What is Steam Hammer?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ธ.ค. 2017
- A few things that can go very wrong when you put steam in a pipe...
Last month we talked about the damaging effects of water hammer, but there’s another state of H2O equally if not more dangerous when put in pipes. Today on Practical Engineering we’re talking about steam hammer and differential shock.
Nick Moore's Steam Hammer Video: • Steam Hammer: Slow Motion
NYC Steam Explosion clip courtesy of Nick Parish ( • Steam explosion NYC )
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As a boiler operator I want to thank you for providing one of the best and most dynamic demonstrations of steam hammer I've ever seen! Truly a beautiful piece of work!
I was thinking the exact same thing.
It destroyed a steam loco once, it was doing it's thing as a loco in preservation and the firer overfilled the boiler putting water in the superheater, it flashboiled, blasted the ends of the pistons and the driver tried to throw it in reverse to slow the wheels and broke his arm and the valve gear was destroyed, normally with the wheel slip (which is what caused most of the problems) you just close the regulator but with back pressure in the superheater that was impossible
My son (who wants to be a mechanical engineer) watch these videos together, because you have a great method of presentation with lots of functional information compressed into a concise easy to understand format. Thank you so very much.
Always a good idea to look at many aspects of engineering as even if it dosn't apply to a chosen field you at least know enough to know lets check with an expert in X as they might see something we missed.
If he really really really like mech engg, advise him to do so...if not i really wish the kid to persuade another field. Mechanical or engineering field as a whole is quite demanding. -Final year Mech student
You're not kidding there! As an operating engineer it's frustrating as hell when the mechanical or 'design' engineer is arguing that something works because it's designed to, but you're standing there staring at something that clearly doesn't.
@Chris Russell Never forget the Russian rocket which had a guidance system installed upside down
You are one of those inspiring teachers that teach their students not just what happens but how to really observe things. I’ll never look at pipes the same way again and will definitely not think of them as just pipes. Absolutely fantastic.
Agreed, love the way he actually shows the practical effects of the concepts he discusses. Really helps us visual learners.
Excellent video. I'm actually a boiler operator, and I've seen the damage water can do once you put 170 tonnes of steam behind it. We recently had a catastrophic failure of a steam turbine after attempting to warm the steam lines without any drains open to allow the condensate to drain.
Luckily no one was around at the time and no one was hurt.
Steam is a very scary force to work with.
Once saw a maintenance supervisor open a 6” steam valve wide open after a 2 day shutdown. Put 250 psi steam into the steam main instantaneously. Blew a 500 psi blind flange that was 500 ft away off of the end of the main. Never did find the bolts that were holding it on. It’s amazing what steam can do in the right hands and what it can destroy in the wrong ones.
A. Wagner Steam is dangerous stuff. Been a stationary engineer for 30+ years and seen a lot of stupid stuff but that was the most impressive. Made a hell of a racket. Didn’t take me long to hit the big red button on the boiler though.
Why would a maintenance supervisor be opening that valve? That should have been an ops job. That valve wasn't LOTO'd?
Mark Kaiser Small plant, non-union. No LOTO since it was normal startup after maintenance on some equipment. In a hurry to go home on a Sunday afternoon.
Paul Mace Hurrying a job can get people killed.
Hurrying up a job GETS people killed ... too often.
Your demonstrations are mind-blowing. Just an absolutely beautiful and awe inspiring visual.
Not just mind-blowing. Also pipe and valve blowing.
oh they quite literally could be mind blowing!
Gtgggg into
I deal with this phenomenon every working night; bc my managers insist upon shutting the boilers I work with down at the end of their day shift. I come in at night (5 hrs. later) and have to fire them up again. Even though I have purge ports at the end of nearly every headpipe (and have them open); and have traps on every condensate return branch (before return mains), I get car-crash levels of hammer most nights, even starting on low fire. There's just not enough pass-way available to allow the condensate to clear. So it slams into end-flanges and traps; and I wince every time. That's how all my nights begin.
