The Steam Turbine: The Surprising Relationship of Engineering & Science
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- čas přidán 17. 05. 2024
- Charles Parsons designed a superior steam engine called a turbine, but was ignored until he crashed a celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. His turbine still generates most electricity.
Other videos in this series
Episode 1: Building a Cathedral without Science or Mathematics: The Engineering Method Explained • Building a Cathedral w...
Episode 2: Controlling Turbulence and Evolution: How Engineers Overcome Uncertainty forthcoming • Controlling Turbulence...
Episode 4: The Microwave Oven Magnetron: What an Engineer Means by “Best” • The Microwave Oven Mag...
Video Summary
00:00 Titles
00:08 Intro
To understand the relationship between engineering and science, Bill notes he will share in this video the story of how an engineer created a revolutionary engine by taming the extraordinary power of steam.
00:24 Power of Steam
Bill explains that steam can power engines because it expands: one cup of liquid water will expand into 1,600 cups of steam.
00:46 Reciprocating Steam Engines
Bill explains that this dramatic change of volume exerts a force that engineers tapped into in the early eighteenth century to drive reciprocating steam engines. He explains the operation of such an engine, focusing on the piston/cylinder where steam expands and the levers that translate the back and forth motion (reciprocating) of the piston to rotating motion.
2:07 Engine Wastes Steam
Bill notes that while the reciprocating steam engine revolutionized the world, it wasted much of the steam’s energy. Once the steam has expanded to about sixteen times its original volume it lacks the “oomph,” the force, to overcome the friction of the heavy piston within the walls of the cylinder. And friction in the arms that convert reciprocating motion into circular motion chew up some of the steam’s energy.
2:30 Charles Parsons’s Novel Steam Engine
But, in the late nineteenth century a novel steam engine appeared that used the energy from an expansion of an astonishing four hundred and seventy nine times a cup of water’s volume. That novel engine was perfected by Charles Parsons. While a huge leap forward, no one would buy his engine.
2:47 The Turbina & Queen Victoria
In frustration Parsons built a ship called the Turbinia to convince everyone of the superiority of his engine. To attract attention he crashed a naval display honoring Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
3:33 Advantages of Parsons’s Engine
Parsons’s engine eliminated the need for the piston and cylinder and levers of the reciprocating engine.
3:45 Aeolipile
Parsons fused two two ways of using steam to rotate a shaft. The first is the aeolipile, designed by Hero of Alexandria in about 130 BC.
4:47 Branca’s Steam Device
In 1629 an Italian engineer, Giovanni Branca, designed a giant boiler shaped like a human head. From its mouth a jet of expanding steam struck a paddle wheel - much like a water wheel - which turned gearing.
5:45 Parsons’s Turbine
Bill explains how Parsons succeeded by cleverly combining the action of the aeolipile and Branca’s device by placing thirty wheels along a shaft - half rotated with the shaft, half were affixed to the casing.
8:00 Infinite Complexity
This design is simple in concept, but Parsons described the execution as of “almost infinite complexity” because of an astronomical number of dimensions and configurations of wheels and blades and every other design variable in his turbine.
09:19 Why Parsons Succeeded
What separated Parsons from the thousands of inventors before him was, he said, the “data of the physicists.” Parsons drew on the data of a forgotten French scientist, Henri Victor Regnault, who spent nearly thirty years documenting the properties of steam. From the data tabulated by Regnault, Parsons could determine that in principle a functioning turbine could be built.
10:15 Science as Rules of Thumb
For Parsons, scientific knowledge helped rule out what wouldn’t work, narrow the possibilities of what does, and shorten the path to a solution: scientific knowledge was being used as a rule of thumb. Thus the relationship between science and engineering is that science supplies gold-plated rules of thumb.
10:49 Electricity Generation
Although the turbine was a nineteenth century invention, Parsons’s turbine still enables the daily lives of nearly every human on the globe as its descendants generate the world’s electricity.
11:03 Next Video
In the next video Bill explores a single word from this definition of the engineering method: What exactly does an engineer mean by “best.”
