Hi Rsum,
Who said the engine has no theoretical chance of working? Steam engines have been around forever and in their most basic forms present no challenge at all. Advanced engines present some real challenges and have to be approached in a careful and professional manner. The basic concept of a unitized, compact, relatively high efficiency steam power plant is far from theoretically impossible, and is undoubtably even acheivable. This doesn't mean that the current management has undertaken a course likely to reach these ends.
Disliking bearings that intentionally knock against the rod twice per revolution is not a matter of too much "book learnin'", it's just common sense. Questioning the intent to stake the entire engine design on plastic rings while using temperatures over 1000 F...and failing to conduct long term testing to destruction to confirm the principle...is just common sense. Any new technology requires greater testing before one can rationally build a product around it.
Thinking that an engine should be laid out so that it can readily be mounted to the greatest number of products isn't book learnin', that's good business.
Not favoring design features that make an engine more costly to build but add no value is simple economics.
Organic chemicals DO break down at the high temperatures Cyclone says they wish to use, that's been proven by many firms and is simple chemistry. Not, I hasten to add, has Cyclone apparently contemplated using an organic cycle.
Low temperature engines ARE less efficient than the same cycle at higher temperature, that's basic physics and just common sense...since you can't exhaust to a temperature of absolute zero, the most power you can possibly extract is related to the difference between the starting and ending temperature. If that difference is 2000 F, there is a lot of energy to harvest...if the difference is ten degrees, then there is not too much. Car engines need high efficiency and light weight, high temperature differentials are critical.
My point is that Cyclone design has been not only wrong headed, but when proven demonstrably wrong they have continued to pursue the same course needlessly rather than make simple, obvious corrections. I actually believe they started out with the best of intentions. They are probably the first victims of their own relentless PR. It looks like they became so fixed in their view point that rather than admit they were wrong and needed to retrench, they put out bad data while buying time to try and fix the problems. Many of these problems may not be readily fixable, so thus they kept slipping further and further down the slippery slope.
Now I keep hearing about how OSU is going to make everything right. I'm a skeptic. First of all, has anyone seen the OSU report? We know Cyclone says that OSU is favorable, but they say a lot of stuff. Second, does anyone know if OSU has actually submitted new designs? Thirdly, if they have so submitted, is Cyclone committed to shifting over to these or are they going to go with business as usual? It isn't as though they have listened to anyone so far. I have to point out that OSU is a university and not a manufacturing enterprise. Any engine they design is highly unlikely to be refined to the point that rapid and economic production can ensue and to date no one involved with he project has demonstrated such capabililties.
Yeah, enthusiasm is great. It is even better when tempered with flexibility, realism, skill and experience and managed with a sharp eye to meeting schedules, keeping in cost and providing a product desirable to enough customers at a cost that ensures profit. To date I haven't seen any of that.
Regards,
Tom
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