That's one of the measurements we took on our submarine, the USS
Richard B. Russell, on its first sea trials. A temporary torsionometer
was installed on the shaft (I have no idea how it worked) and the Navy
collected data on torque (from torsion measurements) as a function of
angular velocity. This produced the "power curve", a baseline bit of
data collected for each ship. Fascinating experience in that I was the
Engineering Officer of the Watch and had Admiral Rickover sitting next
to me.
Under his direction, we *carefully* raised the engines' speed which
brought the reactor a tiny bit above the specified operating limits (we
were submerged far from land and had some extra nuclear instrumentation
installed). At each step, Rickover's engineers showed him the data and
calculations and he would tell me to "add another turn". Finally, he
was satisfied and directed me to bring reactor power down to "100%". He
also decided and announced our limit on propulsion shaft speed. Once I
was there he said that if I ever exceeded that 100% reactor limit again
(in steady state operations) or the maximum allowed turns (per minute)
on the shaft he would bust me to a level below that ever held by any
sailor in the Navy's 200 year history. Yes, I took the reactor "into
the red" on that day and on purpose -- but never again.
Jim
On Tuesday 13 March 2001 2053, Joseph B. Reid wrote:
> Bill Potts wrote in USMA 11583:
>
> Specifically, the pony brake measured torque.
>
>
> To get the power from prony brake measurement one must also measure
> the number of revolutions per minute or per second.second.
>
> Joseph B. Reid
> 17 Glebe Road West
> Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
--
James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston
10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street
843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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