11:15 End Credits - Věda a technologie
What I like about these videos is that they embody the “clear and vivid” form of science communication described by Alan Alda. Few added frills, just let the thing be cool by its own merit and clearly explain the thing you’re passionate about.
That's exactly what I am aiming for ... and I have a lot of respect for the Alan Alda Science Communication Center and their approach.
@@engineerguyvideo You're very good at it too! Your videos are easily half to one tenth the length of some other science and engineering channels, yet you explain more things and far more clearly than many of them, and still include a great deal of the "wow" factor about your subjects.
This is the best. I hate when people pad with frills, as if the subject matter itself is boring and needs enhancement. If that is the case, then you are a fool that is merely entertained by frills and actually don't care about the subject matter.
This also has the habit of injecting people with no real interest in the subject and diluting it, all in the name of 'inclusion.' It is such a stupid concept of tolerance; we shouldn't tolerant morons who drive the quality down just because they want to be entertained
I got into physics and math because the subject itself interested me from a young age; I needed no frills. I have some peers, that perform quite poorly, that say "This was all boring to me until [insert populizer here] made it interesting. It is beyond pathetic; how can the subject itself be boring to these people, yet they still want to go into it? Makes no sense. These people can be made to like anything just by adding frills. And their performance quality is oft times extremely low
@@pyropulseIXXI dude, you are being too harsh. Understand that you may have the privilege to see things that go over other peoples heads. Consider yourself lucky, why do you put people down like that?
@@aldomaresca9994 I am not putting anyone down; I tutor math and physics and will help anyone that asks for help. I encourage them to learn, and to learn on their own so they aren't beholden to external factors such as "my professor sucks; that is why I failed!" No; you failed because you didn't put the effort in to properly learn.
Education is one of the only fields where people can straight up fail and then blame it on everyone else but themselves.
People that need a 'good teacher' so they can learn and 'see the magic' are delusional. The quality of a teacher means nothing to me, since I learn on my own, and learning on your own is always superior by orders of magnitude.
By getting people to learn on their own, I am helping them out immensely. I've had peers tell me numerous times that I teach better tahna the teacher.
I teach/tutor by getting the student to re-frame how their mind works, vs just putting a path for them to follow. Once they re-frame their mind, they make their own path and can learn at an incredibly increased rate, and learn at a much higher accuracy
I am merely speaking factual here; there is a real difference between people that are actually interested in a subject vs those that are only superficially interested in a subject.
If someone is not interested in a subject until 'frills' are added, then they aren't interested in the subject at all. They are a mindless drone
Me identifying them as a 'mindless drone' is not putting them down; it is merely a factual statement. Unlike you, I do not harbor any negative emotional reactions to 'mindless drones.' If that is how a person is, that is how they are; I do not dislike them for it; I will still hang out with them and enjoy the time; I will still help them
The chosen one has returned.
Cringe
@@Whiteyy191 talking from experience?
Welcome back
Man, it’s been years!
@@Whiteyy191Cringe²
Your video about the design of aluminum cans is what inspired in me the love for engineering that eventually turned into a career - thank you! This new series of videos perfectly captures so many ideas that I've never seen described directly, and it's filled with interesting examples. I'm so glad that you're still making these videos.
These videos should be shown to all students, and the book read by all 1st semester engineering students, I certainly would have known more of what I was getting myself into. I hope you continue this channel after the promotional videos for your book, your work is concise, well researched understandable by laymen and trained alike, a true feat of engineering.
I do plan to continue. This week I am cleaning up the studio from the "debris" from this series -- all those things in the videos -- and backing up the video. Backingup up takes (astonishingly to me) about a week: it all goes onto LTO5 tape and its 4K video .. and then back into the studio to create some more videos.
Every once in a while, the universe smiles on us and the Engineering Guy delivers a new video. 😊
Well done, we missed you!
This video is a gift to society! I’m so excited watching this !!!
Amazing video! It's sad that Tesla turbine is not mentioned here!
