Posted 26 May 2017 - 12:58 AM
Just made a little trial, with a steam engine, concerning about MaxBoilerOutput and its effects on indicated power...
It's interesting !!!
With the same engine (a Southern Pacific 4-8-4 GS-2), fitted with realistic parameters (areas evaporation/overheating, graten and so one), I tried first with the "famous" ORTSBoilerEvaporationRate @ 15 lb/sqft. It gave me a max indicated power of 2879kW (3859hp), which was effectively hold easily up to the "infamous" CriticalSpeed (and CriticalSpeedTE), that OR fixed (by what calculation ????) at 125.2 kN @ 70.4 km/h, corresponding at 2454kW (3290hp). Exactly at this speed, power decreased instantaneously down to 2454kW, and never increased up this value. OK... I'm used to see this !
I must say that I never used maximal capacity of steam production of the boiler : limitation of power, I think, comes directly from heaven ! (I had 3859hp with only 47620 lb/h, i.e. around 2/3 of maximal capacity...)
In a second time, I modified ORTSBoilerEvaporationRate @ only 10 lb/sqft. What happened ??? I had strictly the same max IHP - 3859hp - and the same stupid limitation of 3290hp for higher speeds than 70.4 km/h. In both cases, I reached without any difficulties those two limitations.
I'm a player, so I decided to re-do those trials, but by adding a ORTSMaxIndicatedHorsepower @ 4500hp (which is approximately the real value..). So guess what happened, for both ORTSBoilerEvaporationRate (15, then 10lb/sqft) ? You're right, I'm sure !!! I could reach 4500hp before 70.4 km/h (with only 10 lb/sqft, I had to overpass the theoretical MaxCapacity - but it's possible with OR !!). Then, at 70.4 km/h, God's hand came directly from heaven and gave a vigourous push to my Niagara, because power decreased promptly at 3290hp...
I conclude that :
- Power is not related with boiler capacities : performances are the same if we reduce those capacities of 1/3. I think that railroad companies chairmen would have been very satisfied with these results !!!!
- By fixing ORTSMaxIndicatedHorsepower, it could be possible to develop 10.000hp (for a short instant...) with a Stephenson's boiler !!! At the opposite, with an industrial boiler of 500t/h, critical speed is able to limit power at values of the same Stephenson..!
Common sense seems to indicate that the simplest way to increase the power of a steam engine is to increase the size of its boiler.. Certainly, correlation is not linear, but in every case, positive !!!
Working around MEP, cylinders and exhaust characteristics is a very interesting challenge in which I would be happy to contribute. But, why not first, to begin by the beginning, and admit that with more steam, we have a reasonable hope to get more power...??? Today, it's not the case !
Must say that I have modified many steam engines'physics with MSTS. MSTS was very simple, sometimes (often..) crazy, and full with mistakes... But, at the end, this old game remained logical : the biggest was the boiler, the stronger was the engine. With pragmatism, and some competences in mathematics, it was always possible to get, at the end, power curves reasonably similar to the reality. I've never succeeded with OpenRails, and it's a pity !!
I modelized with MSTS french, german, british and american steam engines. All were "reasonable". With OR, it's impossible. American engines are a disaster, more than other, and precisely because of their huge boilers...
I hope we could improve this by working together ! :victory:
Cheers !
Jean-Paul