D Snodgrass Sounds like you're starting up too fast. Start up on low fire and leave it for at least 15 mins, then incrementally increase firing rate to operating pressure
D Snodgrass engineer condensate drain systems before startup. Patent it retire to Hawaii.
Hey i wonder if you can create a dry air purge system that just launches most of that condensation towards the head pipes and caps, maybe removable caps to allow higher velocity? Or what about a way to run hot, dry air through to pick up that condensation?
Why shut the boilers down at all. Just fitted a steam system to a new piece of equipment that we had to conect to the main steam manifold. Customer shut down the boiler for service at 6am, we arrive at 8 am to connect up to manifold. The manifold was a good 6 foot long and 12 inch in diameter. In that short space of time the thing was full of water which would of shot down the lines on start up.. PS The bit we fitted was double valved at the manifold. Customer didn't realise that's what has to be done and just thought we were putting an extra valve in to up the cost.
Mario That's my SOP-manual lowfire for 20 minutes until I draw straight steam from the purge tubes I have out on the perimeter of the system. Still not enough. It's gotta move through 3 sets of piping first.
One of our biggest process issues in our large integrated steel mill is how to deal with the steam condensate in complex systems. Sure, condensate is a useful "byproduct" as described, and you'd think it would be easy to drain it off anywhere required. Not so. In my division, we have a combination of old and new steam systems and quite frankly it seems nobody actually understands much. These HP steam systems scare the crap out of me... I've heard that big steam hammer crash, and in no way is it like water alone ! Super vid.
This channel really blows my mind at how dangerous engineering can be if not applied or done correctly, even to the tiniest margin! This makes me really appreciate the architectures and the system inside them around me!
It's a freaking miracle that anything works given the sheer number of systems that have to function constantly just to do something as simple as keep the lights on... The world, for all its faults, is a damn marvel.
Yup.
Systems that handle immense pressures are so common in our lives that we mostly ignore them, I saw a hydraulic hose break on a fork lift truck a few years ago and it ripped through a fridge freezer that was nearby shearing the top off of it
I believe the Romans held the engineers responsible for any deaths caused by their work. They were put to death.
One of the classes our dean required if you wanted a degree in any applied tech course was a class on engineering failures. All we did was study big disasters and what to learn from them.
Lol @Robert Jenkins that’s not even physically possible. Forklift hoses aren’t routed in such a way it would swing laterally like that
I remember a recurring incident at our plant where we kept getting damage from steam hammering at this one machine. We checked all sorts of things to try to figure out why so much condensate was building up in that run of pipe. Turns out one of the operators kept closing a _maintenance-only_ cutoff valve upstream from the steam trap because he didn't like the "hot water spitting into the ditch." 🙄
"I know I put the entire plant and all the people at risk but this water is mildly inconvenient!"
-The jobless dumbass, probably
Reminds me of my own steam story. In the 1980’s, I spent a few nights in an apartment in Manhattan that apparently had steam heat. Boy the sounds that thing would make! It was like somebody was in the room with a hammer clanking on the radiator every once in a while. I don’t know how anybody slept, I don’t know how the system didn’t just break somewhere. 44 years later, still crystal memories of those nights!
Early 90's college apartment same. Single pipe radiator system with those auto air vents. Was often feast or famine and sometimes we had to use a screwdriver to vent the rad and get heat.
4:30-5:00 I work in a water plant/distribution system, and as soon as the discussion turned to the condensate forming a seal in the pipe I'm going "yes, this is going to be great!". Whoosh, boom!
But yeah, it is very dangerous. We've had issues of our own with water and differential shock involving trapped air and pressure reducing valves.