Steam turbines are my bread and butter. The coolest thing is that they are so well-balanced, you can spin a 330,000# LP rotor by hand, once you put oil to it in the bearing. They're great.
At a GE 'large apparatus' shop near Boston, I got to see a commercial plant rotor suspended up on roller bearings while they balanced it. They only spin it a few RPM, but watching those six foot blades whiz by, even at that slow speed, was a bit scary.
I’ve been working in thermal power plants for over 30 years. The well balance statement is even more fascinating by the fact that these turbines, as big as they are, vibrate so little. Most bearings will vibrate about .5 to 2 mils. Considering a mil is 1 thousands of an inch, or .0254 mm.
hmm many turbs use air bearings
@@manxman8008he does have a point.
I work on gas turbine powerplants used in airplanes. They’re exactly the same in principle in action, just using a different fluid.
4:55: It seems to me that the plastic model turbine is shown back to front. The curved blades should increase in angle as the steam passes through the disc, and so on for the following discs. Think of each blade as an aerofoil. Apart from that, thank you, from one Bill to another, for your video.
I hate this kind of errors … sorry for this …
Ok, I wasn't the only one to notice. At 5:55, the flow rate would induce a rotation in the direction opposite than that shown. The diagram at 7:00 is correct.
As someone who has used the NIST steam tables extensively, I had no knowledge of the history of their role in the success of the first steam turbine. Thank you for this video and the many others like it. I-L-L
Indeed I flipped the turbine
@@joebottini1743 Are you sure the 7:00 is correct? In a similar comment someone posted this diagram: 2.bp.blogspot.com/-5C9XoY0Wz4w/XAJEG72iqLI/AAAAAAAABgY/35JzUdIzUTYnjWzzXvC2A2qITmfdmrn_ACLcBGAs/s1600/reaction%2Bturbine%2Bpressure%2Bvelocity%2Bdiagram.png which makes much more intuitive sense to me.
I was wondering why the blades seemed to curve in the other direction
I was wondering how Parsons determined how to size the rotors. When you revealed the diligent work of Regnault my jaw dropped! What an amazing resource for an engineer. Thank you for this informative series and book.
As someone fascinated by philosophy of science your lucid analysis of the engineering method vs the scientific method was absolutely delightful. Thank you for your work!
I remember when I was a wee lad in middle school when I first saw your video on the genius behind aluminum can designs. Never thought I'd imagine someday I would eventually join the giants, but here I am finally a professional engineer, 3 years in the industry. Some flames just needed a bit of spark. And that middle schooled spark was all thanks to you, engineerguy.
I think that was the first of his videos I had come across, probably about six years ago. I immediately binge-watched all his other videos, and am busy binge-watching his four new ones now. The aluminum can video remains my favorite.
In 1971 at age 16 I went to Marine Engineer College in South Shields, England to learn how ships worked. We learned about reciprocating engine, took many examples apart (taken from scrapped ships) and learned how to put them back together and set up the slide valves. That was fun - but it was only when we started on turbine theory did a light bulb go on for me. I grasped the impulse-reaction principle straight away and was hooked on turbines. As a senior engineer I worked on VLCC tankers with steam turbine plants and high pressure boilers - they had excellent precision control but were very fuel hungry. At 26,000 SHP at full speed, I needed to put 240 tonnes of heavy fuel into the boilers every day. Turbines gave way to diesels - no way near as neat or as controllable , but they only burned 90 tonnes of fuel a day for about the same output power - a no brainer if you are paying the costs. I am glad that I had my time standing between the turbines as they spooled up to full sea speed. This was an experience that all engineers should have at least once. Now you only see turbines in nuclear or power plants , the steam turbine has largely vanished from the Marine world. If you ever get the chance to visit Newcastle on Tyne in UK, there is an excellent museum dedicated to Turbinia, the development of reaction turbines and the life and work of one of Britain's greatest engineers - Charlie Parsons.
Don't forget about jet turbines! I'm sure I don't need to mention that to you, but I did find it interesting how similar steam turbines and jet engines are. Especially since they also include the stationary sets of blades.
