Traction engine

How are these metals used in the traction engine The design loads in components like the wheels and frames are sufficiently low that mild steel, with a yield strength Cy of around 220 MPa, is more than strong enough. It is also easy to cut, bend or machine to shape. And last, but not least, it is cheap. 

Fig. 1.1. A fully working model, one- sixth full size, of a steam traction engine of the type used on many forms a hundred years ago. The model con pull on automobile on a few litres of water and a handful of cool. But it is also a nice example of materials selection and design.

Fig. 1.2. A close-up of the mechanical lubricator on the traction engine. Unless the bore of the steam cylinder is kept oiled it will become worn and scored. The lubricator pumps small metered quantities of steam oil into the cylinder to stop this happening. The drive is token from the piston rod by the ratchet and pawl arrangement.

The most notable part of the traction engine made from copper is the boiler and its firetubes (see Fig. 1.1). In full size this would have been made from mild steel, and the use of copper in the model is a nice example of how the choice of material can depend on the scale of the structure. The boiler plates of the full-size engine are about 10 mm thick, of which perhaps only 6 mm is needed to stand the load from the pressurised... 

In rail transport, the basic structure of a raihray train has not changed it is stUl a heavy, massive tractor engine that tows a number of containers on very low friction wheel-systems. The engines have changed from steam-powered behemoths made up of as many as one-quarter-million parts to the modern diesel-electric traction engines of much simpler design. 

Tanner, R.I. 2000. Engineering Rheology, 2nd edti, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Taylor, C., Ranee, J. and Medwell, J. O., 1985. A note on the imposition of traction boundary conditions when using FEM for solving incompressible flow problems. Comnmn. Appl. Numer. Methods 1, 113-121. 

Since u and 6 are functions of time, they are written u t) and 6 t). The constant a could be calculated if the following vehicle data for engine torque T, wheel traction force F, aerodynamic drag D were available ... 

Rail-transported coal is typically moved in unit trains that operate in dedicated shuttle seivice between a mine and a destination. Unit trains operating in the western United States and Canada consist of 100 to 120 lightweight aluminum railcars cainying upward of 121 tons (110 tonnes) of coal apiece, or more than 14,000 tons (12,700 tonnes) per train. In the 1990s, distributed power (DP) came into widespread use in the western United States. In this system a remotely controlled engine is put into the middle of a train, allowing greater traction and control of train motion. DP trains can consist of 135 cars and are the most efficient method of rail transportation of coal. 

The differential can introduce a problem when driving on a slippeiy road because the torques on the two differential pinions are always equal, thus delivering equal torques to the drive wheels. In the extreme, if the tire of one drive wheel rests on ice and therefore lacks traction, the differential allows it to spin freely while the opposite drive wheel, and the vehicle itself, remain at rest. Special differential designs have been devised to overcome this problem. Traction is also improved in some vehicles through the application of four-wheel drive, whereby additional shafts and gears are employed to distribute engine power to all four wheels of the vehicle. 

The arrangement of diesel engine, on-board electric power generation, and axle-mounted traction motors... 

Since a considerable proportion of all petroleum is consumed in vehicle traction - a particularly inefficient way of extracting energy from a scarce resource which simultaneously causes severe environmental pollution in urban areas - the possibility of replacing vehicles driven by internal combustion engines with battery-powered electric transport is under active consideration, and the development of advanced batteries for this purpose is being pursued in a number of countries. Since batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) must be transported as part of the vehicle load, they require high power/mass ratios in addition to high cycle efficiency. 

Due to their high power density, the DLCs are destined for existing and new applications in automotive engineering, railway traction, telecommunication systems, industrial, medical, and consumer electronics. The following examples give an overview of the different possibilities. 

Several projects are now running in the field of traction applications. For example, tram supply without catenary (overhead lines), voltage drop compensation for weak distribution network, or big diesel locomotive engine cranking. 

The first US Patent was issued to inventor John Ruggles on July 13, 1836 for improved Traction Wheels for locomotive-engines. The Traction Wheels addressed the need for locomotives to efficiently climb inclined plains and hills with heavy loads drawn up to the same with more facility and economy than heretofore. US Patent 130 was the first chemical invention patent issued on February 16, 1837 to English chemist Webster Flockton. Flockton had developed a method of preserving wood by treating lumber with the essential oil of vegetable tar saturated with the oxide of iron. ... 

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