Recent content by Delta Force

100 horsepower * 0.45 pounds of gasoline per horsepower-hour = 45 pounds of gasoline per hour 45 pounds of gasoline per hour * 1/3 of energy content to the radiator = 15 pounds of gasoline energy content to the radiator per hour Gasoline requires 0.53 British Thermal Units to raise 1 pound of...

Some jet and rocket engines use their own fuel as coolant. Hydrocarbons have even been used to cool electronics and nuclear reactors. Would it be viable for a combustion engine to use its own fuel as coolant instead of water or another liquid?

Even decades after the events there seems to be a lack of clarity about some of the firsts in nuclear power. Big Rock Point was one of the first commercial nuclear reactors, but it wasn't the first in the world or even the United States (although it was the first in Michigan). Dresden predated...

The Tokaimura Criticality Incident involved the improper mixture of 18.8% enriched uranium and nitric acid in a 100 liter precipitation tank that was 450 mm in diameter and 650 mm high. The tank was surrounded by a water filled cooling jacket. When enough of the mixture was in the tank a...

The image you showed links to an article on propulsive efficiency, which might explain what I'm wondering about, which is if there is a mathematical way to compare the performance of different aircraft engine types and configurations. That graph seems to illustrate the difference for engine...

Some jet engines have turboprop variants, and turboprops are rated in horsepower/watts just like piston engines. It's also possible for propeller engines to be mounted in puller and pusher configurations. While it's not possible to directly compare different engine types, what would happen if...

Does that mean that a counterweight or even an armor alloy would have identical performance regardless of the isotopic composition of the uranium used to make it?

Depleted uranium is often used for applications in which high density is valued, such as counterweights, tank armor, and armor-piercing ammunition. Obviously there are going to be some differences between depleted uranium (defined as having 0.3% or less U-235) and natural uranium (averaging...

I'm not sure this is the right area of the forum for this, but I've been wondering about what types of things people do with nuclear engineering degrees, especially those who graduate from universities in areas where nuclear power is stagnant or in decline. The last major growth period for...

It seems all advanced nuclear power plant concepts focus on higher temperatures for steam or gas turbines, but I'm unaware of any that propose using a combined cycle. Why aren't there any proposals for combined cycle when it has been extensively used in fossil fuel facilities since the 1990s?

The Technical University of Denmark has a page about the Martian magnetosphere in which it mentions the existence of localized mini-magnetospheres on Mars that are more powerful than the global field around Earth...

During the early development of nuclear power many utilities were concerned that the United States federal government would create an "Atomic TVA" and crowd them out. As a result the plutonium production reactors in the United States didn't have steam turbines to generate electricity from the...

It's somewhat related to science fiction. I was wondering if a small nuclear reactor could be a good alternative to solar panels and radioisotope generators for space power applications. Historically only a few nuclear powered spacecraft have flown: SNAP-10A for the United States and a series...

What's the smallest nuclear reactor possible in terms of size and/or weight? What kind of power output could it achieve?

That's kind of what I was wondering about. Wikipedia hints at the crankshaft being a weak point of the design, especially at "high speeds." Presumably that explains why there are still inline eight diesel engines, but wouldn't the crankshaft issues still emerge in a V16 gasoline engine?