Design & Assembly of a Modular 1-Cylinder Steam Expansion Test Rig for the Evaluation of Piston Rings and Valve Mechanisms

Sammanfattning: The need for renewable and environmentally sustainable power generation has increased manifolds in the recent years. Extensive research has been carried out for better solutions. One such solution is steam power generation. Unlike the general perception of having low efficiency, modern research on steam engines demonstrates many positive aspects of steam power generation. This thesis revolves around the principle of steam power generation developed by Ranotor AB, a Swedish company, working on development of steam engines since 1970’s. The thesis work includes design & development of a steam expander test rig which can test various designs of piston, piston rings, cylinder sleeves and valve mechanism. A steam engine must operate for very long hours with large number of cycles and to be able to design a robust engine, testing of its major components is crucial.  In the span of the thesis, all concepts were implements in CAD designs. The CAD designs were optimized for cost reduction and manufacturability and the detailed drawings were created and the design was validated with FEM analysis.