Large scale, highly efficient steam turbines are currently used as the source of mechanical work for electricity production, but steam as a source of mechanical power for locomotion and other activities is not normally seen outside of the hobby industry. However, small scale, distributed power production may yet make a come-back. For this question, you will investigate the performance of a very small, hobby steam engine as illustrated in Figure 2. The engine is a reciprocating device with a single-acting piston. Steam is delivered to the piston cylinder at a state very close to saturated, and the spent steam is discharged to the atmosphere after the expansion process. The steam is not condensed and returned to the boiler via a feedwater pump as is the case for the Rankine cycles considered in Module 9, but similar principles and analyses can still be applied.
