died in 1819. His life spanned many of the years in the most dynamic period in the history of the world. Watt also lived in the United Kingdom, which, at the time, was the most rapidly evolving country on earth. Contrary to popular belief, James Watt did not invent the steam engine. In The Scientific Monthly, authors accurately portray Watt as, "a scientist rather than inventor" (Ambrosius and Reed 272). People had been using steam for power several centuries before Watt's time, but "English military engineer and inventor, Thomas Savery, [was] the first to create a specific device to harness and channel the power of steam" (Ambrosius and Reed 272). It was Savery who...
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...In this essay I will discuss, how the development of steam engine affect the locomotive, did it have a big impact? What the advantages and disadvantages are of a steam engine in locomotive. What impact did the steam engine have on the Economical world? The impact of steam engines on the economical world In 1698 Thomas Savory invented the first steam engine. Back then this was an important thing; this is because it was the first engine that was very affective in the world. (2) Getting back to the title of this paragraph, it had definitely an impact on the economical because things like ore get transported 2x as fast. (1) Also people could travel way faster now with the steam engine in locomotive. A lot of people that were low educated had struggles with getting a job; through the...
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...presence of oxygen, and other non-condensable gases, in the feedwater is a major cause of corrosion in the feedwater piping, boiler, and condensate handling equipment. Deaerator Principles Deaeration is the mechanical removal of dissolved gases from the boiler feedwater. There are three principles that must be met in the design of any deaerator. 1. The incoming feedwater must be heated to the full saturation temperature, corresponding to the steam pressure maintained inside the deaerator . This will lower the solubility of the dissolved gases to zero. 2. The heated feedwater must be mechanically agitated. This is accomplished in a tray deaerator by first spraying the water in a thin film into a steam atmosphere. Creating a thin film reduces the distance the gas bubble has to travel to be released from the water. Next, the water is cascaded over a bank of slotted trays, further reducing the surface tension of the water. This allows for the removal of any gases not liberated by the initial spraying. 3. Adequate steam supply must be passed through the water, in both the spray section and the tray section to sweep out the gases from the water. LET ALTAIR EQUIPMENT CO., INC. BE THE TOTAL SOLUTION FOR YOUR WATER TREATMENT NEEDS VOICE: 215-672-9000 FAX:...
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...The City College of New York (CUNY) [pic] ME 430 THERMAL SYSTEM DESIGN Section Design Project #1: - Steam Turbine Optimization Prepared For: - Professor Rishi Raj Prepared By: - Ali Khokhar Due Date: - 3/23/2012 Abstract Table of Contents Nomencluture Introduction RANKINE CYCLE [pic] Fig 1.0: - Ideal Rankine Cycle In the Ideal Rankine Cycle the objective is to find the value of the exhaust pressure (P4) that would give a steam quality of 87%. The picture and the T-S diagram of an ideal Rankine cycle are shown in ‘Figure 1.0’ above. From the T-S diagram it can be seen that the ideal Rankine cycle consists of the following processes • 1-2 Isentropic compression in a pump. • 2-3 Constant pressure...
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...Site survey: Survey of the battery, conveyor and by-product sites for on-going operations and infrastructure, mechanical and electrical maintenance. Safety training sessions: Conducting safety sessions for department workers for coke oven gas, ammonia and fire safety hazards. Effluent treatment audit: Auditing the quality parameters of the effluent water from the ETP. Auditing the site and machinery for updates on current operating parameters or maintenance work. DG set testing: Weekly auditing of backup supply in case of power failure, break downs and other critical situations. Pipeline Inspection: Inspection of pipelines for clogging, seal pot water inspection and other maintenance activities. Boiler: Steam pressure and temperature, volume of steam to released into the conversion...
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...Driving up to the plant was remarkable in that the plant occupied so much space that it was practically inconceivable that I had never seen it before. The sheer amount of steam pouring off the cooling towers provided an easily seen waymark upon the approach to the plant and from a distance it appeared to be a manufacturer facility for clouds. Upon the drive up, security was quickly notated as they requested my ID and provided me a pre-printed name tag indicating that our presence had already been vetted and accounted for. Key note, it was very very cold outside. I’m curious whether the steam generation would have been as spectacular from a viewing perspective if it had been a lot warmer outside. That being said, they quickly split us up into groups and we had the great fortune of both going inside (mmm warmth) and we got to learn about the integral pieces of what we were about to see which gave us some perspective on what we’d observe. In this case we were observing a combination cycle power plant which combines the Rankine (steam) power cycle with a Brayton (gas turbine) cycle. In order to combine these two processes, the combustion gases from the Brayton cycle are actually funneled into a Rankine cycle system. The efficiency gains of the combination were compared and in their presentation they notated that a steam power plant users 11,500 Btu/KWh and a gas turbine uses about 10,500 Btu/KWh but the combination only uses 7,000 Btu/KWh providing them what was somewhere in the vicinity...
