CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread

Mirabo

Junior Member
Registered Member
I don’t think you understand how steam turbines works. Not really ICE in the sense it doesn’t move reciprocating mass but boilers does combust fuel to heat up water.

He's not wrong. The combustion doesn't actually happen inside the engine, rather it's a fluid being heated from the outside. By proper definition, a steam turbine engine is an external combustion engine.
 

charles18

Junior Member
Registered Member
I don’t think you understand how steam turbines works. Not really ICE in the sense it doesn’t move reciprocating mass but boilers does combust fuel to heat up water.
Why does the Type 003 have 8 boilers rated at about 30,000 hp each?
Why not 4 boilers rated at 60,000 hp
Why not 2 boilers rated at 120,000 hp

I always thought it would be more convenient to have 4 boilers since there are 4 steam turbines, one for each.
Anyways I'm sure the PLAN have their reasons.
 

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
Why does the Type 003 have 8 boilers rated at about 30,000 hp each?
Why not 4 boilers rated at 60,000 hp
Why not 2 boilers rated at 120,000 hp

I always thought it would be more convenient to have 4 boilers since there are 4 steam turbines, one for each.
Anyways I'm sure the PLAN have their reasons.
If you are from US, I expect you being aware that USS Kitty Hawk also had 8 boilers driving 4 shafts. The Soviet chose 8 boilers 4 shafts too. So there must be a technical reason for this configuration of this sized ship.

I am not educated in the field but I suspect it has something to do with efficiency, in similar manner as gas turbine and electric motor when the highest efficiency happens when the engine is fully loaded. Imagine a single boilder driving single shaft and the drive is only 50% power, what would the temperature and the pressure of the steam be? Would that kind of lower temperature and low pressure steam be equally efficient to drive the turbine whose dimension does not change?
 
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lcloo

Captain
Imagine if you have 2 large boilers, and you need 3 to 4 time longer hours to heat up the water to steam of desired pressure so that your ship has enough power to set sail out of the port. And what if one of the two boilers has a problem while the ship is sailing, vs losing 1 or 2 boilers at down time. That is 50% power lost vs 12.5% or 25% power lost.

With 8 boilers, you can choose to run at various modes like 4 boilers at full and the other 4 boilers at minimum, or any combination from 8 boilers at minimum rate up to 8 boilers at maximum rate.
 

kwaigonegin

Colonel
We know Fujian uses steam turbines which means it's an ECE type engine.
However regardless of the type, whenever large amount of diesel is burned, you'll get thick black smoke which I believed precipitated the question about the engine.
Why do you think a large part of the island is dedicated to the smoke stack.
 
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