Keep them coming Bill, love your work and welcome back.
This series is a true masterpiece, awesome job!
The stories regarding the absolute stupidity of the Royal Navy's top brass are worthy of a whole CZcams series. They really got things wrong to a remarkable degree of reliability.
Bill's channel was the first channel i subscribed too. CZcams gold.
Mine too. No other channel can compare to the quality of his erudite exposition.
I have made a post Army career being a steam turbine generator engineer for a large generation company. I travel to many many site to do detailed inspections. I'm constantly blown away by the vast amount of refinement over the past 150 years that got us to the modern rotor design.
The new stuff ia great but my favorite plants are the ones built in the 60s and 70s. They are examples of what slide rule design can do. The mechanical hydraulic controls are far and away my favorite.
What??? In 6:05, the turbine rotates in the right direction alright, but the direction of the steam comes-in from the wrong side. You need a stator stage at the opposite end and the steam needs to enter from there. Your flow vectors don't add up for a turbine, but basically defines a compressor running in the false direction.
I have taken my grandchildren to the Discovery Museum Newcastle many times to see the Turbinia. The thing that always strikes mel is the fact that the turbine drove the propeller so fast that the water ate its way through the bronze it was made from. Parsons had to redesign the propeller to something very similar to those we use to this day. Engineers just keep engineering!
It is amazing how modern turbines are basically the same design as Parson's. Great video.
This man’s video’s convinced me to leave working at cars for a living and start a degree in engineering, best move I’ve done so far
As someone working on a graduate degree in Thermal Fluid systems, I had never heard of Parsons. Thanks for telling his story
The sad truth is that most positions at universities give very little time to prepare for lectures, both regarding the topic itself and the teaching method, as the priority is paper-focused research, grant applications and consulting.
😮My advanced degrees in engineering physics were earned more than half a century ago, and those that have commended this series of videos are correct in saying that they are excellent introductions to the topics covered. And Dan, you are to be commended for your honesty in revealing the shocking lapse in the presentation to you, of one of the foundations of the practical applications of advanced thermodynamics at the turn of the last century. It points up the importance of a firm grounding in history, science and engineering for all students of those topics. CZcams presenters of these topics are providing a valuable resource that is even more important considering the absence of such studies in today's science and engineering institutions.
I'm working on a graduate degree in theoretical physics
@@SeriousPigi wtf are you talking about? I taught myself everything I know, with going to lecture and getting a degree being a mere formality. I honestly cannot stand people that get lead around by the establishment.
The problem with modern academia is the 'publish or die' mindset. Recent meta analysis show up to 40% of published studies are fake.. yes, FAKE; the medical field was up to 23% of published papers are fake; that is an insane figure (they said, via 'analysis,' it wasn't more than 2%, but actual studies on the matter show much, MUCH higher figures IN ALL FIELDS). The modern form of academic peer review is doing more harm to science than good.
But this doesn't mean you shirk your responsibilities of teaching yourself stuff, and blaming the system for your inability to learn basic stuff is incredibly egregious
@@randolphlee4586 He should be teaching himself this. He is pursing a graduate degree, and you are talking as if he still needs his hand held and should be told what to learn as if he is a 5 year old.
I am pursing a PhD in theoretical physics, and 95% of all my learning came from myself, with the pursuit of a degree and attending lecture being a mere formality.
Despite this, I have also taught myself two languages, various musical instruments to expert level (guitar and piano), and I have major-level knowledge in biology, chemistry, philosophy, history, anthropology, and various other humanities, as well as linguistics. In fact, I can often talk beyond people that have degrees in these fields, despite only having a physics degree.
People just make excuses; furthermore, people pretend that them being 'hyper-specialized' somehow excuses them being utterly ignorant of other fields and subjects. It does not excuse you. Field integration is far more important than this era of 'hyper-specialization.' You can still be specialized whilst having a working and professional level knowledge of multiple other fields, but people are just too pathetic and think being a 'renaissance man' is out of reach in modern times. IT ISN'T
HE'S BACK! WOO HOO!
