Mist rises from a hot spring in Yellowstone Park

A temperature-versus-entropy diagram for steam

A Mollier enthalpy-versus-entropy diagram for steam

In physical chemistry, and in engineering, steam refers to vaporized water. It is a pure, completely invisible gas (for mist see below). At standard atmospheric pressure, pure steam (unmixed with air, but in equilibrium with liquid water) occupies about 1,600 times the volume of liquid water. In the atmosphere, the partial pressure of water is much lower than 1 atm, therefore gaseous water can exist at temperatures much lower than 100 C (see water vapor and humidity). Steam has several possible meanings. ... Steam (content delivery service) client as of Friday, April 15, 2005. ... Steam (content delivery service) client as of Friday, April 15, 2005. ... Green Dragon Spring at Norris Geyser A hot spring is a place where warm or hot groundwater issues from the ground on a regular basis for at least a predictable part of the year, and is significantly above the ambient ground temperature (which is usually around 55~57 F or... Yellowstone National Park is a U.S. National Park located in the states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1682x1187, 66 KB) Summary TS-Diagram for water and steam English version Designed with xmgrace Own diagram Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Steam ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1682x1187, 66 KB) Summary TS-Diagram for water and steam English version Designed with xmgrace Own diagram Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Steam ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2379x1683, 94 KB) Summary Mollier HS-Diagram for water and steam English version Designed with xmgrace Own diagram Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Steam ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2379x1683, 94 KB) Summary Mollier HS-Diagram for water and steam English version Designed with xmgrace Own diagram Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Steam ... Physical chemistry is the application of physics to macroscopic, microscopic, atomic, subatomic, and particulate phenomena in chemical systems[1]within the field of chemistry traditionally using the principles, practices and concepts of thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mechanics and kinetics. ... Engineering is the applied science of acquiring and applying knowledge to design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... -1... Dramatic morning mist Mist is a phenomenon of a liquid in small droplets floating through air. ... In a mixture of ideal gases, each gas has a partial pressure which is the pressure which the gas would have if it alone occupied the volume. ... It has been suggested that multiple sections of steam be merged into this article or section. ... Humidity is the amount of water vapor in air. ...

In common speech, steam most often refers to the white mist that condenses above boiling water as the hot vapor ("steam" in the first sense) mixes with the cooler air. This mist is made of tiny droplets of liquid water, not gaseous water, so it is no longer technically steam. In the spout of a steaming kettle, the spot where there is no condensed water vapor, where there appears to be nothing there, is steam. Dramatic morning mist Mist is a phenomenon of a liquid in small droplets floating through air. ...

Uses

A steam engine uses the expansion of steam to drive a piston or turbine to perform mechanical work. In other industrial applications steam is used as a repository of energy, which is introduced and extracted by heat transfer, usually through pipes. Steam is a capacious reservoir for energy because of water's high heat of vaporization. The ability to return condensed steam as water-liquid to the boiler at high pressure with relatively little expenditure of pumping power is also important. Engineers use an idealised thermodynamic cycle, the Rankine cycle, to model the behaviour of steam engines. // The term steam engine may also refer to an entire railroad steam locomotive. ... For the use of the term in optics, see piston (optics). ... A Siemens steam turbine with the case opened. ... In physics, mechanical work is the amount of energy transferred by a force. ... The heat of vaporization is a physical property of substances. ... The Rankine cycle is a thermodynamic cycle. ...

In the U.S., more than 86% of electric power is produced using steam as the working fluid, nearly all by steam turbines. Condensation of steam to water often occurs at the low-pressure end of a steam turbine, since this maximises the energy efficiency, but such wet-steam conditions have to be limited to avoid excessive turbine blade erosion. Working mass is a mass against which a system operates in order to produce acceleration. ...

When liquid water comes in contact with a very hot substance (such as lava, or molten metal) it can flash into steam very quickly; this is called a steam explosion. Such an explosion was probably responsible for much of the damage in the Chernobyl accident and for many so-called 'foundry accidents'. Look up lava, Aa, pahoehoe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A steam explosion (also called a littoral explosion, or fuel-coolant interaction, FCI) is a violent boiling or flashing of water into steam, occurring when water is either superheated, or rapidly heated by fine hot debris produced within it. ... The nuclear power plant at Chernobyl prior to the completion of the sarcophagus. ...

Steam's capacity to transfer heat is also used in the home: for cooking vegetables, steam cleaning of fabric and carpets, and heating buildings. In each case, water is heated in a boiler, and the steam carries the energy to a target object. "Steam showers" are actually low-temperature mist-generators, and do not actually use steam. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Shower. ...

In electric generation, steam is typically condensed at the end of its expansion cycle, and returned to the boiler for re-use. However in cogeneration, steam is piped into buildings to provide heat energy after its use in the electric generation cycle. The world's biggest steam generation system is Con Edison in New York City which pumps steam into 100,000 buildings in Manhattan from seven cogeneration plants.^[1] Cogeneration (also combined heat and power, CHP) is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat. ... Consolidated Edison Company of New York (NYSE: ED) (Con Edison, or Con Ed) is a utility company in New York state, USA. Con Edison is a regulated utility that provides electric service in New York City and most of Westchester County, New York. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... For other uses, see Manhattan (disambiguation). ...

References

See also

Look up Steam in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Water vapor

• Electrification
• Geyser – geothermally-generated steam
• IAPWS – an association that maintains international-standard correlations for the thermodynamic properties of steam, including IAPWS-IF97 (for use in industrial simulation and modelling) and IAPWS-95 (a general purpose and scientific correlation).
• Live steam
• Mass production
• Nuclear power – and power plantsuse steam to generate electricity
• Psychrometrics – moist air/vapour mixtures, humidity and air conditioning
• Steam engine and Industrial Revolution
• Steam house
• Steam locomotive
• Steam shower

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Electrification refers to changing a thing or system to operate using electricity. ... Strokkur geyser, Iceland A geyser is a type of hot spring that erupts periodically, ejecting a column of hot water and steam into the air. ... The International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) publishes a range of releases containing standardised correlations for water and steam properties (a. ... Thermodynamics (Greek: thermos = heat and dynamic = change) is the physics of energy, heat, work, entropy and the spontaneity of processes. ... A Live Steam Festival displaying equipment ranging from small stationary engines to full-size locomotives. ... Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardised products on production lines. ... This article is about applications of nuclear fission reactors as power sources. ... A power station (also power plant) is a facility for the generation of electric power. ... For the parapsychology phenomenon of distance knowledge, see psychometry. ... // The term steam engine may also refer to an entire railroad steam locomotive. ... A Watt steam engine, the steam engine that propelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the world. ... One of the last mainline steam locomotives built in the UK: British Railways Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 no. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Shower. ...

External links

• Steam Tables & Charts by National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST
• What Is Steam? (general article about the properties of water/steam)
• Steam Tracing
• Online steam properties calculator (Spirax Sarco)