Last week I worked with Tom Gallmeyer to develop a test to see how fast pressurized air flowed through a Ball valve that is currently the primary choice for our steam engine valve. The test we designed was to videotape a balloon connected to our valve inflate under water and measure the time and height change of the water to calculate a flow rate.
    We ran this test on different valve opening and length of openings and created some repeatable data for the rate of flow through our valve ...
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Question: Could a modern steam engine that is made with modern materials and electronic valves be a viable solution to the internal combustion engine?

Motivation: Steam engines create power from steam in a cycle that is more efficient than the internal combustion cycle and produces more low end torque than a comparable size IC engine . Steam can be generated from a wide variety of renewable sources including biomass as well as solar. These provided the incentive to explore whether a steam engi...
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