Earlier today, I visited the "Glasgow Transport Museum" which houses the original exposed turbine from the World's first Commercial Steam Turbine Ship - The TS King Edward - The predecessor to many of the magnificent turbine liners of the 20th century such as the RMS Queen Mary or SS United States, and I was thinking to myself: I only wish I knew EXACTLY how this thing works.
Well thank you for saving the day! A magnificent and simply yet thorough explanation.
So glad to see Engineerguy return to making videos.
Mr. Hammack, these videos are nothing short of phenomenal. Your clear and detailed, yet concise delivery is beyond comparison. Thank you so very much for these videos.
Love to see you making content again!
Biggest W of 2023 is engineerguy's return ❤
The quality doesn't disappoint. Always enjoy showing how Engineering is often the fusion of existing technologies / ideas as opposed to the creation of the new, where the fusion ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. Glad to have your content back in my feed again!
Welcome back!!! So glad you're back in my feed.
The anecdote you closed your book with, you and your father watching the activity of a factory one more time, made me tear up a bit. What a wonderful and bittersweet moment.
So great to have you back posting on YT!
I love how this channel goes years with no posts and then there's a post EVERY DAY for like a week! I'm on an engineering binge!
well ... its not intentional to be gone for a few years ... that's not the goal!
@@engineerguyvideo Having kids will do that to you!
Charles Prson's original Turbinia is on display at the Museum of Science and Technology in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, as are examples of his turbine engines. Also, at the CA Parsons Heaton works, just outside Newcastle, you could occasionally see large turbine rotors being placed inside a huge steel tank where they were spun up for testing and balancing.
thank you for this detailled description!!
Nice to see more of your content. Welcome back to engineering content creation! I am now 70 and spent my life as a professional engineer, albeit in IT. However I went to school in Newcastle UK , and visited the Science Museum there a few times in my teen years and was fascinated by the Turbinia. There is now a dedicated exhibit hall for the ship. Parsons was one of two great Victorian Tyneside Engineers. The other was Armstrong who is now more famous for creating a UK Arms Industrustry based on heavy breech loading rifled naval guns, but he made his initial fortune developing hydraulic machinery for dockside loading and unloading.
It is always an amazing day when we get a new video from the Engineer Guy! This should become mandatory viewing for ANYONE working with turbines.
You're back! I missed your videos and am so happy to see you returning to teach on CZcams more. Thank you for all the effort you put in to these videos, they are always enlightening and soothing to listen to.
This video contains the most understandable depiction of the working parts of both a piston steam engine and a steam turbine that I have ever seen. Well done, Bill, and it's great to have you posting new videos!
The Turbinia is in a museum near where I live (Discovery Museum, Newcastle, UK), I've been to see it a few times over the years and it still gives an aura of effortless speed; it's like seeing a thoroughtbred locked in a stable.
Dude....this is golden. Thanks for sharing.
This is the first video that's been recommended to me (although being subscribed [but without receiving notifications]) since you started back up and I'm so excited you're back educating the world after your break!
I wasn't expecting to see a new video of yours appear in my feed but I'm glad I did.
Welcome back.
I love how first the idea is crude and rudimentary.
Then with future innovations, the technology gets smaller and much more efficient.
i've been loving your recent return, please keep this up
He's back! He's back! Thanks for yet another amazing video buddy! You were one of the best Engineering educators on youtube IMO.
Absolutely fantastic video. Wonderful to have you back, Bill.
Thanks, Mr. Parsons I've had a lot of fun and rewarding time fixing turbines over my 40 years as a union millwright.
I'm so glad I can watch your videos again, as interesting and clever as ever. They truly are a gem. Thank you very much.
It's so amazing that you are back!!!
Very happy to see you, you have been missed!
Another awesome episode. Glad to have ya back! I look forward to the future series!
Clearest and best description of the principles of a turbine and the role of the stationary blades I have ever heard. Thank you!
