Comments by "ricardo kowalski" (@ricardokowalski1579) on "The Last Battleship Designs - The Good, the Bad and the Mad!" video.
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@brendonbewersdorf986
1- yes you can make an electric drive using triple expansion engines
2- yes, you can have several triple expansion gensets. And use one or several according to the desired speed.
Now....why was this not done?
Packaging.
Triple expansion engines are very tall, so they would make the citadel larger, requiring more armor and weight.
Turbines are much smaller for the same power output, but crucially, they are also "flatter". So they fit nicely under the deck armor.
The size problem gets worst because you would be designing to run the triple expansion engines at a slow(er) speed. So that theyl engines don't tear themselves apart when working for long periods.... For this you need to oversize the engine. And the excess capacity can never be put to use: because you sized the generator to be optimal at low(er) speeds.
So large triple expansions, oversized to run them slowly, mated to generators that are optimal at low revolutions, equals more weight in machinery, more weight in armour plate, less useful volume, more difficult compartmentalization for damage control, and higher center of gravity affecting stability.
Everything is a tradeoff Respectfully.
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