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End of Steam How Social Upheaval, Diesel Electrics 7 Thermodynamics by Petitjean
The End of Steam How Social Upheaval, Diesel Electrics Thermodynamics Conspired to kill the Steam Locomotive in America
By William L. Petitjean, P.E.
Softcover
39 pages
Norfolk & Western Historical Society Special edition
Copyright 2002
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction vii
A Cautionary Note About Engineering Terms and Unitsxi
Giants Among Engines 1 Table I...Selected Comparisions of Nolfork & Western
Class Y Locomotives 2
Figure I...The Complete Condensing Rankine Cycle3
Figure 2...The Partial Non-Condensing Rankine Cycle4
Model Construction5
The Boiler 6 Table 2...Theoretical Thermal Efficiencies for Imaginary
Carnot Engines Operating 13
The Engine 15
Figure 3...Simplified Model Engine with Kinetic 16 Figure 4...Pressure Volume Diagram for the
Model Engine 17
Table 3...Model Engine Outputs22
Table 4...Heat Energy Converted to Work25 Figure 5...Mean Effective Pressure and Heat Converted
to Work versus Admission Valve Cutoff 26 Horsepower, Tractive Effort and
The Real Steam Locomotive 31
Table 5...Model Engine Cutoff versus Speed34
Figure 6...Cylinder Horsepower Curves36
Figure 7...Cylinder Tractive Effort Curves37
Figure 8...Drawbar Horsepower and Tractive Effort
Curves for N&W Y-6b Class 2-8-8-2 and
Santa Fe 3765 Class 4-8-4 43
Table 6...Selected Comparisons of Santa Fe 4-8-444
Conclusions 49
Glossary 55
Selected Reading67
INTRODUCTION
Sixty years ago the locomotive industry's best designers struggled to build steam locomotives that could compete with diesels. They lost the battle even as their creations produced outstanding performances that eclipsed the outputs of steam locomotives built ten and twenty years earlier.
The popular railroad literature is full of specific exploits of the best steam locomotives on the best railroads. However, this story takes a different viewpoint - a thermodynamic overview of the final 30 years of steam locomotive development. The objective is to develop a theoretical model, based on some simple thermodynamic tools, that describes the internal heat engine processes common to all steam locomotives, good or bad, large or small. This enables us to rise above the everyday turmoil of individual triumphs, disasters, frustrations and achievements to tie together some of the fundamental principles that shaped the evolution of the locomotive industry during the middle years of the twentieth century.
Construction of our theoretical model is more than an idle academic exercise. From it we can draw conclusions that answer questions asked many times, but never adequately answered.
Why were the last 30 years of the steam era (1922-1952)
the most productive for steam locomotive designers?
Why did steam locomotives peak out in performance and efficiency by World War II?
Why was the diesel-electric locomotive an important development for the railroads after World War II?
The model can even provide some relevant lessons for today. Serious historians can use it to tell which decisions and past events were arbitrary and which ones were forced upon railroad managers by the thermodynamic limitations that governed their locomotives.
Our scope will focus on the final bloom of steam locomotive technology from 1922 to 1952. Our model will apply to the locomotive industry at large, but will be tempered by references to several real locomotives, most notably the Norfork & Western Railway's Mallet 2-8-8-2 Y-6b class locomotives.
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