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...simplest, cheapest, most convenient way to sell games and has been possible for a decade. “Digital distribution accounts for 24% of [game] sales in the US, up from 20% in 2009” and is more profitable to game companies over physical sales (Okalow a, 2012). You may ask yourself: why are there still physical retailers if digital distribution is so much better? This is one of many problems in the current game retail industry we will be exploring. The Steam Client is a digital game retailer and a multiplayer and communications platform created by Valve Corporation in 2003. Steam has over 1500 games available and over 54 million active users and is estimated to control roughly 70% of the digital game market. Steam will be the future of game retail and it is positioning itself perfectly to do so. This paper will discuss the current state of the game industry and how and why it has gotten there. From there it will focus on how games are sold today and how retailers are positioning themselves for the future. Lastly the paper will dissect the Steam client and all it has to offer; specifically comparing it to current physical and digital retailers. As technology goes digital, entertainment media seems to be stuck in the physical past; at least for the time being. This is changing rapidly as more and more gamers are realizing the benefits of digital distribution. DFC Intelligence is forecasting that boxed retail will have declined from $29 billion in 2011 to $24 billion in 2016. Meanwhile...
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...INTRODUCTION Valve Corporation (formerly Valve Software, commonly referred to as Valve and sometimes stylized as VALVᴇ) is an American video game development and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, United States. Its European-based office opened in 2012 in Luxembourg. Founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, Valve developed critically acclaimed video game series Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2. It also developed and maintains the Source engine on which most of its games run, and the software distribution platform Steam, which has led to the Steam Machine, a line of pre-built gaming computers running SteamOS. History: Founding and incorporation Valve was founded by longtime Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington on August 24, 1996, as Valve Software LLC based in Kirkland, Washington on the Seattle Eastside. After incorporation in April 2003, it moved from its original location to Bellevue, Washington, the same city in which their original publisher, Sierra On-Line, Inc., was based. Half-Life After securing a license to the Quake engine in late 1996, Newell and Harrington began working on Half-Life. Originally planned for release in late 1997, Half-Life launched on November 19, 1998. Valve acquired TF Software PTY Ltd, the makers of the Team Fortress mod for Quake, in May 1998 with the intent to create a standalone Team Fortress game. ...
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...●●● Introduction ……...………….……..………..….……………………………………………………………………………….. 3 External Analysis …………….…………….…………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 PESTEL Analysis ……………….……………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 Political Factors ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 Economic Factors …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 Socio-Cultural Factors ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5 Technological Factors ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 Environmental Factors ………………………………………………………………………………………... 7 Legal Factors ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Five – Forces Model ……………………………………….……………………………………………………………. 8 Supplier Power ……….………….…………....………………………………………………………………… 8 Buyer Power ………………………...……..………………………………………….…………….…………… 9 Degree of Rivalry ……………………….………..……………………………………………………………. 10 Threat of New Entrants ……….………....……….……………………………………………………….. 10 Threat of Substitutes …………….……….……………………………………….………………………… 11 Conclusion ....……. ………………..………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 Problems and Solutions …………………………………………………………………………………………… 12 Works Cited ………………………………………...…………………………………………………………………………... 14 Introduction Gabe Newell, a Harvard drop out, began working for Microsoft in 1983. Newell spent thirteen years at Microsoft and emerged as a “Microsoft Millionaire.” Newell and his co-worker Mike Harrington left Microsoft in 1996 to begin their own company. The inspiration came from another former Microsoft employee named Michael Abrash...
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...Corporation and Steam Chédiny Clément International Business School 5 Content Summary Executive summary: 3 Introduction: 5 Company background: 6 Innovative strategy: 8 Business processes: 10 Business model: 11 Technologies adopted: 15 Conclusion: 17 Sources: 18 Executive summary: It is clearly going to be “cliché”, but as most part of guys, I like Video Games. Being a soldier, killing the bad guys, or being the new star of European soccer fields scoring in the final of the UEFA Champions League, every men “normally” constituted has dreamed at least once to be in that situation, and video games can procure that kind of excitement. This is the reason why I choose to make my final e-business assignment on video games. Concerning my choice for the company, for me it was obvious to choose Steam. In my point of view, they have been the precursor of many things in e-business, or at least they were one of the first that used “e-novations”. Through the years, they have succeeded in being one of the most important company in this sector. Many factors have to be pointed out. First, the fact that they have created one of the best games ever made which is Half-Life. It allows them to have a world-wide recognition. Secondly, the Valve platforms, with its large numbre of games available, the exchange of data and information between players and users, have made them the first online retailer for video games. But Steam is not only benefic...
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