We have a line feeding an online Ultraviolet Transmittance analyzer, which is fed directly off our high service pump main, a 14" pipe carrying 117psi, to a 1/2" line that ends at a pressure reducing valve that drops it to 35psi or less. We had an issue once of draining that large 14" piping to install a flow meter. Little did we know that drained the small line as well. When we bled as much air as possible out of the main, we missed that small line, and when the HS pump started the air hit the PRV, which air cannot operate, and was compressed to immense levels by the water rushing behind it, and the SCH80 piping failed spectacularly. One piece of a fitting was blown 46 feet across the room. Water is incompressible, but gasses are, and when they coexist in a sealed system bad things usually follow.
I work in an industry that uses water/liquid and steam flow every day, but as an operator of those systems, not an engineer. These visual demonstrations you make are extremely enlightening to see and help my understanding of the systems I work with. Thanks for making them!
It's worth mentioning, that the partial vacuum formed by the steam condensing as it hits cold pipes is actually what drives the propagation of steam through the pipes, pulling the steam from the furnace towards the ends of the system (like radiators). This at least is true of low pressure steam heat systems in old homes, and I assume it applies to other applications also.
Those slugs of water are dangerous. I never witnessed it myself, but I've heard about them slamming into the expansion bends on the main stream pipes and knocking off years of dust and paint, also making everyone in the plant soil them selves. The biggest fear of anyone in a steam plant is a main steam rupture, they are killers. Always always always bypass and warm up those steam pipes and ensure those steam traps are on service.
One hell of a field day after all that dust goes flying
Good job, I've been steaming high pressure plants for 43 years. Proper warm up and draining is key.
How do you know it’s been warmed up enough? By waiting a certain amount of time, by checking the temperature at certain points or?
I rarely (if ever) comment on videos, but I love your videos man. Keep up the great work. Would love to know what else you have to share on steam infrastructure.
I wish the experimental rigs you build would take a more important role in the videos. This one was pretty good, but in other videos you spent what could possibly be hours building something, only to show a few seconds of video. I think it's a shame, because you put so much effort into building them.
I think it's deliberate to discourage people with little to no experience from attempting to build one. Liability is not a game.
@@Sirisma People can just pause the videos.
@@Kharnellius What does that have to do with anything?
@@Sirisma Technically you couldn't sue for liability in this case anyways. So even if he did show how he made them it wouldnt be on him. It would suck if someone got hurt but he wouldnt be liable as long as he discloses the possible dangers and not to make them. Even if he doesnt do those things I dont believe its actually a requirement just something people do to cover themselves. Just think how many how yt videos exist for things way more dangerous than this.
Used to work Site Operations in a large industrial setting. Steam and general high-energy piping was always a topic of discussion, especially during safety meetings with maintenance crews. One of my scariest experiences was performing an survey in a long tunnel where such pipes ran from a central boiler plant, and the very phenomenon shown in this video was always in the back of my mind when I was down there.
Nice job on your video. I am a pipefitter/steamfitter, 22yrs now. I enjoyed your video very much. thank you.
a steam hammer is used to make steamed hams, isn't it?
Kyo555 Next upload - how to make your own aurora borealis!
Aurora Borealis?! At this time of year?!? At this time of day?!? In this part of the country!? Localized entirely within your kitchen!?!
Yes.
May I see it?
Er, no.
But I thought the video was about steamed clams??
YTLSF nope its not about steamed clammers sorry
Yes, and a resident of Framingham, Masachusetts is a framing hammer.
Thanks to everyone for an awesome 2017! I have a lot of great plans for the channel next year, so stay tuned. If you'd like to join the 200 people helping to make this channel possible, head over to www.patreon.com/PracticalEngineering. Happy New Year!
I could have listened to this for WAAAAY longer than the video! I was very sad when you said "Thanks for watching!"
Awesome, I knew about hammer but I never knew that bi-phase flow could have a similar effect. Thanks for the shout out!
Well done. It explains perfectly, the mechanics of steam hammer. You just won a new subscriber! I couldn't help but notice another thing you did safety wise, for the shoot. The end cap was weakened to allow it to fail at a lower pressure. The perfectly round hole gave it away! 0:17
glidercoach The hole in the cap was so that the air could flow through the pipe.
