Facts about cylinder volume in cc & litres...

CC: Many engineering students have doubt about the term cc. They know that its about volume in cubic centimetres. But they do not have clear idea about the volume which is described by the term.
Actually, cc is used to describe the volume of engine cylinder. It is different from swept volume because swept volume is the volume of cylinder part which has piston motion. Hence we can also say that the addition of clearance volume and swept volume is the cylinder volume (cc).
Nowadays, cylinder volume is described in "litres" and not in "cc".

It is simple... Take for example a 1.2 litre engine,
    1 litre = 10^(-3) cubic metre,
    1 litre = 10^(-3) × 100^(3) cc... since 1 m = 100 cm,
    1 litre = 10^(3) = 1000cc
Hence, 1.2 l engine means a 1200 cc engine.

Why does a car lift up from front while its moving fast?

Might have seen the car nose lifting up in movies. Ever wondered why this happens? It is because of drag. This is because of the eddies formed in the rear side of car, commonly known as Wake.
While the car is moving a backward force is applied to it which is called drag. At the rear many eddies are formed which are responsible for drag force. The force excerted by air has two components.
One is drag force which is in opposite direction of vehicle motion and another is the lift force perpendicular to vehicle motion.
The wake will increase if the separation points are far. That means at rear end the last points having contact of air should be close enough. Hence a streamlined shape is preferable. Hence aerodynamic considerations play a vital role in body design.

Common short-forms used in Power Plants

BFP - Boiler Feed Pump, It is the pump which is used to provide feed water to boiler. It is generally hydrocoupled. A booster pump is also used along with the BFP.

CWP- Cooling Water Pump, It is generally a vertical pump used to provide cooling water to the condenser. It extracts the water coming from the cooling towers from the sump and delivers it to the condenser.

ACW - Auxillary Cooling Water, This is sea water which is used in secondary cooling.

RF - Rotary Filters have rotating filters which remove the particles present in the cooling water.

Definition of Ductility and Malleability in terms of Mechanical Engineering.

Simple definition of ductility is the property of a material to form wires and that for malleability it is said that it is the property of a material to form sheets.

But in Mechanical Engineering, we need to be more specific.

A material which can withstand tensile load condition under considerable  deformation without breaking is called Ductile material and that property is called Ductility.

A material which can withstand compressive loads under considerable deformation without breaking is called Malleable material and that property is called Malleability. 

Difference between the material properties: Hardness, Toughness and Strength.

These three are the major mechanical properties of a material. For a layman these three might be same but for a Mechanical Engineer they are different.

Hardness is the property of a material to resist indentation and scratching. While toughness refers to the resistance to failure. It is the property to withstand strain without tearing. Strength of a material means the maximum load which the material can withstand.

Facts about Thermal Power Plant...

Most of us know how a thermal power plant works. We know that a thermal power plant works on  Rankine cycle, but do you know what is MOT tank or CPU in power plant?

Condensate Polishing Unit (CPU) has Mixed Bed tanks often called MB tanks which are used for removing very minute particles that may be present in the condensate. The MB tanks have resins which trap the particles and only allow the water to flow.
In supercritical plants this system is kept in operation constantly during the operation of power plant. However, in subcritical plants, they use the CPU every 15 days and do not operate the CPU constantly.

MOT lube oil cooler is used for decreasing the temperature of oil which is used to keep the turbine bearings lubricated. It is a shell and tube type heat exchanger.

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