Enter the area of piston (in^2) and the equivalent piston speed (ft/min) into the calculator to determine the Steam Engine Power. 

Steam Engine Power Formula

The following formula is used to calculate the Steam Engine Power. 

Pse = 7*A*S /33,000

  • Where Pse is the Steam Engine Power (HP)
  • A is the area of piston (in^2) 
  • S is the equivalent piston speed (ft/min) 

How to Calculate Steam Engine Power?

The following two example problems outline how to calculate the Steam Engine Power.

Example Problem #1:

  1. First, determine the area of piston (in^2). In this example, the area of piston (in^2) is measured to be 16.
  2. Next, determine the equivalent piston speed (ft/min). For this problem, the equivalent piston speed (ft/min) is calculated to be 71.
  3. Finally, calculate the Steam Engine Power using the formula above: 

Pse = 7*A*S /33,000

Inserting the values from above and solving the equation with the imputed values gives: 

Pse = 7*16*71 /33,000 = .240 (HP)

Example Problem #2: 

Using the same process as example problem 1, we first define the variables outlined by the formula. In this case, the values are:

area of piston (in^2) = 3

equivalent piston speed (ft/min) = 1000

Entering these values into the formula or calculator above gives us:: 

Pse = 7*3*1000 /33,000 = .636 (HP)