Sandbox:CombustionEngine
The Combustion Turbine, sometimes called the Combustion Engine or just Turbine, is a small power unit utilizing flammable gasses to spin a turbine. Due to the low power output, the turbine is typically used as the primary power source for small vessels, or as an auxiliary power unit on larger vessels such as the SCCV Horizon. As such, it is never recommended to operate the Horizon solely off of the turbine, instead the Supermatter Reactor or INDRA should be used.
Turbines fitted onto small vessels are typically found within the engineering section as the central power source. On the Horizon, the turbine is found in Deck 1 Maintenance just east of atmospherics.
Turbine Operation
The turbine is easy to start and operate while leaving opportunity to tweak the set-up for a preferred (or cost effective) operation. Below is the start-up process for the SCCV Horizon. The same principle applies to off-ship vessels, however certain components, such as the gas mixer or pumps, may not be in the same location. Most pumps should be labeled to ease these differences.
- Enable the connector to cold loop pump, and the cooling array to turbine pump. This will begin circulation of the cold loop.
- Configure the gas mixer to output east and inject hydrogen and oxygen at the pre-set ratio of 60% oxygen and 40% hydrogen.
- Off-ships will require the use of gas canisters. The Horizon can inject gas from the storage tanks within atmospherics. This requires the use of two pumps, and the activation of a valve shown to the right.
- You may inject as much hydrogen and oxygen as you wish, it will not affect the turbine in an adverse way.
- Disable injection! Do not leave injection on!
- Ignite the mix inside the combustion chamber and wait for it to fully burn out.
- On off-ship vessels, some strain on the burn chamber glass at this step is expected.
- The Horizon does not have any glass around the burn chamber; therefore, it is capable of higher temperatures without risk of a breach.
- Once the fire has stopped and the contents of the tank are 100% CO2, enable circulation: The recommend configuration is 700L/s input and 1000kpa output.
- The higher you put the output, more power it generates, raise as necessary.
WARNING: If you feel the burn mixture is going to break the glass, lower the blast doors and vent the chamber immediately! Off-ship vessels have a portable generator in the back if the turbine runs out of fuel, or another mishap occurs.
Turbine Design
While the layout of the turbine may change from ship to ship, the basic concept remains the same. A turbine is made up of X parts: Burn chamber, hot loop, cold loop, cooling array, TEG, connectors.
The burn chamber is, as you might expect, where the burn mixture is ignited to produce useable fuel. This chamber can vary in size but requires a few basic elements. It needs an injector to inject the burn mixture into the chamber, a vent to bring the hot fuel into the hot loop, a second injector to cycle back the hot loop gas, and blast doors for emergency venting. Some burn chambers may have glass viewing ports, but they're not inherently required. Often times, a sensor is present to display temperature, mixture contents, and chamber pressure to a console on the user.
The hot loop is where the fuel is help from the burn chamber. This loop exits the burn chamber, enters into one of the inlet ports on the TEG, exits out the exhaust port of the TEG, and re-injects into the burn chamber. The ports on the TEG must be across from each other or else the cold and hot loops would be mixed and remove the heat imbalance that causes the TEG to function. Beware that this loop by its nature operates at much higher temperatures and pressures than any other loop and is the most likely to fail if the pressure is too high. If the temperature and pressure become too high, open the emergency cold loop to hot loop valves. This will instantly lower the temperature in the hot loop and open it to the cooling array. This will stop most power production from the turbine.
The cold loop is, as expected, where the cold gas is. Much like the hot loop, it connects to an inlet and exhaust port on the TEG. They must be across from each other. Unlike the hot loop, the cold loop connects to the cooling array. This allows the heat transferred into the cold loop from the hot loop to be emitted into space, which reduces the temperature of the cold loop gas, and increases the heat transfer in the TEG.
The cooling array is similar to the Supermatter Reactor's cooling array. It is a loop of pipes that radiate heat into space and reduce the temperature of the gases within its pipes. Unlike normal pipes, which mechanically act like insulated piping, cooling pipes have a much higher surface area and no insulation, allowing for greater heat removal.
The thermoelectric generator (TEG) is the machine that converts heat in gases to electricity. Rather than operating via high-pressure steam turning an internal turbine, the TEG works through heat transfer between two gas loops. The greater the heat difference, the more electricity produced. It is the exact same machine utilized by the Supermatter Reactor.
Connectors are the ways in which gas is introduced into the turbine system. The Horizon, uniquely, has a direct connection between the burn chamber and its gas storage, however other vessels must use gas canisters to inject fuel into the system, or gas into the cold loop. The burn chamber connectors require an omnimixer to achieve a proper ratio of oxidant to hydrogen. The cold loop, however, does not require any particular mixture.
Turbine Theory
Need an atmos nerd like Sneaky for this