Naval Boilers - Grates Under Pressure

crazy how they could fit nikocado avocado in one square inch

Just curious if anyonehere knows. How long would it take to fire up a WW2 era destroyer's boiler so that it could get underway? In the Otto Premminger film, In Harm's Way, a destroyer at Pearl Harbor got underway during the attack and I always wondered how accurate was that scene.

Not quite right; the vapour you see is a mix of unsaturated and saturated steam; unsaturated being waterdroplets at 100 degrees busy forming saturated steam or partially condensing to tiny droplets and 100 degrees C saturated steam formed at the boiling point of 100 degrees C water at 1 bar atmospheric pressure, that visible vapour can be largely compressed because most of it is a gas. If you heat that saturated steam at that same pressure higher then 100 degrees C, you get overheated steam. The huge advantages of overheated steam is the amount of energie put in that same amount of molecules, and less chance by secure regulation to have condensation in cylinders or turbines that can cause the damage you described.

Love these development videos. I thought I knew a fair bit about boilers. Lots of new details learned today.

I worked a short time in a coal power plant. My favorite component is the reheat desuperheater; it cools down the superheated reheat steam. Reheat steam has already been through the high pressure turbine, and we cooled it down to reach our operating temperature. It's easier to overshoot the temperature and cool it down with water vapor as opposed to trying to creep up on the exact temp.

Was a Boiler Tech running a foster Wheeler 1200 lb pressure fired boiler. Extremely powerful and a fast steamer. Sadly, the rate of Boiler Tech has gone the way of sailmaker and no longer exists.

BT3 Bryant advance boiler technician U.S.S. Gridley CG-21 here.Personally, I didn’t care much about being a BT 6Y0. They’re so fascinating and complicated though, yet a boiler technician job in civilian life is a high paying job. I just wanted My Pontiac Trans Am 400 and my girlfriend. A stationary boiler seems like an excersise bike. Like my dad, submarines Atlantic 1946-67 I am now sure we both wanted adventure. Him being chief electrician, and a huge ‘goon’(the 5 Bryant boys nickname for him). I have NO idea how he ever even fit in them. C-YA Drach.

Huh. I’m a big steam enthusiast—which is to say I’m highly interested in steam locomotives—and I actually was unaware of advancements made in boiler technology and design past fire tube boilers.

While I can’t be sure, I’d bet a large sum on money on locomotives never moving from fire-tube because, while ships certainly have many more space limitations and constraints than most land based implementations of the technology, steam locomotives have an even larger limitation (that is to say, a steam locomotive’s boiler also serves as a very large tank of water, which in most circumstances holds at least as much water as the tender, and eliminating that would, in addition to the many other required changes, would necessitate at least a second tender) imposed on them, which combined with their general inability to take advantage of steam turbines makes the whole endeavor rather unattractive.

We visited a Cable and Wireles boat In Madang (New Guinea) It had two triple expansion engines and turbo generators. It was so quiet in the engine room! She was equipped with loads of computers and satellite navigation systems. Oh and a very large ice making machine. She looked more like a big private yacht.I wonder what happened to her.

How did ship's boiler technology compare with with boilers for steam locomotives?

I'm fairly sure boilers operated at a constant pressure. The engine speed is controlled by a regulator valve. Ships usually had several engine running from one set of boilers. Main engines, electric generators, water pumps, feed pumps. Changing pressure all the time would affect all engines connected to the boiler.

This was what I was looking for your explanation is so easy to understand. Thank you!

You did not even mention the b&w m type boilers. All of the capital ships of the USN were designed with these boilers in ww2. Some of the support ships had D type single furnace boilers. M type boilers have 2 furnaces. Very disappointed in your video. Apparently you never steamed boilers.

What a very clever man you are . .

I wonder how many hamsters on wheels it would take to match the power of the Titanic's boilers, and how much the food needed to feed them would weigh.

The worlds largest water heater - modern aircraft carriers.. Pinned post for Q&A :).

The fun on US Navy Boilers was to "Flex Text" the Automatic Control Systems! Only a Technician would understand!

Water is compressable, it is not combustionable!

Nice picture of the Waverly! I rode her from Glasgow to Danoon, Scotland in '83, She is still steaming today!!

Didn't think a video on boiling water would be so interesting

By the year 1990, when the US Navy stated that all steam-powered warships except those using nuclear power (always steamships with today's technology), would be retired quickly and almost all scrapped (included a few nukes too, as single ships of certain types, such as TERRIER AA guided-missile cruisers, were not cost-effective to keep), the steam pressure in many newer US Navy warships, including the TERRIER warships just mentioned, had gotten up to 1200 -- repeat, 1200-- pounds/square inch! Whuke greatly increasing their efficient use of fuel for both speed and range, such pressures were very dangerous and special design changes had to be made from the WWII 600-pound boiler systems. One of these was that a small jet of such steam from a leak could be very, very dangerous as it was invisible for a long distance until it had cooled considerably. To find such leaks, a long broom handle was swung ahead of the repair team back and forth and up and down in the leak area and the leak was found when the broom was sliced in half by the needle steam jet. A hair-raising danger,, indeed!

Just FYI: the "Naval Boilers" book is now out of print and unavailable from Amazon.

Ive thought about making a very simple steam power plant to run a lightbulb (like the potato batery projects) but then i remembered BLEVE exist and am planing on using weights and clockwork instead XD. Dont need to blow up my living room and favorite kettle

Cannibals are STILL incredibly likely to punch through the side of your ship below the water line, even today.

Very interesting. One subject that is important, but not often mentioned is the development of thrust bearings on the propellor shaft, any chance of looking into that one?

I appreciate your efforts to teach me about all things.

As a pretty serious tea drinker, my kettle is VERY powerful..

Were there not such things as transmission gearboxes or clutches in use before/during watertube boilers?

Grates Under Pressure - does it? Maybe the Yanks should have a few of those so they can Make America Grate Again.

A Nuclear Reactor is still a steam plant. We simply replaced fire with a hot rock.

I didn't think of a whole other use for those distilleries

Imagine the pressure they could get now with monocrystalline super alloy small tube boilers

„We‘ve discovered a revolutionary new way to generate power“

„Is it actually new or just basically a giant tea kettle again?“

„It‘s a tea kettle“.

I'm curious as to how much feedback occured between marine, locomotive and power industries regarding boiler design

Oh no cannibals at the water line? Ohhh “cannon balls”. Good thing. I was gonna swim to that island. Phew.

I was an Engineer Officer on a merchant ship which had a Foster Wheeler ESD 3 Boiler. Later, I served on steam ships which had Combustion Engineering VSM (?) boilers. These were, would you believe it, coal fired.

Really enjoyed this video Thanks!

There is a USN film “Steam Turbines: the Steam Cycle” which covers how the boilers fit into the system cruising around the internet.

Dang!

Wet, dry and superheated steam 👍

I have the military teaching manuals for England and usa steam power. land and navy. most detailed and expensive books I ever bought.

whats more british than explaining naval engineering trough the method of steam kettle

Arguably, nuclear is still a steam engine.

Great video. But I have a few questions! If these are closed loop systems, then what stops the pressure from going "backwards"? special valves or pumps? The water itself, somehow? Also, you say there are obvious losses of water over time, but again if it is a closed system then I don't really understand where these loses occur. Thanks!

they should just have painted the ships red, b/c red goes faster :)

Pinned post for Q&A :)