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External combustion engines (steam piston, steam turbine, and the Stirling cycle engine). Each of these engines has thermal efficiency characteristics that are unique to it. Engine efficiency, transmission design, and tire design all contribute to a vehicle's fuel efficiency .
A steam car is a car (automobile) propelled by a steam engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine (ECE), whereas the gasoline and diesel engines that eventually became standard are internal combustion engines (ICE). ECEs have a lower thermal efficiency, but carbon monoxide production is more readily regulated.
Dual-phase external combustion engines use a phase transition to convert temperature to usable work, for example from liquid to (generally much larger) gas. This type of engine follows variants of the Rankine cycle. Steam engines are a common example of dual-phase engines. Another example is engines that use the Organic Rankine cycle.
Steam engines remained the dominant source of power until the early 20th century, when advances in the design of the steam turbine, electric motors, and internal combustion engines gradually resulted in the replacement of reciprocating (piston) steam engines, with merchant shipping relying increasingly upon diesel engines, and warships on the ...
Engine balance refers to how the inertial forces produced by moving parts in an internal combustion engine or steam engine are neutralised with counterweights and balance shafts, to prevent unpleasant and potentially damaging vibration. The strongest inertial forces occur at crankshaft speed (first-order forces) and balance is mandatory, while ...
Examples of are the temperature of hot steam entering the turbine of a steam power plant, or the temperature at which the fuel burns in an internal combustion engine. T C {\displaystyle T_{\rm {C}}} is usually the ambient temperature where the engine is located, or the temperature of a lake or river into which the waste heat is discharged.
Typical horizontal steam engine with double-acting cylinder. A double-acting cylinder is a cylinder in which the working fluid acts alternately on both sides of the piston. . In order to connect the piston in a double-acting cylinder to an external mechanism, such as a crank shaft, a hole must be provided in one end of the cylinder for the piston rod, and this is fitted with a gland or ...
Internal combustion engines date back to between the 10th and 13th centuries, when the first rocket engines were invented in China. Following the first commercial steam engine (a type of external combustion engine) by Thomas Savery in 1698, various efforts were made during the 18th century to develop equivalent internal combustion engines.