Hi there! Can you tell me about that painting behind you in the intro? It looks exactly like a GD, is it? Love your stuff, by the way.
Grady,
Hey man, thanks for this piece about steam hammer! I’m a retired engineering technologist, spending most of my career in electronics and IT, but touching lots of engineering fields. Steam has always been a bit of black (hot!) magic to me. I’ve always heard about the importance of maintaining steam traps, but I’d love to take a deeper dive into what makes them tick. I’ve seen some awesome / scary failures of vessels and piping under 1 atm. of pressure (250° F), and been amazed at how long it takes to boil off the released thermal energy. Steam hammer just adds another hair-raising aspect to what happens when the genie gets loose!
Thanks for all your good work! I always give you a thumbs-up!
THANK YOU for putting the ad at the END of the video.
Fun steam fact: as steam moves through a steel pipe, it will slowly erode it. Areas of high turbulence, such as bends, valves, sensors, and joints (even welded ones) erode faster.
Yes, steam cutting is a fascinating topic. I used to operate steam plant equipment aboard the USS Harry S Truman and one of the important design safeties is that all bends are 3-4 radii of the delivery pipe. All isolation valves are gate type and when a globe valve is needed for throttling there are always two (upstream throttles, downstream wide open) to ensure there can be a positive shutoff in the event the throttle valve becomes too degraded from said steam cutting. Also bends cannot contain welded joints nor "taps" for instrumentation and thermometer wells are at an angle with the intended flow direction where possible.
I only learned about the topic during a class on instrumentation and when we asked the instructor about an accident that had happened at a food processing plant in the area. Apparently, they had not replaced parts of their water heating system that had become worn and the local inspector was so overworked that it had several inspections waved. Having large quantities of steam come into contact with cold water made a rather large explosion. Management literally had a bomb sitting on site and didn't care. Luckily, no one was hurt.
I also learned in that class that other gases at high velocity would wear at the inside of pipes as well, but not as badly as steam unless they were highly corrosive. Apparently, the oil and gas industry has issues with high temp and pressure gases in their processes eating away at welds that do not use enough argon purge gas. Rough surface and porosity really makes a weak point in the pipes to erode.
yes, steam is quite agressive as a medium for eroding pipes from the inside.
I'm a pipefitter and I've fabricated main steam lines for 800MW coal fired power plants. It's really fun work. Everything is so heavy. The pipe can be 3 inches thick and weigh hundreds of pounds per foot. A single weld takes days to complete.
@@matthewerwin4677 Extreme pipefitting - that could be a show!
I can really see the improvement your channel has gone though in the past year of following your content. I love the video and the work your doing, keep it up!
I just got a job at a job in the recovery department of a pulp mill. Working with boilers. One of which is nine stories tall. This video was very informative. Thank you
I rarely listen to the advertisement, but with you I actually do, Even do I'm not in condition$ to pitch in, I do really appreciate the hard work that is put in this videos, specially the ones that have real life applications.
Just today I watched a video on new york's steam system and now you upload this. interesting
kmlkmljkl why u there ? No spongebob here
Was not expecting you here
right so google knows I watched that and then they time travel back a month or so and tell him to make this
Everyday, the algorithm gets to know me a little better
Lol I just watched the steam episode and this was suggested today. Hello algorithm friend!
You asked me what I think of it. I am going to be honest. This is awesome!
I have been working as an operator of engine rooms since 1986 (retired 3-21). I have seen a 300#, 3" tee blown out due to priming from improper boiler water level control (manually controlled coal boiler). I have many times tried to explain steam hammer to the new guys as a slug of condensate propelled at the rate of steam flow into the first obstruction encountered. Your video presents a visual representation I wish i could have shown them. Some got it, some didn't.
