> So I do not think that it is simple. James could make a trial 
> with a stripped down model aircraft engine, just to see if it 
> works. Imho, the injector can be deleted and water can be 
> injected at the 'intake' cycle. 
> The latent heat would keep it liquid until TDC is reached if 
> this is done right. Still, the latent heat will be lost 
> unless the steam is recirculated through a condenser and the 
> heat recovered. As a 'hack' 
> such an engine could be interesting to make.

The point is that solar energy does not demand a high efficiency conversion.
It's "free" so a lower efficiency can be justified as long as the cost is
minimal.

> On the other hand, imho, if some trick could be devised to 
> inject superheated water into the cylinder of a small engine, 
> maybe compress it further under a gas cushion (air, 
> nitrogen), and trigger nucleation at TDC, and repeat the 
> process in a repeatable and stable way, then something might 
> come of it.

Again, see:
http://www.flashsteam.com/Steam_Engine_Project.htm which is where that exact
thing is being done. But notice that he has to heat the cylinder to prevent
the super heated water from flashing to steam, then instantly flashing back
to water when it cools on the cylinder walls. Why incur the danger of
pre-super-heating the water under pressure when you can just heat the
cylinder and inject cold water?

The only reason I can think of is that it will wear out the engine faster,
but then we aren't talking about a mulit-million dollar sterling engine...
This is an old motorcycle engine or like that rescued from the junk yard. So
if it wears out, toss it and replace.
http://www.piclist.com/techref/idea/mc-heat-inject.htm

---
James Newton, massmind.org Knowledge Archiver 
james@massmind.org 1-619-652-0593 fax:1-208-279-8767 
All the engineering secrets worth knowing:
http://techref.massmind.org What do YOU know?


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