Steam turbine

A steam turbine extracts the energy of pressurized superheated steam as mechanical movement.

Related Topics:
Energy - Superheated - Steam

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It has completely replaced the reciprocating piston steam engine invented by Thomas Newcomen and greatly improved by James Watt primarily because of its greater thermal efficiency and higher power to weight ratio. Also, because the turbine generates rotary motion, it is particularly suited to be used to drive an electrical generator--it doesn't require a linkage mechanism to convert reciprocating to rotary motion. The steam turbine is a form of heat engine that derives much of its improvement in thermodynamic efficiency to the use of multiple stages in the expansion of the steam (as opposed to the one stage in the Watt engine), which results in a closer approach to the ideal reversible process.

Related Topics:
Steam engine - Thomas Newcomen - James Watt - Heat engine - Thermodynamic efficiency - Reversible process

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