I'm sure a lot of people do, but I'm also sure a lot of people don't understand how much work goes into preparing the demonstrations you do in your videos. Not to mention how many failed attempts you surely have to go through in many cases before getting the shot you actually need... and all to sometimes only use a 5 second clip in the final video. Just wanted to comment to say you kick ass Grady! I just recently started watching your videos completely, and I know a lot of these are old, but damn are they just 😙👌 huge props and major respect, my man!
Aside from your amazing science/engineering instruction, I'm super impressed with your videography and definitely your speaking skills. Clear, concise, and you keep on point. I'm going to have to check out Skillshare myself for videography.
I as a plant operating engineer of 35+ years Have seen boiler system controls fail and overfill boilers forcing vessel water into steam manifolds . It sounds like a stick of dynamite and it's something to see an inexperienced operators face when it happens . I constantly remind newer engineers as to the potential dangers .
As an old engineer wanna be I find you videos informative and fascinating. I've seen steam hammer in action but fortunately no injuries.
Thank you for sharing this very informative video I am Electrical Officer in Princess Cruises, we used a lot of "STEAM" onboard Cruise Ship and I got your video link from the Training Center that being presented by Instructor during my Day1 Training of Technical Refresher Online at CSMART. Once again thank you for this video very informative from now on I am one of your follower
You have one of the coolest channels in YT right now, my man, fascinating stuff!
Well, technically the subject of this video is hot, but still a very cool channel!
Haha, indeed.
Fantastic. I had no idea. Glad I subscribed. Thanks!
I wish this would go into more detail. You have a great narrative and i feel this video just scratched the surface. I'd be more than happy to watch 30min+ content of this style.
As a Steam an Thermal Energy Engineer I can say this is the most uncomplicated and understandable explanation I’ve seen so far. Thank you and I hope you don’t mind me using this occasionally to educate people in the industry, that are more interested in saving money than in saving lives because of lack of understanding.
You call them steam hammers, even though they're obviously grilled
This comment needs to be pinned.
Well, Seymour, you are an odd fellow but I must say you steam a good hammer.
Kasper Meerts I thought we were having Steamed Clammers?
"I thought we were watching *steamed hams* "
"No no! I said steam hammer! That's what I call this phenomenon"
"You call this phenomenon steam hammer?"
"Yes, that's a term"
"Aha... what source?"
"Ehhh... Practical engineering"
"Really. Well I'm an engineer, and I never heard anyone use the phrase steam hammer..."
"No, not engineering, it's a practical expression"
"I see"
K(kk(
The more I watch the more I realise it's a goddamn miracle anything in this world works
Right?
Oh man. Your visual descriptions give me chills. The combination of technical knowledge and teaching is awesome, thanks for this.l
I appreciated that you didn't include an ad at the beginning of your video. Good decision :)
"I thought we were having steam clammer."
"Oh, no, I said steam hammer!"
Just a heads up to anyone that is wanting to try the experiment using the glass bottle: BE CAREFUL! The glass bottle can shatter and explode, shooting shards of glass everywhere. Ensure you wear proper safety equipment and use a glass bottle that can handle the stress imposed on it.
I love your work on this channel. It's incredible how you manage to be professional, yet entertaining at the same time.
Sir,I've been in the steam and refrigeration industry for over 30 years; I'm truly impressed with your simple-to-understand explanation regarding steam and water hammer. Excelsior to you!!
Can you do a video on steam traps. I used to work on steam lines at a refinery
Yes
I agree
It's actually how you get banned on steam from cheating in CSGO comp matches
xd
Having high pressure steam and water blasted into someone's house does seem more effective than VAC.
From Portugal. I am studying environmental engineering. Your channel is very amazing. I am learning a lot of things. I wish that you will have a great success and continue to do new amazing short movies. Great job!
Excellent video, as usual. As I recall, a 'large' steam main, when first being started up would have what we called a 'warming valve'. Basically, instead of trying to crack open a 10" or 20" valve you'd have a 3" or 4" valved by-pass to make sure the large main was up to temp. first.
