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Lotus

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"Engines" aside, for pure power (which is the deal for me really) you have to see a Blow-Through during the commissioning stage of a steam boiler.

 

I was lucky enough to see loads back when Matla Power Station was being built. My dad used to take me in to work with him at the weekends. The blow-throughs were done in two stages. The first stage had a meter wide pipe sticking out the side of the building just above ground level, the second stage had 2 40cm pipes sticking out the building at the 16m (turbine floor) level. For those that don't know, the idea is to get the boiler up to operating pressure (around 16mpa), open the valves and send the superheated steam over to the turbine but then divert it just before it enters the turbine and dump it outside. The repetitive expanding/contracting of the pipework cracks off the rust and muck and the steam blows it out each time. 

 

Superheated steam at 16mpa exiting a pipe is something else! 

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"Engines" aside, for pure power (which is the deal for me really) you have to see a Blow-Through during the commissioning stage of a steam boiler.

 

I was lucky enough to see loads back when Matla Power Station was being built. My dad used to take me in to work with him at the weekends. The blow-throughs were done in two stages. The first stage had a meter wide pipe sticking out the side of the building just above ground level, the second stage had 2 40cm pipes sticking out the building at the 16m (turbine floor) level. For those that don't know, the idea is to get the boiler up to operating pressure (around 16mpa), open the valves and send the superheated steam over to the turbine but then divert it just before it enters the turbine and dump it outside. The repetitive expanding/contracting of the pipework cracks off the rust and muck and the steam blows it out each time. 

 

Superheated steam at 16mpa exiting a pipe is something else! 

 

I used to do a lot of work at a industrial plant with their own thermal power station. When they were doing a boiler blow-down to get rid of scale and sludges from the system, you could not hold a conversation in the meeting rooms in the buildings maybe 500 m away. I have no idea how loud it must have been in the open next to the power station - I was never in the right time and place to witness close-up.   

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From those in the know - how does the JT-9D from the early jumbos compare to the later CF6's and RB's. I flew in a jumbo (the SP) first at age 9, and had a thing for the turbofans and pylon styling and drew and doodled that profile everywhere for years after.   

So the JT9 was the first high bypass jet engine so it was revolutionary at the time and so much quitter and more powerful than a low bypass engine(it essentially replaced the JT3 I think) but soon after that the other manufacturers just made the high bypass even better using lighter components. But we can thank the JT9 for the basic design for what is used today. P&W have joined the revolution and replaced the "JT" with "PW"

 

BUT BUT BUT nowadays all the main turbofan manufacturers share parts. These engines are all now mix match. Check this engine out, it's what we use on our A319/320s. 

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I used to do a lot of work at a industrial plant with their own thermal power station. When they were doing a boiler blow-down to get rid of scale and sludges from the system, you could not hold a conversation in the meeting rooms in the buildings maybe 500 m away. I have no idea how loud it must have been in the open next to the power station - I was never in the right time and place to witness close-up.   

 

At Matla..... 500m away, fingers in your ears while your hard hat vibrates on your head. It was beyond loud.

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A couple of nights ago something pretty big took off at midnight from ORT and woke me up as it went overhead.Not quite the earth shattering experience of those Russian bombers but pretty impressive

Hmm I wonder what it was. You didn't check FR24?

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At Matla..... 500m away, fingers in your ears while your hard hat vibrates on your head. It was beyond loud.

So, a bit like a Metallica concert?

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No I did not.Just went back to sleep but it was big.

There have been a few jumbo freighters in and out of late but they usually gone before sunset. Maybe this was a delayed jumbo freighter that was very heavy. Also at night the sound travels further and sounds louder.

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