Thorough loss of joy and happiness has been a massive problem going into my 30's (37 now), so it means a lot when I say that I genuinely got a little excited to see a new upload here. 🙂
Another great video! Saw your talk at UPenn last month and enjoyed that too. Keep up the great work!
Stellar. SO glad you are back!
As an engineer, in my experience, and in my opinion, I believe that the best engineers are the ones that can look at data for what it is: data. And then be able to apply that data accurately enough to accomplish their goal.
So glad to have you back!
Can't get enough of your videos. Have a BIG welcome back from Idaho! Love the new series
So glad to see you back!!
I know you took a break for whatever reason, but please carry on with your wonderful explanations.
The world would be a poorer place without you.
I've been looking forward to this episode since you announced the new series, turbines are just so damn cool and we're the first thing that got me really interested in engineering. Stators are such a simple yet incredibly impactful addition, what every good engineering solution strives to be.
As always, a pristine content. Thank you for the work invested in this! It's awesome and great for students and not only to learn more about the steam era and the innovation of Charles Parsons.
Glad to see you posting again. I love your work and this video is no exception!
That was amazing. Glad you are back.
wow this upload schedule is amazing! loving the videos.
So good to see you making videos again!
I'm so happy you are well and making videos again!!😃
I feel like I haven't seen videos from you in a while. I'm so glad to be seeing them now. Really great stuff. Thank you.
So glad to see new uploads! This channel is a go-to for NGSS aligned examples for science and engineering practices in my work as a science teacher.
All licensed Creative Commons: use the videos as you wish!
When he showed the volumes, and revealed that they represented 30 years of dedicated study... wow.
Thank you for another video! I have genuinely missed your content.
So happy to see you back!
Welcome back Bill. We have been waiting for your fantastic stories!
It's great to have you back!
This is also how you make make mechanical energy with nuclear power. They use the heat from the nuclear fission to make steam and turn the turbine for aircraft carriers and submarines. I did not know the details on how these work, so this was very interesting and informative. The stationary wheels are the part that I was unaware of.
Amazing video. Having learned turbomachinery design in school, I was blown away by the way you made it so simple to understand. And it's also amazing to learn how Parsons managed to build such a complicated machine way back then.
Thank you so much for this channel, Bill, and keep illuminating the world with wisdom!
As a builder of extreme low head hydro turbines, I wonder how many prototypes he constructed to learn what did not work well.
I feel at home! Comfy engineering videos. Thank you for continuing with these.
So good to see you back!
Welcome back
So glad to see you teaching here again! Thank you
What an amazing video! Glad you are back!
Welcome back Bill! I've always enjoyed your content.
Finally! So glad to see you back
So glad you’re back!
Great to see you back, good job
Good to see you are still making videos. I really enjoy watching them and learn so much from them.
Absolutely beautiful presentation. I'm so glad there's more of your content for the world to see
My only regret watching these videos is that I binge them back to back and then have to wait half a decade for another new upload.
Someone in some network please pick this man up for a show contract, we need an engineering Kurzgesagt
It's so great to have you back!
After a 3 year break, were getting state of the art content from the EngineerGuy again!
I love your explanation and graphic images, really clear and concise. Thanks.
I am so happy he's back. This is the only missing CZcams person I have truly missed. The professor I wish I'd had in school. Welcome back!!
Thank you for such kind words!
Glad your back!! Always interesting and educational!!
Glad to have you back after many years and great contents as usual.
Glad to see you are posting CZcams videos again. Several folks in my book club have read and thoroughly enjoyed your book "The things we make."
Thanks for sharing this ... The publisher has asked I send them any correction necessary before the paperback edition ... so if they your colleagues saw an errors please forward them to me!
I don't think I can quite express how beautiful it is to hear your voice and cadence describing feats of engineering again.
Great explanation of turbines. It gives the right knowledge without the never ending mathematical explanations we all had to endure in school.
Thank you
Anthony
Thank you for these. I enjoyed them as an engineering student many years ago, I appreciate them even more now
Really nice to see another video from you. Welcome back.
Didn't notice you were uploading again, good to see you Bill!
I love that these this channel is back. It's just so good