I'd be curious to see a good steam trap video myself. I know a lot of people that have problems understanding them. Especially impulse steam traps, conceptually hard to understand with out a decent video. But I'd like to see what other kinds there are besides Bi-metalic, oriface, and impulse.
Steamed hams? Oh no! I said Steam Hammers!
I have been in chemical production for 42 years and in photography for 47 years. I have to say that you videos are very well done. I intend to use some of your video to teach certain things to my young operators. Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks Grady, we use these for our physics/Civll Engineering coursework at home. We appreciate the time and trouble you put into these. Please keep going!
I am from one of the germanspeaking countries and the people who speak my language don't make so good videos.
Well done!
Well, there are good german videos out there, but they are way harder to find.
Luigi Austriaca what about "great scott" on electronics ? He is german but his vids are english
Kurzgesagt
Akasame Kurzgesagt doesnt produce anything in German, they chose the name because they thought it fit
I thought you were making a video on steamed clammers?
"No no! I said steam hammer! That's what I call this video theme"
"You call this video theme steam hammer?"
"Yes, that's an engineering term"
"Aha... what kind?"
"Ehhh... Tube engineering"
"Really. Well I'm an engineer, and I never heard anyone use the phrase steam hammer..."
"No, not engineering, it's a practical expression"
"I see"
I was a NDT worker (Pt,Mt,Ut & Rt) for many years. We were sent into many different types of industrial applications to test steam pipping and other systems. The steam pipes erode from the inside out, so thickness was measured ultrasonically with the major area of interest at 90 and 45 degree bends.To prevent steam hammers many systems used a dryer to remove any water vapor that can occur.
I work with 120psi steam boilers and related equipment and you explained it and demonstrated it perfectly! Great job!
Next month: What is Ice Hammer?
Actually, although it's probably not called that, pressure exerted by ice is probably a really significant consideration in civil engineering, so I say Grady, get to it and make a nice seasonal video in about that third phase of water so many of us have to deal with around this tine of year.
Ice hammer is what happens when you drop that 10 pound bag that you bought from the store on your foot. :-p
When a lake is frozen over and a breeze is blowing across it sometimes the ice can be pushed ashore and destroy property. I'd call that ice hammer
Nabre Labre True, super rare, but I’ve seen it...
Interestingly caused by basically the same thing as the steam hammer he demonstrated... 🤔
Nevir202 just read some stuff regarding Niagra falls. Apparently the only (recorded) time the falls ran dry due to non human intervention was after heavy winds blowing across Lake Erie increased the water flow and forced large amounts of lake ice into the mouth of the Niagra River creating an ice damn. Not quite a"hammer" but pretty interesting.
Here in Albany we call that Steam Hams
That is an excellent description of the water hammer concerns in steam delivery pipes.
Another location steam hammer issue that is found in steam turbines, and the case there is somewhat different. At the plant we were most concerned about was the cases where the temperature or pressure of the steam dropped, and water droplets would form from the steam and be entrained in the steam flow. in this case, when there was a bend in the pipe, the water would impact and damage the pipe. You could audible hear the pinging of the droplets in the steam when this occurred. thankfully i never had an occasion to hear an actual occurence in the plant.
This concern was greatest if the pressure for the steam header fell at the input to a generator. a case that could be caused if your steam turbine demand for steam increased faster than the rate of steam your steam source(boiler, nuclear reactor, etc) could increase at.
when the pressure at the inlet to the turbine dropped, the Curtis and Rateau stages that drop the temperature and pressure of the steam to generate the kinetic motion of the turbine may cause condensate in the later stages of the turbine, as it was designed for a certain temperature/pressure of steam at the inlet stage. This can cause water hammer on the turbine blades and over torque the later stages of the turbine.
in fact one site had such an issue the last stage of the turbine oblong-ed the shaft and caused a vibration that required the turbine stages removed and sent to the factory for many months to be repaired.
The greater danger here, is that you can over pressurize the condenser unit that is below the turbine. a condenser often has blowout discs, but if over pressurized can become a bomb in the plant. they are often oversized to the turbine and fitted with blowout discs to prevent this.
worked several years in maintenance of food factory, steam is used a lot for heating and sterilising.....revised and replaced a lot of different typ of steamtraps...... and everytime we had to start up a cooled off steampipe..... very frightening, especially with bigger diametres.....hammertime :-) ...... good videos, keep up the good work! grtz from Belgium
I was expecting a machine that specifically makes Steamed Hams
This video has been sponsored by Valve
Halflife 3 confirmed
I was about to be disappointed by the lack of game jokes ;-)
I really enjoy your physical examples! It makes understanding the concept so much easier.
Used to work in a 1950s era steam power plant. Sometimes during startup (not often thankfully) some of the steam piping would present some fairly loud bangs. We knew what it was, but it was unnerving all the same. Being able to visually see the dynamics makes me glad I'm retired now.
STEAMED HAMS but it's an educational video about STEAM HAMMERS
You beat me to it.
You call them steam hammers despite the fact they are obviously grilled.
"I thought we were watching *steamed hams* "
"No no! I said steam hammer! That's what I call this phenomenon"
"You call this phenomenon steam hammer?"
"Yes, that's a term"
"Aha... what source?"
"Ehhh... Practical engineering"
"Really. Well I'm an engineer, and I never heard anyone use the phrase steam hammer..."
"No, not engineering, it's a practical expression"
"I see"
up next has to be ice hammer right?
i'm a piping engineer just starting out not too long ago and you've just taught something very important to me about 2-phase systems! Thanks!
The demonstration of the slug/piston was great, I like that it ruptured the middle join just to show how much pressure built up.
8:35 "We don't normally need access to Steam in our everyday lives"
wait where am I supposed to get my games then? XD
And they asked me where the engineering knowledge will be used in real life
Holly cow ... My comments about not using pound worked. Thank you . Your videos are awesome. Please keep it up .
Utterly fascinating. Your demonstrations are top-notch!
Can’t these also form high speed “bubbles” that basically implode on themselves?
That's cavitation you're thinking about. They form around impellers and propellers where there's an area of low pressure created. When the bubbles "explode", they can cause a pit in
whatever material they're made of. It eventually destroys it.
@@KSparks80 negative I’m not talking about cavitation
@@MyLonewolf25 Gotcha.
A hammer that uses steam
Daniel harman it has alot of discounts per use
They have tried hammers that ran on steam but there is a max size/force they could output so got replaced with other types from the hydraulic hammer to the flywheel hammer.
Hey! Keep up the great work. Always appreciate you sharing your knowledge and your demo models you build to show the real deal.
Where I grew up there were several of us nerdy 10 year old kids. We once took a 55 gallon drum, put it up on bricks put some water in it and with the bung out built a fire under it with a few gallons of water in it. After the steam was coming out we put out the fire. After the steam calmed down I screwed the bung back in. I'll never forget watching that drum crush itself.
Surprised you only covered just the one problem with steam.
I used to work on a large estate as an electrician, but as we were multiskilled, i dealt with some aspects of heating, that included the steam system, i was trained in how to work with steam.
On an industrial steam heating system if the steam is shut off to a building (auto safety valve), to restore the steam we shut of the manual valve, reset the safety, then gently crack open the manual valve for a short period, this was to start the heating of the condensate, this was followed by a series of opening and closing that valve until we could only hear the steam going though the pipe without the boiling sound.
Basically, if you let the steam in too quickly, it would flash the condensate to steam, creating a lot of pressure.
Those coffee machines with the steam injector boil the water in ther cup in the same way.
Sparky Projects I did cover flash condensation (thermal shock) in ththe video
But mostly about steam turning to condensate causing a vacuum, but when steam heats that condensate, it turns that to steam (flash heating) and can create a lot of pressure
I take it you are using seriously superheated steam?
I don't know how superheated, but we had '3 pass' industrial boilers running at 100PSI.
MMMMM, steamed hams!
"I thought we were watching *steamed hams* "
"No no! I said steam hammer! That's what I call this phenomenon"
"You call this phenomenon steam hammer?"
"Yes, that's a term"
"Aha... what source?"
"Ehhh... Practical engineering"
"Really. Well I'm an engineer, and I never heard anyone use the phrase steam hammer..."
"No, not engineering, it's a practical expression"
"I see"
I watched your videon on water hammer aswell and it's one of the most interesting subjects I've seen lately. Especially Steam hammer was so unknown to me and makes so much sense now that I've seen it.
Thank you for making this!
I love how easy to understand your videos are. Thanks for making them.
Is there ice hammer?
Yes, when a water pipe has a short section where the tempurature is at freezing and turning on the tap produces enough pressure difference to dislodge the chunk of ice, causing the ice to crash into the next bend or valve.
I just made that up, lol. I don't know.
I call them steam hams
It thought you said steamed clams
In steam turbines the condensed steam in the condenser increases the work of the turbine by changing the pressure differential across the turbine. Thank you so much for your videos. I learn something new every video.
This video gave me an "Aha!" moment. The angle capturing this phenomenon at 4:40 is solid gold. Thank you for your work on this and your other great videos!
What's a steam turban?
Steam turbine. Wikipedia is your friend. :)
Steam *turbine*.
A steamed turban is when Muhammed stands over a pot of boiling water with his turban.
Steam tabun.
It's when you say salam and they don't say salam aleikum
Came for Steamed Hams meme. Disappointed.
Michael Pieruccini steam clammers
Fantastic! I love watching your demonstrations. Well done.
I work a spring and fall maintenance shutdown at a coal power plant. I’m a Union carpenter and we built the scaffolding for the boilermakers and plant workers wherever they have work that is elevated. Every shutdown we build in boilers that need pipes replaced that hold the water that’s heated and turned to steam to spin the turbines. It is incredible how much damage is done when just one of the 4 inch pipes blows from pressure. It will destroy all pipes for 6 feet on either side of The malfunctioned pipe.
Steam turbans
In 1992 I worked for a small engineering company. I was sent to a large chemical storage plant to map certain pipe networks and to check if the pipes, supports, and valves still complied to regulations. This was a two-week operation; it was a BIG plant. One day I was at one part of the plant and I heard this Whooshing and hissing noise. When walked around one of the tanks I encountered a steam pipe with an open end - the blind flange had been half-blown off. It was doing what you describved: blowing a lot of steam and occasionally shooting a blob of water. Now, 30 years later I understand what was going on there.
Of course I reported the occurrance to the operators of that part of the plant.
I've never seen a steam hammer demonstrated. The bottle experiment was impressive. Thank you.
Having worked as a steam boiler operator producing steam for over 20 years, besides steam traps, it's essential to use vent valves and smaller by-pass warm up valves to allow larger cold steam pipes to gradually warm up on cold start ups to prevent damage or personal injury.
I have several vintage steamfitters books, and trust me, they were not easy topics. Do love the art work....
5:39 Best part of the video.
The rest was great too. Cheers Grady, keep up the great work.
Just happened across this video and found it very clear. I'm a retired Master Chief Boiler Technician and I wish I would have had this video to help me understand when I was just starting out and later to help me explain steam hammer to the young sailors I was responsible to train.
Spent 5 years as a mechanic in a submarine power plant. Steam hammer is pretty scary stuff. Sounds like a train hitting a brick wall at 150 mph and you can see pipes jump. Happens when someone forgets to put traps in service or tries to put them in service too early before they've been warned up and condensate backs up too much. Only other thing that comes close is when someone doesn't put a trap on right and steam just starts shooting into the engineroom.